Diamonds In The Rough (2008) "Dancing Dead"

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
As performed by A7X

Dead men, they celebrate,
as the final chapter fades away.
'Cause they can't hide, we can see their flesh is rotten.

The band plays a hopeful tune,
the champagne is poured as they socialize.
The look in their eyes, hide in the light.

Everything is paid for tonight, while at the party of the dead dancing in their graves.
The drinks here are free so relax,
enjoy the sight of all the dead dancing in their graves.
And while the world that they built, told 'em to change, told 'em to listen,
they just kept it the same.
And now that midnight has come, I'll get a room watching the dead dancing in their graves.

Bones covered up by suits, as the visible scars, they multiply.
Kiss it goodbye, too stubborn and I'll destory.

Tick, tock, the time bomb has been
recognized and pressurized.
Nowhere to hide, swallowing light!

Everything is paid for tonight, while at the party of the dead dancing in their graves.
The drinks here are free so relax,
enjoy the sight of all the dead dancing in their graves.
And while the world that they built, told 'em to change, told 'em to listen,
they just kept it the same.
And now that midnight has come, I'll get a room watching the dead dancing in their graves.

I feel a coming strength
And now it's too late to chan-

[Background chatter.]

Everything is paid for tonight, while at the party of the dead dancing in their graves.
The drinks here are free so relax,
enjoy the sight of all the dead dancing in their graves.
And while the world that they built, told 'em to change, told 'em to listen, they just kept it the same.
And now that midnight has come, I'll get a room watching the dead dancing in their graves.

A7X fans together saw how mankind is slowly destorying itself, as one pointed out, "Society (especially the rich that got their money through shifty means) tries to hide their inner selves by dressing themselves up nicely, drinking expensive champagne etc, while truthfully they are corrupt and dead inside."

In Jesus' day the rich were the religious elite, and He accused them of exactly the same things. It's some pretty stiff reading, called "The Seven Woes."

The Pharisees wanted it all. They wanted to be seen as perfectly obedient to God, but they also wanted what they wanted. So they interpreted God’s word in such a way to make it easy for them to get what they wanted and still look like they were being perfectly obedient to God.

They conformed God’s word to fit inside the lives they wanted, instead of surrendering themselves, heart, soul, mind and body to be conformed by God, no matter how painful the process, into genuine holiness.

Let’s try contrasting these woes with the beatitudes

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

1) First woe "You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to."

Compare this with “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Shutting up the kingdom verses entering the kingdom. The proud in spirit keep themselves and others out of God’s kingdom because they refuse to admit to their own sin and insist that they can achieve faultlessness, or at least enough goodness to obligate God to bring them into heaven.

This is what the religious leaders did by teaching their own rules and rejecting Messiah Jesus. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Those who mourn over their sin will know the comfort of God’s forgiveness and cleansing. Our lesson: we enter into the kingdom by confession of sin, and faith in Jesus Christ and we should tell others the good news.

2) Second woe "You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are."

Compare this with “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Hell versus inheritance. The Pharisees were out to win others to their own system instead of bringing them to the living God. Instead of saving souls, the religious leaders were condemning souls. Our lesson: point people to Christ rather then yourself

3) Third woe "You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.'"

Compare this with “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Greedy for gain versus hungering for holiness. The Pharisees had worked out a religious system where they could back out of their promises if it got too costly for them and still maintain their reputations. God’s character is pure, there is no shadow in Him. But instead of being men of godly integrity, they encouraged evasive language to conceal things. Our lesson: be truthful at all times

4) Fourth woe "You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness."

Compare this with “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Rejecting mercy versus obtaining mercy. Jesus said to them, "You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel." the gnat was the smallest unclean creature, and the camel was the largest. The Pharisees had rules for every tiny thing, straining out the gnats, while at the same time forgetting about all the important things, swallowing whole camels of uncleanness.

The complaint is not that they failed to take great care with the Scriptures; it’s that they missed the point of them. They missed God's will. Justice, mercy and faithfulness are the important qualities God is seeking. Obeying rules is no substitute. Our lesson: focus on right relationships with others and show justice, mercy and faithfulness in those relationships.

5) Fifth woe "You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence"

Compare with “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Defiled in heart versus pure in heart They were occupied with external obedience, not the essence of true faith. If they kept the outside looking good, they would get praise and honor from other people. They had no consideration for God’s view of their hearts and minds. Our lesson: be clean from the inside out.

6) Sixth woe "You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."

Is much like the fifth, being outwardly pure, but inwardly corrupt. The Pharisees lived for reputation, not character.

7) Seventh woe "You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!"

Persecutors of God’s people are from Satan, peacemakers are God’s children Compare with “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” They were the heirs of those who had failed to recognize the prophets of old. Our lesson: love God’s word, and be teachable to His truth.

Jesus finished His invective with this: "Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar."

The Hebrew Bible started with Genesis and ended with Second Chronicles. The first prophet was Abel, in Genesis, and the last prophet was Zechariah listed in Second Chronicles, stoned by the religious leaders of his day, in the temple courts.

Compare with "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Jesus finished His last discourse by weeping over Jerusalem. He loved them! After all that, Jesus loved them. That’s what grace is.

If the Jews had accepted Jesus’ way of love and forgiveness, of humility and obedience, then there never would have been the rebellions that brought Rome’s devastation of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D.

The truth is, hypocrisy grieves God

The Pharisees had constructed their version of the holy life that was all about the externals, following lots of rules and regulations, measured in terms of religious activities and conformity to what they said looked good. The Pharisees were proud of their own religiosity, and expected other people to honor them for it.

The holy life Jesus teaches emphasizes the inner person, a life that is based on the principles of truth found in God’s word. Jesus measures spirituality in terms of character and sacrificial service.

What is your version of the holy life based on?

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment and join the conversation

Diamonds In The Rough (2008) "The Fight"

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
As performed by A7X

The problem with society's been how do we teach
And if they'll believe.
We'll fight this battle for years to come
'til we only accept that we can stand on our own.

Grandfather used his hands, he worked them to the bone.
To provide his family with a happy home, alone.

Don't take your aggression out on me.
My own man is all I'm meant to be.
This common place is so lazy, old and tired
All your ideas are so F***ING uninspired.
Takes more than one idea
More than one person to fight the fight
How many times have you taught and not conspired?

You don't wanna be, then never say
But don't call us the liars.

We've walked these alleys a thousand times
And scattered around a thousand lies.
They are trying to hold you down
Your life may be hard, but keep your feet on the ground.
Why don't I have the finer, things that others have?
The chance is there if you want it all that bad.
So bad.

Don't take your aggression out on me.
My own man is all I'm meant to be.
This common place is so lazy, old and tired
All your ideas are so F***ING uninspired.
Takes more than one idea
More than one person to fight the fight
How many times have you taught and not conspired?

Don't try and get me confused.
Cause I do understand.
And sometimes people need help.
That they may need a
Hand when there's problems going on.
A thing you have to get straight
Is that you don't hold my hand.
And I don't owe you a thing.
So don't think about how sorry
Your feeling now your treated so bad.

This common place is so lazy, old and tired
All your ideas are so F***ING uninspired.
Takes more than one idea
More than one person to fight the fight
How many times have you taught and not conspired?

And as a race we look back and we've come so far.
While some men conquered,
the others had it so hard.
But in this day we just complain
while there's no one for us to fight.
I guess we're bored and it's how we keep us occupied

One A7X fan felt this is, "Talking more about how many people in society rely on government for their own happiness. This song talks a lot about being one's own person, creating a "happy home" on your own.

"This common place is so lazy old and tired... how many times have you taught and not conspired?"
This sounds pretty direct towards people who believe in reliance on the government, like left-minded politicians regardless of their party, and how its not only a lazy and generally unfruitful way of living, but also how those who promote bigger government are conspiring, or possibly brainwashing, and not actually teaching in order to get their way.

Also, if we look at the part where M Shadows says
"Why don't I have the finer things that others have? The chance is there if you want it all that bad" that has a very capitalistic point of view to it. People complain that they don't have the things that others have, but if they really wanted it, they could take the opportunities given to them every day to gain those things through their individual labor.

"We'll fight this battle for years to come til we accept that we can all stand on our own" is another example of learning the lesson that your own individual labor is the best way to live, it brings more happiness than the government can by handing you things.

Then, I see obviously at the end how this generation is the lazy generation, the generation that has no one to fight and is bored."

Added another fan, "Also in the beginning, "The problem with society is how we teach and what they believe." This refers to the media, government and society teaching us and our children lies. Unfortunately only a small amount of people truely see this."

What you think is going to determine what you do, so this last statement above is the key to the whole dilemma.

You and I are what we believe. People almost always act according to what they really believe. It doesn't matter much what you and I say we believe or what we want others to think we believe. When it really matters, in our real lives, we act out what we really believe most of the time.

There are five aspects that shape a belief:

1) The content of a belief -- What we believe matters. The facts. the gospels present the facts of Jesus’ deity through Jesus’ own claims about Himself, through the other witnesses of Jesus’ authenticity, and through the miracles themselves, acting as signs.

2) The strength of a belief -- When a person says they believe something, that doesn’t mean they are certain that it is true, it just means that they are at least more than 50 percent convinced the belief is true

So a belief's strength is the degree to which you are convinced that the belief is true. As you gain evidence and support for a belief, its strength grows for you. It may start off as plausible and later become fairly likely, then quite likely, then beyond reasonable doubt, and finally, completely certain. The more certain you are of a belief, the more it becomes a part of your inner being and the more you rely on it as a basis for action.

