Time Out   

We desperately need to understand something of the magnitude of sin, of evil, and of gross wickedness in this world if we are to appreciate our redemption. God's love, grace, and mercy shine all the brighter against the awful reality of evil. Indeed, the very existence of evil is a powerful proof of God's existence and holiness. Dave Hunt

When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden they were one with God.  Can you imagine a place where everything you need in order to live is grown by God for you?  It is not necessary to work or produce anything to survive.  Prior to their eating of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there was no pain or evil.

Man was no longer able to eat from the tree of life.  God placed a guard that protected mankind from getting to the tree of life. 

If we look at what God did next we see how much he loved us.  He could have sent Adam and Eve away and said you are on your own.  Instead he sent them to redemptive time.  This is what I describe as our present day “time out”.  You know how it goes.  The child gets in trouble and is punished by going to time out, (in other words, to think about what they have done wrong) and then they are allowed to return. 
 
In God’s sending us to redemptive time, which is where we live today, he made a way for us to get back to eternal life.  This is where God does his restorative work in us.  Evil exists here and God uses that evil to refine us and prepare us for a return to eternal life. God tells us how he will accomplish bringing us back to a state of being holy and blameless in Genesis 3:15.  “And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel”.  In other words Jesus will come and crush the serpent under his heel in order to redeem mankind.

Dr. Henry Cloud describes it best in this excerpt from his book called “Changes that Heal.”  “God has a sick creation.  He needs to do surgery so he places us in redemptive time.  Into our veins he pumps life-giving blood of grace and truth.  During surgery, he excises evil and brings the renewed patient back into eternity in a holy state.  We don’t know how long this surgery will last, we just know that we are expected to actively participate in it and we don’t get anesthesia for the procedure.  That is why growing up into the image of God is so painful.”

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I praise You for loving me enough to send me to redemptive time out.  This time out is much longer than we expect and it is a painful process.   Help me to understand why I must go through this process of refining and help me to be patient for I know salvation is Your ultimate goal.

Scripture:  Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.  Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.