The Serpentine Sandwich

The Terrible Lie.  That is the title of the chapter about the Fall in The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones.  I like that she changed the name from the fall to the terrible lie, not because the fall is a bad name, but because it makes us think of the story anew, maybe it could become a story not just a long time ago in a land that is now lost - but it may be our story.
So I decided to offer another name - The Serpentine Sandwich.
The Serpentine Sandwich describes the serpent's art of deception.  The Serpentine Sandwich has three main layers.  First, the top piece of bread - this is the truth (twisted).  Genesis 3:1  "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?"  God said something about not eating from a tree, so the serpent takes this truth and twists it into all the trees.   The next layer is the meat (serpent meat) - the lie.  Genesis 3:4  "You will not surely die."  Adam and Eve died in many ways, maybe one of the most was when their son killed their other son, let along being expelled from the presence of God, let alone their hearts eventually stopping.  Bold-faced lie.  The next layer is the bottom piece of bread - the truth, spoken in a lying tone of voice.   Genesis 3:5   For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  Their eyes were opened, but to what?  They knew good.  Genesis 1 was filled with "good."  They knew the extreme goodness of God's creation.  What they did not know was evil.  Having one's eyes opened to evil is spoken of by the serpent as something to be coveted.
There are not only too many examples of Serpentine Sandwiches to add another, but it is a very dangerous thing to spend too much time on the lies of the enemy - they get enough time as it is.
It is better to spend time in what the lies of the enemy are the horrid counterfiet of - the truth of God in the word of God.
God is our DAD.  If you balk at this, ask if it because you are yourself believing a lie of the enemy that there cannot be a good dad.  D.A.D. is our acronym for our battle against the Serpentine Sandwich.
D.  Defense against the Serpentine Sandwich.  This fights the first layer of bread, the truth, twisted.  When the Serpent come to Eve with the truth twisted, she does something most of us wish we did - she quotes the word of God.  But she adds a little part "neither shall you touch it," which is like adding mayo to the serpentine sandwich.  The Serpentine Sandwich cannot stand up against the word of God, but your words it can slither all over.  Eve could also call out, "Dad!"
A.  Antidote for the Serpentine Sandwich.  This exposes the inner layer, the meat, the lie.  Once someone has swallowed the Serpentine Sandwich the antidote is the Word of God coming as questions.  "Where are you?"  "What have you done?"  Adam and Eve are much more heroic than I am - they answer his questions.  Often we just keep hiding or keep running away.  May we also, once we swallow the lie, but quick to answer God's questions.  We could also call out, "Dad!"
D. Destruction of the Serpentine Sandwich.  This deals with the sandwich as a whole - all the layers, including our mayo.  The offspring of the woman will bruise the serpent's head, and the serpent with bruise his heel.  The serpent bruised Jesus Christ's heel by striking him with death and sin.  Christ was wounded by sin and took on the sin of humanity.  How is the serpent's head bruised?  The head is where the serpent speaks.  Christ on the cross is the ultimate display of the love of God - it is impossible for the darkness of the lie that God does not love us to stand up to the light of the love of God on the cross.  Does God love us?  For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. . . Picture Christ calling out to his Father, "Dad!" and let the lie that he does not love you finally die.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.


Watch this video in the light of who our true Dad is - God Almighty.

No other gods

No other gods

No other gods is the four and centerpiece of the T.R.I.N.I.T.Y. prayer acronym (see earlier posts).
This is the time where we commit to only serving the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We want to purge all other gods.  We want to throw them in the trash.  It may be my iPhone, pornography, a TV show, financial data, news, a person, my personality, or a thousand other things.  What in my life am I paying a lot of attention to?  My dogs look to me for their next move, always following me around waiting for me to act.  Am I that devoted to Christ, always yearning to see his next move and being in readiness to act with him.  What is it that is getting in the way?  This could be something bad or something not bad - it might even be something great, like the Bible!  Don't be afraid to ask God what is getting in the way of your relationship with Him.


Your idea:  make a list of the top ten idols historically in your life, and ask God to purge you from worshiping them, and if need be, destroy them.  Write your one idol on a piece of paper and burn the paper.  If it fits, burn the idol.  Please do not burn the idol if the idol is a person or an animal.