That's why the gospel writers provided irrefutable evidence, backed up by eye witnesses and miracles, that added strength and support to Jesus’ claim of being Messiah, Son of God

3) The centrality of a belief -- The more central a belief is, the greater the impact it will have on your worldview, the way you see things. For the gospel writers belief in Christ was so central that Jesus was the very source of life for him, and he saw Jesus as the source of life, light and love for all people.

4) How do you change a belief? -- You start on a course of study with an open mind, one of inquiry. Place yourself in a position to undergo a change in the content, strength and centrality of the beliefs you already have -- this is what all the new testament writers asked their audience

5) How does a belief stand in terms of what the culture considers plausible -- The gosepls record some stupendous claims Jesus makes in this gospel.

This is what the Bible means when it says you and I need to constantly renew our minds. This is why studying the Bible is so important, because it is the antidote to the constant immersion our minds already have in our culture’s belief systems, and our culture’s values.

What do you believe about God right now? About Jesus right now?
The greatest battle that goes on in the world today is for the mind.
You and I learned how to cope with life using thought patterns and behavior patterns that are not compatible with God's way
• Lots of people learned to lie to protect or promote themselves
• We refuse to face the truth so we pretend it doesn't exist – some people call this denial
• We indulge in a fantasy life because real life is unpleasant
• We withdraw from people so people won't reject us
• We regress, revert to behavior from our childhoods
• We take our frustrations out on other people,
• We blame others for our troubles
• We make excuses for ourselves

You and I have to unlearn what we learned during those years without Jesus. We have to retrain our minds, we have to renounce the lies, reprogram the way we think by renewing our minds daily with God's word. Since Satan is the father of lies, you and I have to commit to believing the truth, speaking the truth and applying the truth every chance we get -- no white lies, no manipulation, no social niceties that are intended to deceive.

Satan knows that if he can control your thoughts, he can control your life because what you think will determine what you do and say. He can insert deceptive thoughts that sound just like your own voice, so you think you're thinking your own thoughts.

The antidote to Satan's deceptions and schemes is found in disciplining yourself to take every thought to Jesus. Does that sound like work? It is. Hard work! You must take every thought because the problem with deception is that you don't know if you are being fooled, since you might already be deceived. So you ask Jesus: is this thought worthy of You? Does this thought pass muster with Your word in the Bible?

What you believe is what you'll do, what you'll say and what you'll teach

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment and join the conversation

Diamonds In The Rough (2008) "Walk"

[Originally by Pantera]
As performed by A7X

Can't you see I'm easily bothered by persistence
One step from lashing out at you...
You want in to get under my skin
And call yourself a friend
I've got more friends like you
What do I do?

[Pre:]
Is there no standard anymore?
What it takes, who I am, where I've been belong
You can't be something you're not
Be yourself, by yourself
Stay away from me
A lesson learned in life
Known from the dawn of time

[Chorus:]
Respect, walk
What did you say?
Respect, walk
Are you talking to me?

Are you talking to me?

Run your mouth when I'm not around
It's easy to achieve
You cry to weak friends that sympathize
Can you hear the violins playing your song?
Those same friends tell me your every word

[Pre]

[Chorus x2]

Are you talking to me?
No way, punk!

[Chorus x2]

Are you talking to me?
Walk on home, boy

One fan thinks "this song is about dealing with people who are fake they are pretending to be something they aren't Trying way to hard to make it look like they are your friend and then they turn around and say sh*t behind your back... and how they aren't going to take that persons crap!!!" Another fan thinks it's "about people who tell you how to live your life, but have no experience to back it up."

Betrayal seems to be a returning theme in A7X's work, whether in their own songs, or in this piece, originally by Pantera. A sense of being betrayed is possibly the worst of all human emotions; it's a wound that runs so deep that sometimes people can't seem to get over it. The jilted lover, the cuckolded spouse, the best friend's heel, when you thought someone had your back and then you find their knife sticking out of your back...Double crossers are pretty low, even among those who live low.

It's am awful thing to be betrayed. But what if you're the one who did the betraying? What if this song could have been written about you? What do you do about that? So you try to rationalize it? Justify it? Minimize it? Deny it? What does that do to you, inside?

The Bible gives an inside view of one betrayer's heart; Judas.

Judas Iscariot. His name always ends up at the end of the lists of disciples' names (Peter, Andrew, James and John always end up in the front).

The amazing thing about Judas is that he was one of the chosen twelve. In Luke’s gospel Jesus spent all night praying, then specially selected Judas along with the others. He loved Judas, taught him, gave him the same authority and privilege of all the rest of His disciples. When Jesus sent the other disciples out, He sent Judas out, too, with the same power to cast our demons and to heal the sick. Jesus even gave Judas the trusted position of treasurer, and Judas embezzled from their common bag on a regular basis.

Everyone thought Judas loved Jesus like they did. Not a single person suspected what was going on in Judas' heart, not even the day Mary, Martha's sister, poured a very expensive perfume on Jesus' head as an act of love for Him.

Judas, a man driven by greed, was not impressed with this scene, or the aroma filling the house. All he could think of was the enormous amount of money that had been lost, money he could have skimmed off a handsome sum from for himself. A loving heart gives while a darkened heart keeps for itself. Judas’ growing resentment, disrespect for Jesus and greed, all came bubbling up on that day as he yelled at Mary for being so wasteful with money that could have been spent on the poor.

He sounded so pious, didn’t he? It’s amazing how you and I can think up such good reasons to cover what are often selfish, self-centered motives. Why had Mary wasted this expensive item? Think of the poor families who could have benefitted, especially now, during Passover. The other disciples also criticized her. What was she thinking? How could God possibly approve of such thoughtlessness.

The other disciples admired Judas. They had no idea that he stole from them, or that he had been preparing to stab Jesus in the back. Until the very end, they thought Judas was a devoted follower of the Lord.

But Jesus knew Judas’ heart. He knew Judas didn’t respect Him, and was stealing regularly from Him. But He loved Judas to the end, a love Judas never responded to. This event was the trigger that sent Judas to the high priest Caiaphas to betray Jesus.

On the night Judas betrayed Jesus, we find out that these men were exhausted with sorrow, tired after a long and emotionally eventful day. They had just finished their last meal together, where Jesus had shocked them by stripping down and washing their feet. There was so much more He had to tell them, but it was almost more than they could bear, they were on overload.

As Jesus thought about what was to come, He was moved by an overflowing love for all of His disciples. In these next few hours He intended to show the full extent of His love for them.

He was aware of the invisible, spiritual forces of the kingdom of darkness at work all around them.] He knew that Satan was bringing about a crisis, and that his catalyst was going to be Judas, one the Lord’s own disciples. Judas had continued on a willful pattern of deception, greed and self-serving decisions. The devil had many inroads into Judas’ heart. That’s what sin does, if you and I allow it to take root in our hearts. We progressively give Satan footholds in our minds so that he can insert suggestions that will be welcomed; you and I can find ourselves betraying the very things we’ve told ourselves we believe in.

When He washed Hs disciples' feet, Jesus showed a progression to true joy: Humbleness, holiness then happiness. Humble to allow yourself to have your feet washed by your Lord, holiness in being made cleaned, happiness in living out Jesus’ example by washing the feet of others and allowing them to wash your feet too.

Not everyone was going to understand this path to joy, Jesus said, just the ones He had chosen. One of them was going to choose a different path. Judas did not have to be a traitor. Every step of the way, he was free to make a moral choice between good and evil. From the very beginning Jesus had chosen him along with the others to come be his student, and Judas had said yes. But even though Judas followed Jesus, and looked like the devoted disciple, he never believed that Jesus was the Son of God.

When you look back through the gospels, you can see all the teaching Judas heard about Satan, the father of lies, who is a murderer. Judas heard Jesus’ many interchanges with the Pharisees, warning them about hypocrisy, about refusing to believe, about dishonoring God by dishonoring Him. Judas went along with the other disciples to spread the gospel, heal people, raise the dead and cast out demons.

What did he think about all that? Jesus even trusted Judas with the community purse. Judas had a great reputation as a disciple of Jesus. He had done great things already, and even held a lot of responsibility among Jesus’ followers. But in Judas' heart, Jesus was not Lord.

Judas was not doomed to be a traitor. He chose to be one, and because God is sovereign, He prophesied that it would be so (through King David, in Psalm 13), and now, a thousand years later, instead of Judas’ undermining the other disciples’ faith, Jesus strengthened their faith by saying it’s okay. Even this is under God’s control.

After saying all this, Jesus was troubled in His spirit as Satan was there among the disciples, exerting his influence on Judas. The Lord openly stated what was about to happen.

The disciples were shocked, asking each other who it could be, maybe even themselves. Peter was so agitated, he leaned over the table to John to ask him to find out who it was, so John leaned against Jesus and asked. No one even suspected it would be Judas, and Jesus had never let on, never exposed him, until tonight when Jesus said "I will dip this piece of bread in the sauce and give it to the one I was talking about." Then Jesus dipped the bread and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As Jesus gave him the bread, Judas whispered, “Is it me?” And Jesus answered back, “Yes, it’s you.”

It was his last chance to turn back from his plan, but each little decision to steal their money, to resist Jesus’ teaching, to be critical and disappointed, to side with the religious rulers all led up to the one big decision, and Satan with all his darkness entered Judas. Satan can be resisted, but Judas didn’t resist. Satan can’t enter anyone who already is filled with the life of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, and protected by faith. But Judas had no faith.

Judas refused to admit to his ambition - this whole talk of humble service was repellant to Judas, the opposite of what he was looking for. He did not take the warning seriously that by loving his life he would lose it. It wasn’t until this point that Jesus gave up on Judas, but now He quickly sent Judas away so that the rest of Jesus’ time could be used well with those who loved Him.

