Locked Out - But Not Locked Up

Locked Out - But Not Locked Up

 Ever been locked out of your car or house?

Or even worse, the bathroom?

It is no fun being locked out.

 You and I have been locked out of the Garden of God,

but there is hope that someday the gates will never be locked again.

 

God did not treat Adam and Eve as criminals

for their disobedience and sin.

God did not lock them up.

But God did lock them out of the Garden

and placed an angel as guard over the entrance.

Now Adam and Eve not only were made in the image of God,

but now know good and evil, blessing and cursing.

Adam and Eve’s shame revealed

their knowledge of right and wrong

and their expulsion from the Garden

revealed their knowledge of consequences.

The Garden was a place of blessing.

God still wants to bless us.

But now we will live life outside

knowing blessing and cursing.

The word garden can also be interpreted paradise.

In the first book of the Bible,

we see God guarding the Garden

to keep those who chose not to obey Him out.

God has guarded and preserved this place

called, Paradise, for those who chose to obey Him.

In the midst of the Garden of Eden, was the Tree of Life.

In the Paradise found in the book of Revelation, is the Tree of Life.

Since the time God locked the Garden,

people have tried to create paradise.

We all want paradise.

Every culture, every people group,

nation, city, town, family and person

has tried to create a place they could call paradise.

Or, had a desire to move closer to it!

Many have succeeded to build great

architectural wonders, agricultural beauties, written laws

and hired enforcers of those laws.

It has not mattered whether the efforts were by a nation,

or one person.

We cannot remove Evil from our paradise.

Someone once said,

“If you find a perfect church, don’t join it.”

The evidence is stacked against us;

none of us are worthy to live in God’s Paradise.

But all is not hopeless.

God has a plan for those who choose to obey Him,

and a plan for those who do not.

Those who choose to obey God

will be offered to eat from the Tree of Life.

Those who choose not to obey Him,

God will not only lock out

but will lock up in the Lake of Fire.  

For those of us who would like to live in the Garden,

and who “obey God” - there is hope.

Obeying God always results in blessing.

Scripture Reading

Genesis 3:21-4:1 NIV

 22 And the LORD God said,

"The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.

He must not be allowed to reach out his hand

and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."

23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden

to work the ground from which he had been taken.

24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Revelation 2:7 AMP

7 He who is able to hear, let him listen to and give heed

to what the Spirit says to the assemblies (churches).

To him who overcomes (is victorious),

I will grant to eat [of the fruit] of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Revelation 22:2 AMP

2 Through the middle of the broadway of the city; also, on either side of the river was the tree of life with its twelve varieties of fruit, yielding each month its fresh crop; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing and the restoration of the nations.

Revelation 22:14 AMP

14 Blessed (happy and to be envied) are those who cleanse their garments,

that they may have the authority and right to [approach] the tree of life

and to enter through the gates into the city.

Revelation 22:19 AMP

19 And if anyone cancels or takes away from the statements of the book of this prophecy [these predictions relating to Christ's kingdom and its speedy triumph, together with the consolations and admonitions or warnings pertaining to them], God will cancel and take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the city of holiness (purity and hallowedness), which are described and promised in this book.