In Between

In Between

In Between in the third part of the T.R.I.N.I.T.Y. prayer acronym (see earlier posts).
This is the time where you are the In Between for someone and God.  You are the one standing in the gap, you are interceding for someone.  I always pray for my family, but it is encouraged to not only pray for "your four and no more" but for those you know need prayer, whether that be people going through divorce, experiencing death, being diagnosed with cancer, facing difficult decisions, etc.  We also follow Jesus' rule of praying for our enemies.  So we want to make sure the people who annoy us or frustrate us the most are at the top of our prayer lists.  I also think it is good to write down specific requests and also write the date, and the date that they are answered.  This is also the time to pray that God would soften the hearts of people who do not know Jesus Christ, that they would know him.

Your idea:  since Jesus called 12 disciples, write down on a piece of paper 12 people that you will commit to praying for daily, and pray for them, lifting them up to God, do not forget to have at least one of those 12 who is your chief enemy and who you do not like.

Real Life

Real Life

Real Life is the second part of the prayer acronym T.R.I.N.I.T.Y. (see previous posts).
Real Life means that there is nothing off limits in prayer.  Please feel free to come to God with things that seem too trivial or too weighty, because it is all intended to be brought to God in prayer.

For me real life includes my strained hamstring, my sin, my pride, the insulation in my house, my dogs, my family, my job, my feelings of inadequacy, my feelings of accomplishment, the weight of this world, the weight of my heart.

Our real lives must be brought with all their weight and triviality and mess to God in prayer.

So much of the lament Psalms of the Bible are great for Real Life prayer.

One of the most honest Psalms is Psalm 22 which Jesus quotes, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  Psalm 88 is probably the saddest Psalm and yet refreshing in its honesty.   Not that all real life prayers have to be sad depressing prayers.  Some may be joyful.  Some may be confusing.  Some may be boring.  Real life can be all those.

Idea for you:  Read Psalm 22 and then talk to God about your life for 15 minutes.

Thank You

Thank you

This is the first part of the T.R.I.N.I.T.Y. .prayer acronym (see previous post).

We are instructed many times in the Bible to give thanks to God.  Since it is a TRINITY acronym I find myself thanking each member of the TRINITY.

Spotless Son, I thank You for your special sacrifice.

Faithful Father, I thank You for fashioning me and finding me.

Holy Spirit, thank you for making me alive and giving me power to live in the family of Heaven.

I thank God for what God has entrusted to me.

I thank God for breath and blood in my veins.

Psalm 107 is a great Psalm for Thanking God

 "Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!"  (Psalm 107:1)

Idea for you:  Read Psalm 107 and afterwards and during take 15 minutes in thanks to God today, thanking him for everything that you can think of.

T.R.I.N.I.T.Y. a new prayer acronym

My mother used the A.C.T.S. prayer acronym for her prayer times and I have always liked the A.C.T.S. acronym of Adoration (Adoring God) Confession (Confession of sin) Thanksgiving and Supplication (Asking of people and things), and I have also prayed through the Lord's prayer as a guide as well, which has been extremely helpful.  For a little over a year now I have been using an acronym that I developed through studying Richard Foster's book Prayer.  That book talked about different kinds of prayer, and I wanted those different kinds of prayer to be a part of my daily time with Jesus.  So I developed an Acronym which started out as C.H.R.I.S.T.P.O.L.E. and to be honest I cannot remember what those stand for although I have it written down somewhere, but the whole acronym seeing the reference in John 3 that just as Moses lifted up the snake on a pole so would Jesus be lifted up.  C.H.R.I.S.T.P.O.L.E. was too long and cumbersome for me, and so it was shortened to another acronym which has obvious meaning:  T.R.I.N.I.T.Y.  I write below what T.R.I.N.I.T.Y. stands for and in future posts I will write more on each one.

Thank You - thanking God for everything from breath to creation to the cross to my family
Real Life - I have permission to talk to God about anything, whether it be worries, anger, or a zit.
In Between - this is where I intercede for others, being the in between, standing in the gap
No other gods - this is where I tell God that He is my only God, not money, not family, not iPhone
Internal Exam - this is where I ask God to search my heart and I spend time listening
Take Me - this is where I offer myself fully to God each day, I give all of me
Yahweh's embrace - this is where I experience the love of God and sit in His presence.