He had called three of them, Peter, John and James, to move in close with Him as He prayed, and told them it would be for their own protection. Jesus explained that they would need to be fortified for the demands of what would soon happen. Events would unfold whether they were ready or not. As it turns out, the disciples did not pray, they fell asleep instead, and when events did unfold they weren’t ready.

Judas knew where to find the place because they’d often gone there. The Passover always fell on the full moon, so it was very light outside. Because the soldiers had torches on a night of the full moon indicates that they were preparing for a search.

Jesus had entered the garden with a heavy heart. He was so troubled and full of sorrow that it felt like dying on the inside. So He prayed, and kept praying, until He had prayed through all His anguish, received the Father’s strengthening and encouragement, and found that deep peace of surrender. Perfect timing, Jesus knew that Judas and the arresting officers had arrived, so He woke His disciples just as they entered the clearing.

The word John used for “band” actually means a cohort of soldiers, which numbered from 200 to 600 men. They came expecting a fight, because that’s how it often was for Pilate with the Jewish people, especially during the Passover. In fact, it was against the law to carry a weapon during the Passover time.

The chief priests had quickly thrown together a warrant, but they were concerned that Jesus, with all His power and His followers, would put up a big fight. During the Passover, Pilate would have been expected to be in Jerusalem to keep order. As governor of Judea, Pilate would have had soldiers stationed regularly in Caesarea and Jerusalem, such as the Antonia Fortress, and temporarily anywhere else that might require a military presence.

Since the main Roman fortress was right next to the temple, and since the Romans routinely stationed a cohort of soldiers there during the Passover, the chief priests may have included the Roman captain and some of his soldiers, along with the temple guard.

Judas' arrangement with the chief priests had been to find a workable time to seize Jesus – when He would be away from crowds of people to protect Him, out in the open, alone, instead of in a house or in town, where He could hide or escape. Judas' arrangement with the captain was to kiss the man the soldiers were supposed to arrest. This wasn't anything weird. To this day it is the Mediterranean custom for men to greet each other with a kiss to each cheek, and if they are close, to give each other three kisses or so.

The gospel of Matthew indicates that Judas first took the soldiers to the house where Jesus had been eating dinner with the disciples, the house Judas had left a couple of hours earlier. After speaking with Mark, who lived there, Judas then led the band of soldiers to Gethsemane.

They had been expecting a search and a fight, Jesus had many supporters, and Passover was already a tense time for Jewish-Roman relations. What they didn’t expect was Jesus to step forward and willingly, calmly present Himself. It so startled them that they stepped back and fell over each other.

John gives us a hint as to why Judas would have kissed Jesus anyway, even when He stepped forward. In his gospel he identified Thomas as “The Twin.” It’s possible that Thomas looked so much like Jesus that it was hard for people to tell them apart. With the disciples now crowded around the Lord, Judas may have chosen that moment to step forward and give the signal of his kiss.

The gospel accounts indicate that Judas gave Jesus lots of kisses, a warm and affectionate greeting. Maybe he was trying to make the disciples think he was still one of them. Maybe he was trying make Jesus think that he was actually coming to warn Him, or something. But Jesus looked straight into his soul and called him friend, asking him if he would you betray his Messiah with pretended devotion? Those words exposed the truth about Judas. His self-pretense had been stripped away, and all that was left was the truth. He was a hypocrite, a traitor to everything good and beautiful, he had cheapened Jesus’ love for him, he was a self-centered and hardened man.

Often you and I might try to hide the truth from ourselves, because we can't stand to think that we're really capable of something base and wrong. What have you been trying to hide from yourself? Cover your bases? Is there something that you've done, or said, or be secretly cherishing that you know is wrong, or that has been making you feel bad inside. Your relationship with Jesus is going to determine how you handle the realization of your own guilt.

Judas had sold Jesus for the price of a slave, then spent the night agonizing over what he had done. By early morning he had returned to the temple in time to see the official trial and sentencing of Jesus. As Matthew recorded it in his gosepl, once Judas realized that Jesus was condemned to die,

"He was sorry for what he had done. He returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and leaders and said, 'I have sinned by betraying a man who has never done anything wrong.'

"'So what? That's your problem,' they replied."

He had wanted to undo what he’d done. But the terrible thing about sin is you and I can’t turn the clock back. We can’t undo what we’ve said or done. You can only move forward, you can’t go back.

Judas discovered something else about sin. The very thing he thought he would gain from it now disgusted and revolted him. So often people sin because they think that if they can just get that forbidden thing, whatever it takes, whatever it is – a love affair, material things, money, power, influence, pleasure, a certain position at work, or in the community, it will make them happy. But sin poisons what it touches,
"Judas threw the money into the temple and then went out and hanged himself."

Judas had grown more and more disappointed in the kind of Messiah Jesus was turning out to be. He wanted to see Israel established as a world power, Jesus on his throne, and Judas right next to him with wealth and a crown. In his disappointment he had begun to embezzle from the disciples’ communal purse. Jesus’ rebuke had stung his pride, and the Bible says he fell under Satan’s influence.

What a terrible wrong he did. But pride kept him from repenting. His pride was so tightly fastened to his soul, and his lack of faith in Jesus, his lack of belief, and his lack of humility, that he would rather part with his life than ask forgiveness of his Savior.

Remorse may feel like repentance, and doing penance may feel like repentance, but it’s not. Repentance means you radically, profoundly change by turning way from the old and entering into the new. Remorse and penance are just attempts to pay for the sin, emotionally and materially, without in any way changing things, so that you will very likely do the same thing again in the future. Distress that drives us to God turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We should never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets.

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment and join the conversation

Diamonds In The Rough (2008) "Tension"

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
As performed by A7X

I wake up every morning bright and early;
roll out of bed but I'm never quite alone.
Tension is pulling me in all directions,
and I'll be gone once you use me as a rope.
Sometimes the pressure will just drive you crazy,
at any time I could explode.
I need some peace of mind, it's got me tired.
Don't wanna lose it, but I'm turning down that road.

I need a moment 'cause I've spread myself too thin.
We all need a moment in our lives.
Work's hard, the day's too long,
and that's just where it begins.
Tension has had us all this time.

I sit in traffic every single morning,
just as I arrive, I'm slaving to the grind.
Making the money so I feed my family,
but I can't raise them, 'cause I ain't got the time.
I got no free days on my busy schedule,
I turn the page and it's the same.
Don't like my situation, you don't either.
Don't wanna look back scared, I will get away.

I need a moment 'cause I've spread
myself too thin.
We all need a moment in our lives.
Work's hard, the day's too long,
and that's just where it begins.
Tension has had us all this time.

But every now and then,
I drive alone, an open road.
Hot summer day,
a gentle breeze that feels alright.
All alone,
and I can't feel no pain,
only strain.
Enjoy the sights,
I feel alive.
Relaxing here just feels alright,
far from home.

I need a moment 'cause I've spread
myself too thin.
We all need a moment in our lives.
Work's hard, the day's too long,
and that's just where it begins.
Tension has had us all this time.

A lot of us feel this way in the fast-paced lives typical of a western, technologically advanced society. In fact, literally, it's killing us with stress-induced illnesses, across the board. The one place that should bring comfort and joy, home, becomes the place we want to run away from because it represents the reasons for why we're killing ourselves -- work, feeding the family, keeping up the house, doing for people...doing for everyone.

Who takes care of me, becomes the question.

So the poet takes to the road as the music shifts. Imagine the cool breeze, the hot sun, the sense of anticipation that something wonderful is about to happen, it's just around the corner. A chance to relax, to think about nothing more important than enjoying the moment, without the heavy load of obligations, deadlines, responsibilities and all the rest that we daily labor under.

Wouldn't you love to carry that hot summer day with the scent of ocean breeze in your heart all the time?

In John's gospel, when Jesus promised to send His Spirit to live within every person who would receive His love and have faith in Him, He promised four things:

1) The Holy Spirit comes by Jesus’ invitation and represents Jesus to you and me

2) The Spirit teaches and reminds you and me of Jesus’ words.
This promise was first for the disciples as they were going to not only spread the gospel but write it down. But this is also for every person who has the Spirit – He will recall to your mind what you need when you need it.

The way for Him to do that is for you to put God’s words in your mind in the first place. You and I are pretty fortunate to have Bibles everywhere and the freedom to read them Sometimes when something is plentiful like this, we don’t really value it. But this promise from Jesus is contingent on you and I having God’s words in the first place.

3) The Spirit teaches the meaning of God’s words.
He’s the one who gave the writers of the New Testament the understanding they needed to explain all of Jesus’ teaching – think of the apostle Paul and all the letters he wrote, but also Peter, John and James and the other writers. You and I have this same access, all we need to do is ask. And the Spirit will help you to understand and apply God’s truth to your every day life.

4) The Spirit would impart Jesus’ peace
This doesn’t mean that you and I never experience stress. Several times you and I have read in this gospel that Jesus was troubled in His spirit. Stress and trouble are all part of living on earth.

What Jesus gives is Shalom, a Hebrew word that means much more than absence of distress. It means wholeness, completeness, health, security, even prosperity in the best sense of that word. In spite of your circumstances, you are able to experience joy and a certain contentment.

This is a quiet, steady confidence in God, trusting Him that He is going to work everything for good, somehow, some way. This is not giving up because you know that even though it feels like you’re at the end of your rope, God has a little bit more rope for you to hang onto. This is believing that if you can’t find what you need within yourself, God has it and He will give you what you need from within Himself – Who lives in you.

It's true that you and I need a break sometimes. It's simple biology, we have to renew the resources we need by eating, drinking and resting. But a lot of stress is self-induced because we internalize the busyness, the burdens, the pressures. Instead, internalize Jesus' shalom through new birth.

