October 24
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GENESIS 3
8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” – Genesis 3:8-13
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GENESIS 3 SHAME IS THE AFTERMATH OF SIN
A poem inspired by these verses by ILMA
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s prohibition of the tree
They quickly knew they were naked and felt shame by what they did
Their once pure minds became corrupted with selfish ambition
They began to crave for more than what was already given.
When we open our hearts and minds to give in to cravings
We begin to experience guilt and shame creeping in
We hide and make sure no one knows what we did
Then we protect ourselves from anyone who exposes it.
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Shame is prevalent in our world. In this following account, we see the birth of shame in mankind. Oftentimes we do not easily recognize our sins because it is in our nature. When our first parents caved in to the serpent’s temptation, we inherited such tendencies to sin. We are inherently bent towards our desires and pleasures which lead us to sin. There is a sure way to recognize sin. Shame is the aftermath of sin. Since God created us in his image, we also can be pure and holy like him, but sin corrupted that holiness. Shame makes us lose our moral compass and leads us further away from being loyal to God. Thus, we ought to expose shame so we can confess the sin and repent and renew our hearts.
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REFLECTION
• How can we get rid of shame in our lives as we serve the Lord our God?