Learning Together Series - The Fall October - Week 4

This month we have been looking together at the story of Adam and Eve and the snake in the garden of Eden.  It is a story to help us think about how the “very good” world that God created ended up with so much pain and suffering, ended up so broken.
In The Jesus Storybook by Sally Lloyd-Jones, she has these words in the story of The Terrible Lie:

        “Did you eat the fruit I told you not to eat?” God asked them.  Adam said, “Eve made me do it!”  “What have you done?” God asked.  Eve said, “The serpent made me do it!”  And terrible pain came into God’s heart.  His children hadn’t just broken the one rule; they had broken God’s heart.  They had broken their wonderful relationship with him.  And now he knew everything else would break.
        “You will have to leave the garden now,” God told his children, his eyes filling with tears.  “This is no longer your true home, it’s not the place for you anymore.”
        Before they left the garden, God whispered a promise to Adam and Eve: “It will not always be so!  I will come to rescue you! And when I do, I’m going to do battle against the snake.  I’ll get rid of the sin and the dark and the sadness you let in here.  I’m coming back for you!”  And he would.  One day, God himself would come.

Can you think of a time when you have been caught doing something wrong and blamed it on someone else?  Why did you do that?  How did you feel?

Do you ever think about God being affected by your sin?  How do you respond to the phrase, “they had broken God’s heart”?  Do you think you can break God’s heart?

Describe or draw a picture of “home”.  What is included in that picture?

What does it do to a relationship when someone lies?  When someone says they are sorry?  Do you see a relationship between this and the Confession and Forgiveness that we do in worship?

This week, pray the following prayer:

All that we ought to have thought and have not thought,
All that we ought to have said and have not said,
All that we ought to have done and have not done,
All that we ought not to have spoken and yet have spoken,
All that we ought not to have done, and yet have done,
For these words, and works, we pray,
O God, for forgiveness.  Amen.

Pastor Mary