Know Peace Within: A Life In Transition

Peace In Living Color

(Chapters One to Four)

The Lord has given us many stories in the Bible from which to learn. One of the reasons we know that the Scriptures are authentic is because they give unattractive details of people’s lives that we might normally hide if we were fabricating a book of stories. The goodness of God is revealed in these stories as He repeatedly demonstrates how He leads people, who once knew Him but lost focus, into a thriving, peaceful experience.

In this group of chapters, you will find several Bible stories retold in a creative way, with aspects of the character’s lives highlighted in order to inspire you to be as spiritually successful as they eventually learned to be.

Read with anticipation and imagine you are actually present in each story of victory. Hear the voice of God as He speaks life into dead situations. See His caring, tender face as He smiles about the prospects of renewed hope. Seize the opportunity to praise Him for being so merciful and kind to those He loves.

Chapter One: Creative Intent

(Primarily Based on Genesis 1-3)

The creation of this earth was a well-devised plan by God to crown the works of His hands from time immemorial. He created worlds that our telescopes have never even come close to seeing. Beings clothed in all of the glory of heaven were formed and worshipped God both day and night. For some reason, God still wanted more—more companionship, more love, and more resemblance to Himself. This was a motive for the creation of this earth.

Who knows? It may well be that God was trying to repopulate heaven because of the fall of Lucifer and his followers. It may be that He wanted to make something unique and different from anything He had done until that point. Whatever the case, God began to create in the void of nothingness, the planet we now know as earth.

God looked out into the void of space and began to speak words pregnant with power. He spoke the light and it was so. He unfurled His radiant heat upon the void and it illuminated with the brightness of His glory. Days before He spoke the sun, moon, and stars into the sky, the true light of His majesty appeared, and it was good.

The sky and heavenly expanse were spread out far beyond sight. The beauty of God’s ability to paint a portrait of vibrant blue with hues not yet imagined was clearly revealed and it was good.

The Lord began to manage His assets in ways that would prove to be a stroke of genius. He separated the waters and caused dry land to appear. Countless miles of godly real estate stretched out, both land and sea. God looked at what He had done, knowing of the great things to come and said, It’s all good.

The land God originated would not be complete except that He brings forth all manner of vegetation, profuse with colors and aromas. They were brought forth after their own kind and appeared in such rich contrasts that only the best decorator of the universe could produce them. And of course, it was good.

Now, the seasons, days, years, as well as the governing heavenly bodies were summoned. God called the sun and moon by name, and these incredible bodies in the sky would determine light and darkness, day and night. The stars and every other heavenly spectacle were good.

Even though the land already had some vegetation and the sky began to show forms of life, God was not finished yet. He made birds and all kinds of fish and water creatures, creeping things, mammals, and all of the other creatures to populate air, land, and sea. Yes, you guessed it; God saw that these too were good.

The crowning act of His creative work was about to commence. He made all types of creatures, heavenly bodies, land and sea formations, but His work was not yet complete. God carried His plan further and began an even more personal approach to creation. He began to form a man with His own hands from the dust of the earth. He perfectly molded him with the pride and satisfaction of heaven. His work was already perfect, yet He continued. He breathed—yes, God breathed life into His new man, the life he needed to exist—and poof, he was alive! God created a man in His own image. Every way that humankind could be like God began in God’s man, Adam.

Adam was given the first job ever given to a human being. He was to be executive manager of all that God put within his reach. He gave names to the creatures just like the ones that were in the mind of God Himself. I mean, what did you expect? After all, Adam was perfect. He was freshly created directly from the Creator’s hand with a perfect mind and senses.

It became clear to Adam after studying all of the creatures and perfectly understanding everything about them, that something even in his perfect life was still missing. I know that seems like an oxymoron, but it’s true. He was perfect at the stage of development in which he found himself, but there was still room for further development. Now it was time. God caused Adam to fall into a blissful sleep. He took a rib from his side and formed an equally perfect specimen, but just a bit softer, and brought her to Adam as he awoke. Adam saw her and immediately said, wo-man! That’s what she should be called, woman, because she came from man. Now the missing puzzle piece was in place. Adam had a companion named Eve who would be the mother of all the living and they would become fruitful and populate the earth with other human beings just like themselves. God saw all of that and said it was better than just good. It was very good.