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment and join the conversation

Diamonds In The Rough (2008) "Until the End"

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
As performed by A7X

Weekends on young & angry Street,
we'd meet, drink 'til trouble found us there,
living life as without a care (without a care).
We've had our fights, been black and blue,it's true.
I've even gone to jail for you, my friends.
Bet your life that I'd do it again.

Until the end...

Don't change the way you think of me,
we're from the same story.
Life moves on, can't stay the same,
but some of us...some worry.

While some have gone their separate ways,
there's some still caught up with the past instead.
But move on, you're missing most of your life (life).
They say it's hard to stay the same,
When some fail, while other men seem to gain, but friends, I'll be with you here until the end.

Until the end...

Don't change the way you think of me,
we're from the same story.
Life moves on, can't stay the same,
but some of us...some worry.

We're all falling forward,
with no signs of slow.
And some moving faster,
But that's all that I wanted, I wanted.

You know it's hard,
it's passing by;
memories,
be out all night.
To reminisce won't bring you back, just look ahead and hold on tight.

We're all falling forward,
with no signs of slow.
And some moving faster,
But that's all that I wanted, I wanted.

Don't change the way you think of me, oh yeah.

Until the end...
Until the end...
Until the end...

Yes, people change, it's part of life, whatever isn't growing is dying, you never get to stay the same; nothing stays the same. But change doesn't necessarily mean that the bond of love needs to break. People who are willing to bend towards each other, include each other in the ways they're growing and changing, who enter into each other's lives, listen to each other's stories, respect and hold with love each other's world views end up being very close.

But it doesn't always happen that way, does it. Looking back on our friendships from years ago, how many have stuck with us? Some people stay best friends from kindergarten to old age. But usually, with each new season we enter in life come new friends, and the old friends are left in the past. Grade school, middle school, high school, college....we lose touch, we move on.

Often you and I experience life transforming events which make the past seem like something that happened to some other person. Paul the apostle felt like that when he wrote,

You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God's law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God's law Book.

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness.

I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.

I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back.

Like this song today, Paul was saying,

just look ahead and hold on tight

Still, that's not the main point of this song. The main point is that to try and hang onto the past is to miss out on what life has ahead. Everyone is moving forward, you can't stop the motion of time, or life. Yet that doesn't mean love can't continue with change, "But friends, I'll be with you here until the end."

Many things change, yet love is resilient enough to grow and adapt with those changes. Paul never lost or forgot his love for his old friends, from the old life he led as a Pharisee. He tried to his last day to reach out to them and bring them into the new life he'd discovered with Jesus.

And Jesus, though He changed where He lived, from earth to heaven, He made the same promise to His friends, and through them to you and me today, "I'll be with you... day after day after day, right up to the end of the age."

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment and join the conversation

Diamonds In The Rough (2008) "Flash Of The Blade"

[Iron Maiden cover]
As performed by A7X

As a young boy chasing dragons with your wooden sword so mighty,
You're St. George or you're David and you always killed the beast.
Times change very quickly,
and you had to grow up early,
A house in smoking ruins and the bodies at your feet.

You'll die as you lived
In a flash of the blade,
In a corner forgotten away.
You lived for the touch
For the feel of the steel
One man, and his honour.

The smell of resined leather
The sticky iron mask
As you cut and thrust and parried at the fencing master's call.
He taught you all he ever knew
To fear no mortal man
and now you'll wreak your vengeance in the
Screams of evil men.

You'll die as you lived
In a flash of the blade,
In a corner forgotten away.
You lived for the touch
For the feel of the steel
One man, and his honour.

"St. George was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier and priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr." He was tortured and killed for his faith in Jesus in 304 A.D. A legend grew up around his memory in which, during his travels, he came across a pagan town that was held in terror by a dragon. This creature required daily sacrifice of either a sheep or a maiden. George arrived just in time to save the princess from being sacrificed and slew the dreaded dragon. The entire town marveled, and converted to Christianity.

"David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible. He is depicted as a righteous king, although not without fault, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician and poet, traditionally credited for composing many of the psalms contained in the Book of Psalms."

David consolidated all of Israel and expanded its borders to those outlined by God to Abraham in the book of Genesis.

Both of these men are epic heroes, military men who lived by the sword. David, in fact, surrounded himself with his "mighty men," as the people called them, warriors so famous and battle hardened that they reached larger-than-life proportions.

And both of these heroes had learned what the fencing master taught the young blade in this poem:

He taught you all he ever knew
To fear no mortal man
and now you'll wreak your vengeance in the
Screams of evil men.

Jesus taught His disciples the same thing about fear. "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul," Jesus told them. "Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

Matthew, one of Jesus' disciples, had just been describing Jesus' review of some very scary situations, in which it would have been natural to be terrified. But Jesus told His disciples three times "don't be afraid," while He was talking about these scenarios.

God is never thwarted, never frustrated or delayed or interfered with in moving forward with what He decides to do. Even when we talk about God permitting, or allowing, something to happen, God chooses to permit. God always has the power to intervene, to prevent actions and events. Because God permits events, we can say, in a certain sense, that He has willed them.

God's Word, what He has declared in scripture, is not always obeyed even though God commands it. God's desires are not always realized (He says, for instance, that he finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He desires that nobody would die, actually, that nobody would turn down His offer of eternal life. But plenty of people do). Nevertheless, God's determined ends always come to pass.

The courage not to be afraid comes from knowing that God is sovereign, which gives us the three assurances that Jesus gave His disciples:
1) "Don't be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don't hesitate to go public now."
The truth will eventually come out. Jesus promised His disciples that He would be right there with them, at their shoulder, whispering to them what they needed to say -- which was the practice of rabbis in Jesus' day as they trained their students.

Jesus keeps that promise today through His Spirit, living within those who have been born again.

2) "Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life — body and soul — in his hands."
The soul is more important than the body. This goes against what our culture says, that now is all that counts, that there is nothing to look forward to after you die.

3) "What's the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don't be intimidated by all this bully talk. You're worth more than a million canaries."
God is in control, and He is intimately acquainted with your life. Think of a mother with her baby. She studies her baby, she knows every nuance, every expression. I used to love just watching my babies sleeping. Who else would be fascinated by that? But God is so fascinated with you that He even spends time keeping track of every hair on your head. God loves you and me with all His infinite and eternal heart, soul, mind and strength, and He asks the same of us.

A blade lives and dies by the sword, that's also a biblical truism, something Jesus said. In this piece, the hero wreaks vengeance on evil men but dies in battle, forgotten and alone, who upheld honour, living by it and dying by it. It's a tragic tale, and maybe a true one, sometimes, for those soldiers who have made it a career, foregoing the warmth of a home and family. But in one way it is not a true story.

No person ever dies forgotten or alone. God is with every person, whether they acknowledge Him or not. Their life and their death means more to Him than you or I could every really imagine.

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment and join the conversation

Diamonds In The Rough (2008) "Crossroads"

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
As performed by A7X

I've been traveling for so long
so lost till I stumbled upon
two roads in front of me, I had to take my time
to the right I could see a church
I took a step in that direction first
but to the left there was a watering hole
where they were whiskey drunk
and now that's where I wanna pray

The fire down here goes on and on

If I was perfect then this would be easy
Either road is plausible on both I could drown
I walk through the center with no rules to guide me
I realize it's difficult but now I can see

There's gotta be another way to go,
a way that's much more feasible
A combination of all these lives,
a central path without choosing a side
I make decisions one at a time
and no I never say I'm always right
I'm confident that when I stand on my own
you'll see the truest form of a man when I'm shining through

The fire down here goes on and on

If I was perfect then this would be easy
Either road is plausible on both I could drown
I walk through the center with no rules to guide me
I realize it's difficult but now I can see

Oh, I hear them now
all the religious rhymes
(Anger I see)
(Anger I see)
(Anger I see now)

The left isn't better
it's just more of the same
condemning all these people for what they believe
I'll climb to the top of their mountain again

No harness up to save me this way
and the closer to the top I get
the more they take aim
but I'm not you

I may not be perfect but I've always been true
I may not be worthy in your eyes
Climb up from the bottom for the last time,
the last one, the last one, the last time

If I was perfect then this would be easy
Either road is plausible on both I could drown
I walk through the center with no rules to guide me
I realize it's difficult but now I can see

"[On] the right (right hand of god, also the right politically tends to be more religious), there's a church. He went that way first. (Usually when we're younger we tend to believe what we are told so we follow down the path of blind belief first.

"[On] the left (the left is traditionally a symbol of the devil, the opposite of god, left handed people used to be made to do things w/ their right hand b/c of this): "The left isn't better, condemning all these people for what they believe" - the road of the athiest, many judge religious ppl for their beliefs.

"'No one is going to save me this way' (there is no 'salvation' on this road.)

"'If I was perfect then this would be easy," (pretty obvious that if he was perfect then he would just know what path to choose)

"''Either road is plausible on both I could drown' (on either road he could get screwed if it's the wrong one)

"'I walked through the center with no rules to guide me' (he's chosen the path of the agnostic in the end)"
[I'm indebted for these thoughts from an A7X fan ]

Choosing the middle road is usually viewed as the wise option: "moderation" and "tolerance." But is it really the wise choice? You and I can empathize with the poet's dilemna. On the one side he sees religious bigotry, on the other side he sees liberal bigotry. Excesses from both, just different kinds. Surely the moderate middle seems the best approach.

