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(Smoky Mtn National Forrest Cherokee, NC USA August 1994)

09062001
While visiting the dentist (Dr. Uhlin) yesterday I spent alot of time looking out the window at the woods. They are so thick you really can't see anything but green right now. I noticed very few leaves beginning to turn autumn golden. I noticed some branches blowing in the wind as a slight breeze passed through the trees every so often, but I also noticed from time to time that one little lone leaf would seem to be struggling alone against the wind while the leaves immediately around it would seem to escape the struggle altogether. This would happen over and over. Then after a while as if at the whisper of some force several leaves would fall, appear to fly briefly then with no power to fight gravity, fall to the ground. The branches that withstood the breeze together moved only slightly before returning to calm stillness. Eventually all the leaves will one by one and in groups change color, encounter a breeze and be carried downward.

I wondered if satan didnt whisper to Eve and cause her to fall in much the same way. Surely he must have whispered because if Adam had overheard, he might have helped Eve to resist rather than going along with disobedience. Eve tried to face the whisper alone, even struggled, but she kept listening to the whisper. Ultimately that whisper caused her and mankind to fall into disobedience and sinfulness together and yet alone. There are really no new sins, but there are new ways to fall into them. People struggle with temptation often alone, maybe repeatedly, and like those leaves and Eve, ultimately fall into the snare of sin alone and yet with all the others who were struggling with the same and other temptations. Like Eve we often tolerate the whisper for too long without branching out to seek the strength of those around us and we fall, briefly enjoy the sin, then fall powerlessly to the ground under the control of sin with with others who had also been struggling alone. We all fell with Eve, but alone had and have to be redeemed from the effect of the fall. And as we still have sin nature most assuredly just as every one of those leaves will fall, we will fall for something repeatedly, or for many different things as long as we live. None of us will be the last little leaf on the tree struggling successfully against the whisper. Thoughts of self righteousness or spiritual-ness merely obligate us to restore the fallen and consider our own "fall"-ability.

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded." James 4:7&8
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. " Romans 3:23
"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." I Corinthians 10:12
"... Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. If satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?" Luke 11:17&18
"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself lest thou be tempted." Galations 6:1
Lord I would ask of thee :
good ears that I might hear the whisper tempting the one next to me,
seeds of courage to call sin "sin" that sin may not increase
a ladder that I might get high enough to get under them and hold them up as they resist,
long arms to reach those standing under others,
soap to keep my own hands clean
a hammer to build your kingdom
an ax to destroy satan's kingdom
a map to show the fallen how not to eternally be so
a good memory to remember that I have fallen
an eraser to forget that someone fell
a first aid kit and fast legs that I can reach the lone fallen quickly and heal
the same for those around me when the whisper is tossing me.
God bless, Deborah
Canton/Cartersville, GA USA September 6, 2001
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