The Word!

I was blessed today in reading this passage by John Frame in his book, The Doctrine of God:

"One way to summarize the Bible is to say that it is the story of God’s word to human beings and their response to that word in belief or unbelief, obedience or disobedience, acceptance or rejection. At each point in the biblical history the word of God is the thing at issue…The first recorded human experience is that of hearing God’s words, words that defined the purpose of human life:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Genesis 1:28

God’s word also comes to Adam, commanding him to work and care for the garden (2:15), and forbidding him to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, while permitting him to eat from the other trees (2:16-17). At this time, God’s word alone is the issue. Adam has no independent means to determine the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit. Like Abraham later, Adam has to make his decision on the basis of God’s word alone.

Then the serpent comes to Eve, essentially substituting his word for God’s word, pitting his own authority against the authority of the Lord. “You will not surely die,” he says (3:4). In the contest between one word and another, Eve chooses that of a talking animal over that of her gracious Creator. Unlike Abraham, she follows the enticing evidences of her sense and her unaided reason (v. 6a). Adam joins her in eating, rather than excercising godly authority over her (v. 6b). From that sin follow the curse and all the miseries of life here and hereafter (vv.14-19). (pgs 90-91) "

Dear Christian, isn't it true that we tend to rationalize and find ways to escape the commands of God's Word? We have not traveled far from our first parents. This is why in our worship--individual and corporate--we must give the primary place to hearing God's word and responding to it with faith and obedince. Have you done that today? Have you listened to God's word to your soul?