The poet does condition the path he takes by saying, "I make decisions one at a time," and that's the wisest statement in the whole piece. You and I must choose what we believe, and therefrom what we will do, one issue at a time. Everyone needs wisdom, and Jesus' younger brother James addressed that need in his letter to some believers,

If any of you need wisdom, you should ask God, and it will be given to you. God is generous and won't correct you for asking. But when you ask for something, you must have faith and not doubt. Anyone who doubts is like an ocean wave tossed around in a storm. If you are that kind of person, you can't make up your mind, and you surely can't be trusted. So don't expect the Lord to give you anything at all.

It’s always right to pray for wisdom, God may not give you all the answers you’d like, but He will always give you wisdom – except when you ask with this inner wavering. Wavering is a vacillation between one thing and another. The word James used means “double-minded,” literally “two-souled.”

That double mindedness is a lack of faith, doubting God’s reality, His character, not trusting Him, not believing He has enough love, or enough power, or enough motivation to work this all out for your good.

James called such a person “unstable,” restless and inconsistent. Lack of faith is instability, being driven and tossed around by adversity. Faith is stability, steadiness in crises and turmoil. Faith is complete trust in God’s character, love, power, and pure motives. Faith trusts all of God’s word.

Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. In fact throughout the Bible an understanding is developed that says everything you and I do without faith is sin - missing the mark of purity, perfection and holiness. Faith is the channel through which all God's blessings come to us. You and I have to ask in faith, expecting God to give wisdom, good judgment, insight and discernment.

And the fact is, as the poet points out, you and I are faced with the dilemma of choosing one way, the world's sytem, or another way, God's system, all the time as we make decisions in life. Which way represents wisdom, which way foolishness? Both can look pretty bad because the whole planet's broken, corrupted, fallen. People are people the world over; even Christians, or any religious person from any kind of religion that promotes love and kindness, and goodness, is going to do it wrong sometimes.

James talked about the fact that we face trials all the time, but he was writing specifically to those who already had put their faith in Jesus,

My friends, he said, Be glad, even if you have a lot of trouble. You know that you learn to endure by having your faith tested. But you must learn to endure everything, so that you will be completely mature and not lacking in anything.

Expect trials. Expect it to be hard to make a wise decision, then stick to it. Trials come in all shapes and sizes, and part of the variety is that they often come when you least expect it. You and I tend to rejoice when we escape trials, when we can get rid of the suffering.

And James didn’t mean we’re supposed to enjoy suffering, or “grin and bear it,” or pretend like this is fine, or act happy about tragedy and sorrow and pain. The joy in faith is resting assured that God is in control, and that adversity has come from His loving hand, to build us up in His strength. Faith rejoices in adversity because ultimately it makes you strong.

What makes faith grow? James offers two ways - the first is through adversity itself. It’s like a stress test, pushing you and me up to and beyond our limits, so that you will recognize your dependence on God, and call on Him for help. Adversity is designed to produce endurance in your life and mine, so that our faith will become complete, mature, lacking nothing.

You and I can deceive ourselves about ourselves by thinking of ourselves as basically okay. If we can just get rid of a couple of big ticket sins in our lives then we’ll be in good shape, then we can coast. Yes, I might admit that I need Jesus to forgive my sins, but I’ll think my life doesn’t need any radical change. The truth is, the entire Christian life is a process of:
(1) Recognizing what you and I lack, we’re not basically okay, we need total, radical, transforming change in every possible way, and
(2) Asking for and receiving God’s grace to supply every need. This process of change and growth won’t be completed in this life, it’s always ongoing, no breaks, there will never be any coasting.

The second way James offers is asking God for wisdom then using it.

There’s an important lesson here, about suffering, prayer, and faith. God is not obligated to deliver you and me from suffering, if we simply have enough faith. When you ask God to take the pain away, or to relieve the situation, or in any way to remove or undo the crisis, and He doesn’t, it’s not a question of you lacking faith. What you and I call unanswered prayer is often God saying no to something you want but is not right for you. A lack of faith is what keeps you and me from wisdom, not from deliverance from adversity.

But what about the two roads the poet sings about, right? Is it really the religious right versus the godless left? Is it really the buttoned-up puritans versus the party hearties?

About four or five thousand years ago there was a famous general named Joshua. When he wrote his autobiogrpahy, he described an early battle in which he was waiting for some seriously needed help from God. He was sweating it out in the trenches when a stranger showed up,

[Joshua] looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us [one path] or for our enemies?" [the other path]

"Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?"

The commander of the LORD's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.

The middle road of moderation and tolerance is still not the road of wisdom. It's the way of faith that actually navigates between and winds in and through the other paths of life. Ask God for wisdom and believe that He will not only give it to you, but He'll give you the resources you need to follow through with it, actually applying it. One issue at a time, one trial at time; sometimes you'll feel like the only person taking the path you're on, but don't worry. God's way is holy ground.

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment and join the conversation

Diamonds In The Rough (2008) "Girl I Know"

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
As performed by A7X

Let me tell ya 'bout this girl I know
That comes alive when you take off her clothes
There's no tell just where she's been
Ask around but no one seems to know

Late at night when your looking to sin
Call her up and she'll lay down the law
You can't trust her 'cause she'll lie to your face
But that's not why you gave her a call

Awaits deep inside
The lust and burning desire

We've all been more than eager to sin
And it feels alright, 'till we pay the price
Now you choose either naughty or nice
'Cause she's here for you
It's all yours tonight
You won't believe the stories I've been told
About the girl I know

Another thing about this girl I know
She's more comfortable down on her knees
Went to school, got a job, and then she shot into hell
All 'cause she's born to please

Don't get her mixed up 'cause she knows what she likes
Can't tell the difference between right and wrong
She knows you're watching every one of her moves
Just more reason to string you along, yeah

Awaits deep inside
The lust and burning desire

We've all been more than eager to sin
And it feels alright, 'till we pay the price
Now you choose either naughty or nice
'Cause she's here for you
It's all yours tonight
You won't believe the stories I've been told
About the girl I know

The first times hard enough
But you made it through
The seconds time I see the changes in you
She's got you somehow
You're needing her now

We've all been more than eager to sin
And it feels alright, 'till we pay the price
Now you choose either naughty or nice
'Cause she's here for you
It's all yours tonight
You won't believe the stories I've been told
About the girl I know

One insightful A7X fan posits, "The girl represents lust and vice, and how they change people. but people are attracted to it, they rely on it to always satisfy and then they can't give it up."

Millennia ago a father warned his son about the same girl,

"Dear friend, do what I tell you; treasure my careful instructions.
Do what I say and you'll live well.
My teaching is as precious as your eyesight—guard it!
Write it out on the back of your hands;
etch it on the chambers of your heart.
Talk to Wisdom as to a sister.
Treat Insight as your companion.
They'll be with you to fend off the Temptress—
that smooth-talking, honey-tongued Seductress.

As I stood at the window of my house
looking out through the shutters,
Watching the mindless crowd stroll by,
I spotted a young man without any sense
Arriving at the corner of the street where she lived,
then turning up the path to her house.
It was dusk, the evening coming on,
the darkness thickening into night.
Just then, a woman met him—
she'd been lying in wait for him, dressed to seduce him.
Brazen and brash she was,
restless and roaming, never at home,
Walking the streets, loitering in the mall,
hanging out at every corner in town.

She threw her arms around him and kissed him,
boldly took his arm and said,
"I've got all the makings for a feast—
today I made my offerings, my vows are all paid,
So now I've come to find you,
hoping to catch sight of your face—and here you are!
I've spread fresh, clean sheets on my bed,
colorful imported linens.
My bed is aromatic with spices
and exotic fragrances.
Come, let's make love all night,
spend the night in ecstatic lovemaking!
My husband's not home; he's away on business,
and he won't be back for a month."

Soon she has him eating out of her hand,
bewitched by her honeyed speech.
Before you know it, he's trotting behind her,
like a calf led to the butcher shop,
Like a stag lured into ambush
and then shot with an arrow,
Like a bird flying into a net
not knowing that its flying life is over.

So, friends, listen to me,
take these words of mine most seriously.
Don't fool around with a woman like that;
don't even stroll through her neighborhood.
Countless victims come under her spell;
she's the death of many a poor man.
She runs a halfway house to hell,
fits you out with a shroud and a coffin."

King David was passing on his wisdom to his son, the crown prince Solomon. He was explaining the difference between wisdom and foolishness, calling wisdom a fine lady and foolishness a prostitute. "If you reason with an arrogant cynic," he told Solomon, "You'll get slapped in the face." Often people are just too proud to listen, and besides, they like to indulge their lusts, so they say, "Back off. I can always quit when it gets to far. I'm in control."


Confront bad behavior and get a kick in the shins.
So don't waste your time on a scoffer;
all you'll get for your pains is abuse.
But if you correct those who care about life,
that's different—they'll love you for it!
Save your breath for the wise—they'll be wiser for it;
tell good people what you know—they'll profit from it.
Skilled living gets its start in the Fear-of-God,
insight into life from knowing a Holy God.
It's through Lady Wisdom that your life deepens,
and the years of your life ripen.
Live wisely and wisdom will permeate your life;
mock life and life will mock you.

"but," continued King David, "Madame Whore calls out, too."

"Then there's this other woman, Madame Whore—
brazen, empty-headed, frivolous.
She sits on the front porch
of her house on Main Street,
And as people walk by minding
their own business, calls out,
"Are you confused about life, don't know what's going on?
Steal off with me, I'll show you a good time!
No one will ever know—I'll give you the time of your life."
But they don't know about all the skeletons in her closet,
that all her guests end up in hell."

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment and join the conversation

Diamonds In The Rough (2008) "Demons"

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
As performed by A7X

I've been thinking lots about my life and
how quick I'd wash it down the drain.
The past tense, the future, nothing matters now.
I act on my own, and I'm to blame.