The bliss of the Creator and fully satisfied creatures continued. God had one more thing to do. He rested. What? Yes, God rested. Not as though He needed a repose from labor, but as a memorial of His creative work God rested on the seventh day giving the first family and all of the future generations something to remember Him by. His signature was now indelibly printed upon the creation. The Sabbath was given to humankind as a gift. What a blessing it must have been that first Sabbath when Adam, Eve, and their new friend, the Creator, came together. All of this was good and God was responsible.

Because God loved His creation so much, he gave Adam specific guidelines to help him pass a necessary test that would certainly arise in the Garden of Eden. Right before Eve was created, the LORD God commanded the man, saying,

Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Genesis 3:16-17

This important test of man’s fidelity was necessary because humankind needed to demonstrate faithfulness to God of his own free will.

One day Adam and Eve were in different sections of the creation and Eve went to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As she approached the tree, she heard a voice address her with a question, "Did God say that you should not eat of the fruit from every tree in the garden? Eve looked and it was a serpent. A talking serpent addressed her. She should not have engaged the serpent at all, especially when it insinuated doubt concerning the clear directive of God. Well, she responded to the serpent by saying that God said that they could neither touch nor eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was in the midst of the garden. If they did, they would die. The serpent, casting doubt, replied, You will not die. God knows that you will be just like Him if you eat from the tree, so He’s withholding it from you." The conversation was going down a dark road to destruction and Eve continued to follow it. Eventually, she succumbed to the temptation and did eat from the forbidden tree. She saw that the tree was good for food even though it was forbidden. Was it truly good for food? Though it was perfect and created by God, it was not intended for the holy couple to eat of it. God commanded that they abstain from it completely; therefore, it was not good for food.

After she sinned by eating of the forbidden tree, she went to her husband and offered him some. He realized that she sinned and chose to fall into the same pit along with her, because in that moment he loved his wife more than he loved God. What a sad commentary.

An incredible lesson is to be learned here. The first sin of humankind did not catch God unprepared. The plan of salvation was already devised in the event that man should sin. If God waited until sin was committed by Eve to come up with a plan, it would have been too late. Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die (Ezekiel 18:4). The blessing of God’s grace, mercy, and foresight is that His brilliant plan of salvation always existed in His mind, and when the time was right He put it into action. Jesus is depicted in Revelation 13:8 as slain from the foundation of the world. God is never caught off guard.

After both Adam and Eve sinned, they realized that they were naked and because of their shame, they hid themselves. For the first time they experienced shame, guilt, fear, and vulnerability. It must have been difficult for them to process those emotions since they were foreign to perfect human beings. It must have been even more difficult for God to see them sin because He created them in His own image. He created them to live forever. God created them to have unbroken face-to-face communion with Himself and now it cannot be. If they were to appear before God in all of His magnificence, they would die immediately and lose their souls. This is where the love of God is clearly revealed. Although the relationship was broken and sin and eternal death entered, God chose to do something radical. His mercy as well as His justice would need to be equaled in a way never before seen. Stay tuned…

God came to the garden in pursuit of His children and called out to Adam saying, Where are you? God did not ask this question because He needed to know. Adam and Eve needed to come face-to-face with their situation. Adam said, I’m hiding because I am naked and ashamed. God said, Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat the forbidden fruit? Again, God already knew the answer; He wanted Adam to go through this very important process of facing his sin and its consequences. Adam began to blame others including God for his sin instead of owning up to his responsibility. Eve did the same. Because of their shame and all that was related to it, they covered themselves with aprons hoping to hide the effects of their poor decision.

The story gets more interesting here. Did you notice who made the first step in this process? Did Adam or Eve go to God after they sinned and say, Oh my Father, please forgive me, I have sinned against you!? No. It did not happen that way. God came to them first for many reasons. God made the first move because He loved them and did not want to see them in the situation they caused. Because He knew that there was absolutely no way that they would have approached Him on their own, He extended His grace to arrange this critical confrontation. Isn’t that the way it works with us? How would we know that we need the Lord except that the Holy Ghost reveals it to us (John 16:13)? The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9). God continued to pursue the pair by taking away their insufficient covering. They exerted their own effort to take care of the nakedness issue by sewing together fig leaves. The following consequences give a very clear insight into the cost of sin:

Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them (Genesis 3:21).

Clothing or garments in the Bible often represent righteousness (Isaiah 61:10; Zechariah 3:3-5; Revelation