How long has it been since you’ve read the account of God creating the Heaven’s and the Earth? If it’s been awhile I recommend you pick it up and read it (Genesis 1:1 – 2:3, 2:4 – 2:25. Read each separately the second repeats the first but with more specific detail on “Man”.) The more I read this the more I come to believe that God created the Heavens and the Earth for one reason and one reason only “As a gift to man”. Check out these verses and see if you come to the same conclusion. (Gen 1:26, 27, 28, 29 – 30, read each verse on its own and then all of them together. Now Gen 2:8 – 9, 19 - 20) If you don’t believe he made it as a gift to man fine but you can’t argue that he put man in charge of it (Gen 1:26). The other undeniable fact is that God wanted to and did commune with man. In Gen 1:28,29 we see God giving creation to Adam & Eve in Gen 2:18 we hear God stating it was not good for Adam to be alone. In 2:19 we see God bringing the animals to Adam and waiting to see what Adam would name them (Kind of reminds me of Christmas morning) Then after the infamous eating of the fruit we see God seeking them out as they were hiding (Gen 3:8,9) The groundwork has been laid God created us to be in communion with him. We were created to focus on God and his creation.
Then something terrible happens! Eve doing what came natural as a human developed a friendship with a serpent. (It seems clear to me that this was the norm hanging with and chatting with the animals. If not I think scripture would have read. The serpent after calming eve down from the heart attack she incurred when realizing a serpent could talk said “Did God really say?”) This serpent talks Eve into ignoring God and eating from the tree she was told not to. How does he do it? By convincing her that she would be like God afterwards (Gen 3:1 – 6) then she goes and gives some to Adam helping him to realize he would be like God as well. Now lets forget the magic of what happened with the taste of the fruit (That’s a whole different topic that I may get to in a different blog) I want to focus on before the bite. You see the moment Adam and Eve chose to ignore God and look out for themselves is the second sin entered the human race. In that second our eyes were permanently turned backwards and we became a people focused on what is good for us rather than God and his creation. Read Gen 3:8 – 13 if it were only a temporary lack of focus we wouldn’t have run from God when we heard his foot steps, Adam wouldn’t have put the blame on Eve and Eve wouldn’t have put the blame on the serpent. They would have stood up and admitted they screwed up. But no, instead they tried looking out for #1 by putting Gods focus on #2. It didn’t work yet we have continued to look out for #1 from that day on. Our focus has permanently been turned upside down looking out for “ME” before looking to God. We have continued to hide from God while God has continued to seek us out. We have become so blinded that despite the consequences of living this way we continue to seek #1. Have you ever read Ecclesiastes? It is Solomon’s struggle with this very topic. “I keep looking for fulfillment and it keeps avoiding me”. He finally comes to the conclusion that the only way this is going to happen is to seek it through God. (Ecc 1:1 – 11, Ecc 12:1 – 14, Ecc 12:13) Thankfully we have Solomon to spell it out for us. Can we learn?
We know we are a fallen people with the wrong focus. But despite all our efforts we have learned that we can’t refocus on our own. We need to call on God for help and in turn he has given us his Son who died for our sins and shown us how possible it is to refocus. He has also given us his Spirit to reside in us, to guide us, to refocus us. There is one other thing he has given us that we take for granted. He has given us EACH OTHER (Hebrews 10:24 – 25 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.) This my friends is where “The Upside Down Group” comes into play. It’s what we are about. We seek to find ways to “Encourage” each other, Lift each other up. Working together we can find ways to keep our focus on God and his creation.
Many of you already have heard of us and know what we are about. Many still do not. If you are just beginning to hear about us I encourage you to write to get more information. Everyone else please continue to tell your friends. Think of all we can do when working together as one. John 17: 20 – 24
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