Living's a wicked dream when things turn out all wrong;
we're all so weak no matter how strong, yeah.

I tried running away from me, convince me that I've grown.
But I can't change so unnaturally; demons, they follow me.
I quit running away from me, convinced that I had grown, but found out all my reasons for insanity, all a part of me.

I don't like that you're calling me a liar,
I don't like that you found out I'm a snake.
Been sneaking around for far too long now,
I don't like how fast my intentions fade.

Karma has beat me down, the worst is yet to come.
Many mistakes, and still I'm so young, yeah.

I tried running away from me, convince me that I've grown.
But I can't change so unnaturally; demons, they follow me.
I quit running away from me, convinced that I had grown, but found out all my reasons for insanity, all a part of me.

I can't count how many times...awakened in fear, nightly, palms sweating.
Dreams of promises I've made to no one but myself, I've been crushed daily.
Don't lend me your hand.
I can't trust myself, so how can you trust me?

We've all made selfish, bad decisions.
We've all tried dishing out the blame.
Convinced ourselves of our own actions,
my problem is, I'll never change.
In doubt, some good comes out.
I'll fold before it's time.
Can't promise you that it's my last time, yeah.

I tried running away from me, convince me that I've grown.
But I can't change so unnaturally; demons, they follow me.
I quit running away from me, convinced that I had grown, but found out all my reasons for insanity, all a part of me.

Truth won't help you now,
almost gone too far, oh, oh.
Truth won't help you now,
almost gone to far, oh, oh.

I'm scarred, yeah;
demons, they follow me, cause my insanity.

I'm scarred, yeah;
demons, they follow me, cause my insanity.

I'm scarred, yeah;
demons, they follow me, cause my insanity.

Demons, they follow me,
cause my insanity.

Demons, they follow me,
cause my insanity.

According to one source, this song might be "about someone's own personal demons, the worst parts of themselves. The pieces of themselves they don't like but personally he seems to think he'll never be able to change them. There are mistakes he has made and parts of himself he hates and he feels like he's always being punished for them.

"But he also feels like it is rightly deserved. He tried to ignore, hide, escape them but they resurface and he finds out he never had changed for the better like he thought. He is also upset someone else has recognized these parts of himself and is warning them about him and his flaws."

The apostle John had a lot to say about sin – the habitual practice of sin was a clear indicator that one was not walking in the light, and did not have God’s life within them.

John reminded his readers that if we say we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves. Everybody has the same condition. Sin is a condition every person was born with, an inherited nature that came from both parents’ sides, and that has been passed down to us, literally, from the very first man and woman, when they were changed by this condition through the events surrounding the Garden of Eden story in the book of Genesis.

Consequently, because sin is something that all people have, everyone has also engaged in sin, which is to fall short of God’s purity and righteousness. Sin is something that we are, that affects what we do, which is to fall short of God's standard. It’s the result of having this inherited sin nature that everyone starts out the same with.

Paul the apostle also talked about sin, indicating that
1) Sin has affected our intellectual ability “No one who understands” by blinding our eyes to what is good and right, removing our ability to understand the truth. The mind doesn’t think that cooperating with and serving God is desirable. Instead of establishing right and wrong on God’s principles, we end up talking about what works or doesn’t work for us.

2) Sin has affected our moral capability “No one who seeks God” Hungry for a personal sense of significance, we end up with self-centered motives, not God centered motives. Living for God, and living by God’s standard of righteousness, does not feel like the way to achieve a sense of personal fulfillment and satisfaction. We want to feel in control, or we want to be a winner, or we want to feel good, feel happy, or we want to feel approved of by each other; we don’t like the idea of having our sinful nature exposed. Feeling right is what a person wants more than being right with God.

3) Sin has affected our wills “No one who does good” It’s not as though people can’t choose God. People can. But sin has so affected our mind and motives that we find we don’t want to choose God.

Paul showed that all the law really does is make you and me conscious of our sin. Since sin doesn’t affect us from the outside, but from the inside, trying to get God’s law to change us from the outside isn’t going to work (so rule following is a dead end). There can be no peace when even some small part of sin remains, hostile towards God. That’s why God said He would circumcise hearts, back in the Old Testament, in one of the books Moses wrote – real change can only come from the inside out, when deep seated hostility towards God’s righteousness, and God Himself, is removed.

Understanding all this makes it possible to understand the absolute necessity for God’s grace in order to live. As the poet pointed out, on his own he simply is incapable of changing himself. You and I need God to totally transform us by –
• Infusing us with His nature, His righteousness, His holiness,
• Causing our morality to become pure,
• Our thoughts to become anchored in the truth,
• Our emotions to begin rejoicing and loving God as well as each other in every situation in life,
• Our wills to cooperate joyfully to the rightness of God’s will

Once you know about the nature of sin, and how to be made entirely new it really would be insanity to not welcome - to not embrace - changing

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment and join the conversation

Avenged Sevenfold (2007) "Dear God"

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
A7X official video

A lonely road, crossed another cold state line
Miles away from those I love purpose hard to find
While I recall all the words you spoke to me
Can't help but wish that I was there
Back where I'd love to be, oh yeah

Dear God the only thing I ask of you is
to hold her when I'm not around,
when I'm much too far away
We all need that person who can be true to you
But I left her when I found her
And now I wish I'd stayed
'Cause I'm lonely and I'm tired
I'm missing you again oh no
Once again

There's nothing here for me on this barren road
There's no one here while the city sleeps
and all the shops are closed
Can't help but think of the times I've had with you
Pictures and some memories will have to help me through, oh yeah

Dear God the only thing I ask of you is
to hold her when I'm not around,
when I'm much too far away
We all need that person who can be true to you
I left her when I found her
And now I wish I'd stayed
'Cause I'm lonely and I'm tired
I'm missing you again oh no
Once again

Some search, never finding a way
Before long, they waste away
I found you, something told me to stay
I gave in, to selfish ways
And how I miss someone to hold
when hope begins to fade...

A lonely road, crossed another cold state line
Miles away from those I love purpose hard to find

Dear God the only thing I ask of you is
to hold her when I'm not around,
when I'm much too far away
We all need the person who can be true to you
I left her when I found her
And now I wish I'd stayed
'Cause I'm lonely and I'm tired
I'm missing you again oh no
Once again

A group effort, "It’s a song that, 'Puts your mind at ease,' says Zacky and is constantly referred to as a song which you can listen to driving down a highway. The focus of the lyrics is, 'Being away from people you miss and love, and want to get back home to, and just being alone and lonely. I know a lot of people feel that way a lot of the time, being on the road,' explains M. Shadows."

"Dear God the only thing I ask of you..." When you and I are lonely, when there's no one around, no one to listen or to hold, no one who is there for us, or cares, or even knows us...God is still present.

Paul, one of the apostles, talked about terrible times of abandonment and loneliness, when his heart ached and there was no one he could turn to. He was hidden in prison for two long years before he ended up in Rome, with not a single visitor except the guy who put him there. How did he survive it, emotionally, mentally? He prayed.

Prayer is conversation with God. You and I talk with God through our voices and our thoughts. God speaks through what He inspired to be written in the Bible, through the events in our lives and through His Holy Spirit.

The most important part of prayer is the opportunity God gives you each time to experience His healing and transforming love. In fact, prayer opens one up to the infilling of God’s presence and should involve the whole person: will, mind and emotion.

In prayer God gives us the opportunity to experience His healing and transforming love, through worship, thanksgiving and confession of sin. People often treat prayer like a Christmas list, or a bottle to rub so that when the genie comes out we'll get our three wishes. But in reality prayer is more a way of asking God to give us what He wants rather than of demanding from Him what we want.

Often it is a good start to begin by listening to the Lord first in Scripture, understanding what He wants for me and what He wants to do through me, then respond to Him in prayer. God uses prayer to teach you and me to depend on Him and to tune our desires and wishes to His will.

In prayer we experience God as personal and powerful. The Bible teaches that God is sovereign and ordains all events, yet the Bible also teaches that prayer is powerful and effective. These are not inconsistent principles, because God ordains the means as well as the ends for His divine purposes. Prayer is a means God uses to bring about what He intends to have happen.

The prayer in this song is especially poignant, and, as it happens, a very scriptural prayer, to ask God to comfort the one the poet loves while he's away. And just being able to voice his loneliness, his regret at leaving, his desire to be reunited, the poet gets some comfort himself. God is listening and He cares more than you and I could ever really know.

