Most people, even those who are not Christians, are familiar with the Genesis account of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. If you are one of them you can skip past the following passage and simply read my comments below if you wish. For everyone else, here is the saddest story every told:
Genesis 3
1 – Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 – And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 – But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 – And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 – For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 – And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7 – And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 – And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
9 – And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 – And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 – And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 – And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 – And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14 – And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 – And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16 – Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 – And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 – Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 – In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
20 – And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
21 – Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
22 – And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
23 – Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 – So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
That folks, in my opinion, is the saddest story ever told. Before Adam and Eve willingly disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden tree they were perfect, sinless, and upright in the eyes of God. And as such, they were given the right by their Creator to live forever in what was surely the closest thing to Heaven that any human since would ever experience on planet earth.
Before their fall into sin, Adam and Eve were blessed with lifestyles the likes of which the rest of us can only dream about. First of all, they didn’t have to work for a living. All they had to do was walk through the most magnificent garden in the history of the world and eat of the bounty that awaited them. There was no tilling of the ground, no planting seeds or pulling weeds. All they had to do was pick whatever they wanted and eat it. And no doubt everything growing in that garden tasted absolutely great!
And in their perfect state, Adam and Eve were also completely pain-free. They would never get sick, or even die for that matter. Like God Himself, they could live forever in what was quite literally a perfect world. But alas, it was not to be.
When Eve allowed herself to be deceived by satan (who presented himself in the form of a serpent) and Adam joined her in eating of the forbidden fruit, they immediately lost their state of perfection. At that precise point in time they became mere mortals just like you and me. Instead of living a life of ultimate luxury that would never come to an end, they suddenly found themselves facing death – but only after having to struggle just to survive through the very short and difficult lives that all sinners must live.
Now comes the really bad part for everyone that came after them: Not only did Adam and Eve bring pain, sorrow and death to themselves by disobeying God, they passed the curse of sin on to their decendents as well. Except for Christ, every human baby ever born came into this world a sinner. As God in the flesh who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Jesus wasn’t subjected to this horrible birthright. But all the rest of us were. Like it or not, we are all sinners regardless of how “good” we think ourselves to be.
As sinners, it is we humans who have to accept the blame for the bad things that happen to us in life, not God. Some people think that since God is all-knowing and all-powerful that He should simply protect us and shield us from harm. Sorry, that’s not the way it works. Adam and Eve indeed had that ultimate form of divine protection before they fell into sin, but by disobeying the only directive that God had given them they forfeited that protection for all time. And not just for themselves, but for all the rest of us too.
When God created man He gave him the ability to make his own decisions, and unfortunately one of the very first decisions he made was a poor one. In a nutshell, God is not to blame for our problems. We are.
But as sad as this story is, it does have a happy ending. Although that one original sin back in the Garden of Eden took away mankind’s right to live forever in a perfect world, the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us on the cross at Calvary restored it. But the restoration isn’t automatic; we have to accept it in accordance with God’s plan of salvation. Would you like to be forgiven of your sins and live forever in a perfect world, never again to suffer or die? Well, you can. Click here to find out how.
Well, it was certainly a long time coming, but a decent “crop” of USB 3.0 capable devices are finally sitting on the shelves of technology stores such as Best Buy and hhgregg. Virtually all of the USB 3.0 gadgets that I have seen thus far have been hard drives, which makes sense because mass storage devices naturally benefit the most from USB 3.0′s lightning-fast speed. While I have yet to see even one PC for sale that came from the factory equipped with USB 3.0 ports, I expect that to change rather quickly now that the “dam” for the devices themselves has finally broken.
I grew up in a rural area where most everyone we knew heated their homes with firewood. Back in those days firewood was dirt cheap even if you had to buy it, but most everyone around owned a plot of “woods” where they could simply cut what they needed for close to nothing. It’s hard telling how many cords of wood we burned over the years, but I can tell you that it was a bunch!