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment and join the conversation

Avenged Sevenfold (2007) "A Little Piece Of Heaven" Part 2

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
A7X official video [Be careful with this one; the content is disturbing. Here's an alternate link without the graphics, but with the uncensored lyrics]

Before the story begins, is it such a sin,
for me to take what's mine, until the end of time
We were more than friends, before the story ends,
And I will take what's mine, create what
God would never design

Our love had been so strong for far too long,
I was weak with fear that
something would go wrong,
before the possibilities came true,
I took all possibility from you
Almost laughed myself to tears,
conjuring her deepest fears

Must have stabbed her fifty f***ing times,
I can't believe it,
Ripped her heart out right before her eyes,
Eyes over easy, eat it eat it eat it

She was never this good in bed
even when she was sleepin'
now she's just so perfect I've
never been quite so f***ing deep in
it goes on and on and on,
I can keep you lookin' young and preserved forever,
with a fountain to spray on your youth whenever

'Cause I really always knew that my little crime
would be cold that's why I got a heater for your thighs
and I know, I know it's not your time
but bye, bye
and a word to the wise when the fire dies
you think it's over but it's just begun
but baby don't cry

You had my heart, at least for the most part
'cause everybody's gotta die sometime, we fell apart
let's make a new start
'cause everybody's gotta die sometime yeah
but baby don't cry

Now possibilities I'd never considered,
are occurring the likes of which I'd never heard,
Now an angry soul comes back from beyond the grave,
to repossess a body with which I'd misbehaved

Smiling right from ear to ear
Almost laughed herself to tears

Must have stabbed him fifty f***ing times
I can't believe it
Ripped his heart out right before his eyes
Eyes over easy
Eat it eat it eat it

Now that it's done I realize the error of my ways
I must venture back to apologize from somewhere far beyond the grave

I gotta make up for what I've done
'Cause I was all up in a piece of heaven
while you burned in hell, no peace forever

'Cause I really always knew that my little crime
would be cold that's why I got a heater for your thighs
and I know, I know it's not your time
but bye, bye
and a word to the wise when the fire dies
you think it's over but it's just begun
but baby don't cry

You had my heart, at least for the most part
'Cause everybody's gotta die sometime, we fell apart
Let's make a new start
'Cause everybody's gotta die sometime yeah
But baby don't cry

I will suffer for so long
(What will you do, not long enough)
To make it up to you
(I pray to God that you do)
I'll do whatever you want me to do
(Well then I'll break you unchained)
And if it's not enough
(If it's not enough, If it's not enough)
If it's not enough
(Not enough)
Try again
(Try again)
And again
(And again)
Over and over again

We're coming back, coming back
We'll live forever, live forever
Let's have wedding, have a wedding
Let's start the killing, start the killing

'Cause I really always knew that my little crime
would be cold that's why I got a heater for your thighs
and I know, I know it's not your time
but bye, bye
And a word to the wise when the fire dies
you think it's over but it's just begun
but baby don't cry

You had my heart, at least for the most part
'Cause everybody's gotta die sometime, we fell apart
Let's make a new start
'Cause everybody's gotta die sometime yeah
But baby don't cry

Picking it up from yesterday, the elements of what is commonly called "The Curse" (from the third chapter of Genesis, in the Bible), is easily seen in this song. Instead of mutual love, tenderness and respect, there is this desire to devour and control each other. Instead of becoming one flesh, there is the more sordid eating of each others' flesh. Instead of helping each other, they use each other. Instead of blessing the world by their union and partnership as benevolent benefactors, they set out to kill the world's inhabitants.

Sin abounds!!! What's a good marriage supposed to look like, anyway? After the effects of sin brought into the world, is there any hope for any of us to have healthy relationships at all?

Yes.

Move forward in the Bible to Paul's letter to the Christians living in Ephesus (Ephesians). They were having a tough time loving each other and getting along with each other, and there were some real marital problems going on among them. Before he gave them instructions about how to have good marriages (in the fifth chapter of his letter), Paul gave the believers a general life principle: Honor Christ and put others first.

A wife should put her husband first, as she does the Lord. A husband is the head of his wife, as Christ is the head and the Savior of the church, which is his own body. Wives should always put their husbands first, as the church puts Christ first.

A husband should love his wife as much as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it. He made the church holy by the power of his word, and he made it pure by washing it with water. Christ did this, so that he would have a glorious and holy church, without faults or spots or wrinkles or any other flaws.

In the same way, a husband should love his wife as much as he loves himself. A husband who loves his wife shows that he loves himself. None of us hate our own bodies. We provide for them and take good care of them, just as Christ does for the church, because we are each part of his body.

As the Scriptures say, "A man leaves his father and mother to get married, and he becomes like one person with his wife." This is a great mystery, but I understand it to mean Christ and his church. So each husband should love his wife as much as he loves himself, and each wife should respect her husband.

The phrase "put the other first" stems from the Greek word hupotassomai = "to arrange yourself underneath" “give allegiance to” “tend to the needs of” “be supportive of” “be responsive to” “to place oneself at the disposition of” It was also a military term that referred to taking one’s position in a phalanx of soldiers.

This was not reference to rank or status, it was an equal sharing of the common task. If a soldier failed to join the others, or held back during an advance, the captain might use a form of hupotassomai to order that soldier to return to his place in the line, join his compatriots, be supportive of them, fulfill his part in the assignment.

The word Paul used for the husbands to love was the Greek word agapao. Agapao is almost identical with hupotassomai. Both involve giving up one’s self-interest to serve and care for another’s. Both mean being responsive to the needs of the other. The husband is to subject himself to the wife as much as the wife is to the husband.

What does it mean for the wife to submit to her husband? It is to give herself up to her husband, to give her heart, to trust him, a full surrender. What does it mean for the husband to love his wife? It is to give himself up to his wife as Christ gave Himself up for the church, to give his heart to her, to be vulnerable with her, a full surrender.

Finally, what's "head" got to do with it? This is the Greek word kephale. In Greek, as well as English, head could mean two different things: it could mean the beginning, the top, the source OR it could mean the ruler, the chief, the boss. But in Greek there were two different words for “head:” kephale was the word for your actual head, and meant “the front,” like the head of a line. Arche was the word for ruler.

Paul on purpose did not use the word arche because it was not his intention to imply that the husband was the boss of the woman, even though in Paul’s day the husband was not only the boss, he actually owned his wife and could do whatever he pleased with her. Paul used the word kephale because God alone is the ruler over both the husband and the wife.

Husbands are to lead in one thing: love. To love with self-sacrificing love NOT self-centered satisfaction that demands. The husband acts as head when he sticks his neck out and goes first into battle, and the wife submits when she stands in formation with him, sharing the risks with him and obeying the same orders as he.

In a grace filled relationship, a wife can come under her husband and put to his service everything about herself that is female to enable her husband to become everything God created him to be, to love and support him and to allow God to do the leading and directing. Husbands are called to do the same for their wives.

And now you can see the truth underneath the parody.

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment and join the conversation

Avenged Sevenfold (2007) "A Little Piece Of Heaven" Part 1

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
A7X official video [Be careful with this one; the content is disturbing. Here's an alternate link without the graphics, but with the uncensored lyrics]

Before the story begins, is it such a sin,
for me to take what's mine, until the end of time
We were more than friends, before the story ends,
And I will take what's mine, create what
God would never design

Our love had been so strong for far too long,
I was weak with fear that
something would go wrong,
before the possibilities came true,
I took all possibility from you
Almost laughed myself to tears,
conjuring her deepest fears

Must have stabbed her fifty f***ing times,
I can't believe it,
Ripped her heart out right before her eyes,
Eyes over easy, eat it eat it eat it

She was never this good in bed
even when she was sleepin'
now she's just so perfect I've
never been quite so f***ing deep in
it goes on and on and on,
I can keep you lookin' young and preserved forever,
with a fountain to spray on your youth whenever

'Cause I really always knew that my little crime
would be cold that's why I got a heater for your thighs
and I know, I know it's not your time
but bye, bye
and a word to the wise when the fire dies
you think it's over but it's just begun
but baby don't cry

You had my heart, at least for the most part
'cause everybody's gotta die sometime, we fell apart
let's make a new start
'cause everybody's gotta die sometime yeah
but baby don't cry

Now possibilities I'd never considered,
are occurring the likes of which I'd never heard,
Now an angry soul comes back from beyond the grave,
to repossess a body with which I'd misbehaved

Smiling right from ear to ear
Almost laughed herself to tears

Must have stabbed him fifty f***ing times
I can't believe it
Ripped his heart out right before his eyes
Eyes over easy
Eat it eat it eat it

Now that it's done I realize the error of my ways
I must venture back to apologize from somewhere far beyond the grave

I gotta make up for what I've done
'Cause I was all up in a piece of heaven
while you burned in hell, no peace forever

'Cause I really always knew that my little crime
would be cold that's why I got a heater for your thighs
and I know, I know it's not your time
but bye, bye
and a word to the wise when the fire dies
you think it's over but it's just begun
but baby don't cry

You had my heart, at least for the most part
'Cause everybody's gotta die sometime, we fell apart
Let's make a new start
'Cause everybody's gotta die sometime yeah
But baby don't cry

I will suffer for so long
(What will you do, not long enough)
To make it up to you
(I pray to God that you do)
I'll do whatever you want me to do
(Well then I'll break you unchained)
And if it's not enough
(If it's not enough, If it's not enough)
If it's not enough
(Not enough)
Try again
(Try again)
And again
(And again)
Over and over again

We're coming back, coming back
We'll live forever, live forever
Let's have wedding, have a wedding
Let's start the killing, start the killing

'Cause I really always knew that my little crime
would be cold that's why I got a heater for your thighs
and I know, I know it's not your time
but bye, bye
And a word to the wise when the fire dies
you think it's over but it's just begun
but baby don't cry

You had my heart, at least for the most part
'Cause everybody's gotta die sometime, we fell apart
Let's make a new start
'Cause everybody's gotta die sometime yeah
But baby don't cry

In keeping with my commitment to blog on every song in A7X's repertoire, I am including this song; though it pains me to do it, I won't lie.

Written by The Rev, "'It’s basically a story about a man murdering his significant other and preserving her to do whatever he pleases with her. And the story takes a twist,' Zacky Vengeance explains, with M. Shadows adding, 'She comes back from the grave and kills him.' Zacky mentions they then, 'go on this murderous rampage.'

'They’re both dead souls together and get married and terrorize everyone else,' Shadows concludes."

At first pass this is simply a gothic horror piece, a sort of gruesome tongue-in-cheek gallows humor aimed at love and marriage with a twist of zombie. I think, honestly, A7X wasn't intending on going much deeper than that - they know their fan base.

But in order to parody love and fidelity one needs to know what the real thing is, otherwise the humor is lost. What are the elements? A desire for exclusivity in the relationship, for love to match love, for desire to be satisfied again and again. But there's the sordid underside: The man wants to own the woman and do what he pleases with her mute surrender. The woman's revenge is to make the man like herself and to, in a sense, master him.

Together, undead, they decide to slaughter the world, one big, bloody soiree.

To explore the truths that make the gothic horror resonate you and I need to revisit the first man and the first woman, and what went wrong in their relationship. Then we need to study one of the more famous pasages in the new testament, the one that addresses the ideal marriage and what that represents.

So first to Genesis. In the second chapter of that book the author focuses in on what God did when He formed humanity

God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!

The word translated “man” here is actually the word “adam,” meaning “earth being” and is taken from the word “adamah” the word for the red colored earth common in the Fertile Crescent, the cradle of civilization. After making adam, God placed this creature in the Garden of Eden.

[Maybe you've wondered if Adam was a real person or just a legend, a myth meant to communicate a lesson. In the gospel of Luke Adam is listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, as real as everyone else on the list. In the Gospel of Mark Jesus talked about the union of the first man and woman and in the epistles Paul referred to Adam several times, as the first man.]

"Eden" means bliss or delight, virtually a symbol of heaven. For people familiar with the desert, as the ancient Hebrews were, this lush, well-watered Garden would have sounded exquisite. It didn’t just have the usual desert shrubs and cacti, it had pleasing trees of every kind, rich with fruit. It didn’t have the usual oases dotted here and there, or the seasonal brook, it contained the headwaters for four mighty rivers -- living water, or rushing water, was often a symbol of blessing in the Old Testament, so Eden was overflowing with blessing.

Eden was abounding in delicious food, in physical beauty, in acres of space, plentiful in resources like gold, precious gems and aromatic resins; Eden was pristine, and full of variety, it was Paradise, the environment you and I were meant to enjoy, a place where God would meet humankind’s every need, and where people would worship the One Who blessed them.

Some people have wondered if the Garden was written simply as a metaphor, or a legend. But the geographical landmarks given concerning Eden make it clear that Moses intended for people to know that Eden was an actual location, somewhere in the area where Iraq now exists. As he wrote this from Mt. Sinai, for example, “to the east” would have put Eden somewhere across the Arabian desert, toward the area between the Tigris and Euphrates. He mentioned two other, now unknown, rivers, but one of them might be a dried river bed discovered a number of years ago by satellite imagery underneath the sands of the Arabian desert.

Eden was luscious because God had carefully designed and planted it Himself. Now God gave adam, the living "earth being," this exquisite Garden, along with a purpose and responsibility: the creature was to continue in the work of God, cultivating and sustaining the beauty of Eden. Part of humankind’s ruling the earth would involve caring for it, serving and nurturing the garden. By this action, God declared that working to the glory of God is the right setting for humankind.

You and I were created to find our fulfillment in the work we do as to the Lord, working always for the glory of God. God could have decreed that the Garden would be self-keeping, but He determined that it would be better for people to serve Him through our labor. Work is good and was part of humankind’s perfect existence before the fall. Work would develop adam’s character and personality.

Through his husbandry, adam could cause the Garden to bring forth new fruit, expressing his ingenuity, his creative energy. Adam’s work was a delight, nothing frustrated his effort...the ground readily produced for him. Every good thing that humanity could desire, and that would satisfy them, was provided in Eden.

Though Adam was perfect, the human being was inexperienced and as yet undeveloped. Along with meaningful work, he needed instruction...God teaching him and guiding him along in his work. Adam's education extended beyond gardening: He learned about two important trees, the one of life, the other of the knowledge of good and evil, and what to do about them, and he was given the task of studying and identifying all the creatures of uearth (something scientists continue in with great gusto to this very day).

[he was invited to eat of the tree of life, something he never chose to do; he was also instructed to not eat of the tree of knowledge as it would kill him. This he did choose to do, and it did bring death in dimensions he had little planned on.]

THough everything was very good, not all was complete in the Garden of Eden. The man, in his studies, was learning that he had no partner, and it made him feel lonely.

Loneliness is one of the most crushing of human emotions, some consider it to be worse even than any physical suffering. Every one of us has felt lonely and alone, it is a deeply human experience, the need for companionship. There is nothing wrong with that; God made us that way. You and I need one another. We were not made to exist in loneliness.

You might ask why adam would be lonely when he was a perfect being in a perfect setting in perfect fellowship with God. Because God is three-in-one, the trinity, a community, if you will. It was God's intention from the very beginning to make male and female in the making of humankind, a community, as a more complete expression of God’s image, the community of the trinity. As the man and the woman become one flesh in marriage, and bring forth children from the union of their love, God’s love and fellowship is vibrantly illustrated.

So God took a significant portion of the man’s body to form the woman. In a sense God divided the one human being into two people with a longing to be joined back together.

The Hebrew word God used to describe the woman was “ezer.” “Ezer” in scripture usually refers to God in His relationship to His people and means far more than the word “helper” (English translation of "ezer") might imply. God’s plan was that woman should correspond to man, as someone to share not only his life as a companion but his work and responsibilities as well.

Woman was to be “a helper comparable” to the man, an equally valued human being and an equal partner in God's grace. God created woman to be the counterpart of man in life. It was God's stated plan in the beginning (the first chapter of Genesis) that man and woman should be together working with a common purpose in life, woman would be a real partner, a “companion just like the man,” only....she would be a woman.

With God there is no ranking of people, as though some would be more special than others, or more important than others. In God's eyes men and women are completely equal, equally loved, equally endowed with spiritual gifts, having equal potential for maturity in faith. God's original plan for woman was to co-rule with man. Woman was to share with man a mutual concern and responsibility, though necessarily they might have different assignments because of the nature of their work. She was to be suitable for him, someone who would correspond to him, to be in partnership with him.

When adam was alone, studying the animals, he might have learned that woman was not to be a mere beast of burden. Adam was ruler over the animals, having been given authority over them by God, and the right to name them, claiming his ownership. He did not name any other animal after himself, calling any other animal "man" or "human." He understood that he was essentially different from all the animals. They were not made in the image of God. No animal would co-rule with man, co-subdue the earth with him.

Maybe the next thing adam learned in his search was that woman was not to be like the animals which bear and rear young as almost their sole reason for existence. Read the Song of Songs (tucked next to Proverbs int he Bible) sometime and you will see that the Bible describes sex in marriage as first an expression of profound and intimate love.

Third, Adam might have learned that woman was not going to be a creature outside himself to be used as he saw fit and then dispensed with, as people will often use animals, even pets. The one who corresponded to him would be of his same essence as man, part of him, someone necessary for living life successfully.

After creating woman God brought her to Adam, and Adam instantly recognized her, instantly knew who she was, the perfect one for him, exclaiming in Hebrew, "ishshah." "Ish", is Hebrew for man, because he could see that she was made from the same substance as himself, made to fit who he was in a perfect way, filled with the same breath as his breath. The second part of the word "shah" can refer to being soft to the touch, denoting woman as more delicate and having a special "feminine" nature different from man; and he loved her deeply from his heart, uttering the second love poem in the Bible (the first is in Genesis 1, when God exclaimed over the creation of human beings),

The Man said,
"Finally! Bone of my bone,
flesh of my flesh!
Name her Woman
for she was made from Man."
Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh.
The two of them, the Man and his Wife, were naked, but they felt no shame.

Marriage is to involve a complete identity. The two are to be one. Adam's first reaction when he saw his wife was: she is of the same body as me. This is strengthened when you read, "and they become one flesh." In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul the apostle pointed out that the man who hurts his wife is hurting himself. He may not feel it directly, but down the line the result of it will show in his life, because she is really, genuinely, and factually sharing one life with him. They become one flesh. This is not poetry; it is reality.

Another characteristic of true marriage is permanence. "Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife." This is a strong word. In the Hebrew text it is the word “dabag,” which means "to adhere firmly, as if with glue." God designed marriage to be a permanent thing.

Think about the last phrase, “they shall become one flesh.” The fullness of what God wants to do in the one flesh relationship takes time. It has to become. It will take all your lives together.

God had specially designed the woman to complete the man in deep fellowship and love, like no other creature on earth, to be made one with him emotionally, spiritually and even physically, a profound “one flesh” intimacy. They were completely vulnerable with each other, there was nothing to hide, no condemnation, no judging, no critical spirit, but only complete trust and mutual humility. This oneness was to be an illustration of the kind of relationship God Himself has within the trinity and what He offers to every person through belief and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But then the awful events of the next chapter unfold - the forbidden fruit and the "price of evil," the consequences that rolled down,

God told the Woman:
"I'll multiply your pains in childbirth; you'll give birth to your babies in pain. But you will still desire your husband, and he will rule over you."

God was simply revealing the self-centered core that was beginning to motivate each of them: To the woman "your DESIRE will be for your husband." Sin's desire is destructive, dominating, and usurping. And the man would tend to be hard and tyrannical, seeking to rule over and dominate the woman.

The woman's consequences would primarily affect her relationships. It's an interesting that God said her pain would be increased - apparently pain would have existed in the perfect Eden, a good thing that would have also strengthened and deepened the man and the woman. But now that pain would be greatly increased.

The word desire, here, means the desire to master or control. The woman was going to desire to control her husband and chafe under his rule, chafe at having to be number two. Being an ezer would not always feel like a blessing, or a calling, or a worthy destiny to the woman. And the man’s tendency to want to rule her and have dominion over her, like he did over the animals, and not accept her as his co-ruler would only make the power struggle more acute. You and I feel it to this day.

The consequences for the man: work would now include painful, sweaty toil with stress and frustration as much of his work would produce unacceptable results.

Can you begin to see, now, why the Gothic horror resonates with us?

We'll tackle the Paul's advice on marriage tomorrow.

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