What word does the sprinkled blood speak? (Hebrews 12:24)

The blood of Abel spoke "LEAVE!" and Cain was banished, stained, and left without much hope, being the first of many to kill his own brother.
The blood of Jesus Christ speaks a different word, "COME!"  Jesus invites his disciples to drink of the new covenant in his blood the night before he dies.  "Come!"
The blood of Jesus says "Come and be Clean" (1 John 1:7).
The blood of Jesus says "Come and Overcome (Revelation 12:11).
The blood of Jesus says "Come and Move Home (Hebrews 10:19).
The blood of Jesus says "Come to Eternal Life (John 6:54).

Come and be Clean
                      Overcome
                      Move home
                  to Eternal Life

Are you dirty and beaten down?  Do you feel banished and that death is knocking on your door?
The blood of Jesus knocks stronger - "COME"

Whatever our circumstance today, let us together come to the foot of the cross and let the blood of Jesus clean us, make us to overcome the evil one, move us home, and give us eternal life.

the G.O.S.P.E.L.

Here is an acronym for our biblical word Gospel.  Before I get to the acronym, the word gospel comes from an old English word, god spel, meaning good news.  The Greek word from the New Testament is euaggelion.  So what is the good news we speak of.  John 3:16:  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."  The gospel is the good news of God's love for us.

God's (John 3:16)
Overwhelming (Exodus 34:6)
Sacrificail (John 15:13)
Perfect (1 John 4:18)
Everlasting (Psalm 136)
Love (1 John 4:16)

To whom shall we go?

Puddleglum is one of my favorite Narnia characters.  When the witch says Narnia is all a dream he responds by saying the dream world licks the real world hollow, and even if Narnia is not real he will still live like a Narnian. Jesus Christ is my only option, and like Peter when faced with a hard teaching, I say, to whom shall we go?  When you have no other possible option, you realize that Christ is literally the only option.  As you search through the universe and yourself for a better option, let me know if you find one.  Not only have I not found a better option than Christ, I have not even found another option at all.  When Christ is your only option, then He is all you have, and when he is all you have, you are satisfied in Him.

Signs of Christ

There are many types of signs of Christ.  There is the sign of reading Psalm 22 and Psalm 69 and Isaiah 53, and really the whole Old Testament and realizing that it points to Jesus Christ.  There are also the signs and miracles that Christ preformed like turning the water into wine, healing people, and raising people from the dead.  There was also the ultimate sign of the "temple" being destroyed, and him raising it up in three days.  There is also the signs that those who followed him gave, that this power was from God and not from us.  These signs continue even today, a child being healed of glaucoma, a little girl's heart being healed.  Divine protection for missionaries during an armed robbery.  So many signs that he is real, and many more signs to come.  Open up our eyes and see the signs.  The signs are our lives.

Indwelling of Christ

The indwelling of Christ means that Christ lives in us.  One of the best proofs that Christ lives is that he lives in us.  This is not limited to his living in us as individuals - actually, though that be true, it is not the most convincing indwelling of Christ.  In John 17 Jesus prays for the unity, the oneness, of his disciples - that they may be one so that the world may believe.  In the mind of Christ, the world will be convinced of Him when it sees Him in the Church.  Belief in the incarnation comes from seeing the incarnation in the body of Christ, the Church.
When you see two people who hated each other come to love each other - you wonder how that could be - and that wondering leads you to Christ, the only giver of true love, sacrificial love.

My kids can know that I am their father by looking at their DNA which is from me, and my appearance, quirks, habits, leanings in them.

Resurrection of Christ

There are at least three accounts of the Resurrection recorded in the Bible, and these traced to eyewitnesses of the Resurrection.  There are ten recorded appearances of Jesus to his disciples, and one was to 500 believers at once.  Jesus first appeared to a woman, who was in that culture less credible than a man.  If the Resurrection account was a fake, why not make it more verifiable?  There was an empty tomb and no one produced the body.  Many of the opponents of Jesus had much to gain by producing a dead body, but none was produced.  The disciples lives were changed and they were willing to die for their belief in Jesus' Resurrection.  People do not die for something that they know is a lie, especially not so many people.  It all hinges on this - did Christ raise from the dead?  It hinges on this because our raising is dependent on his raising.

What is the proof that I am my kid's dad?

That they exist.

History of Christ

Consider the historical documents of Christ.  Four Gospels from four different men or communities share the story of Jesus Christ with remarkable similarity.  Other documents in the New Testament refer to Jesus Christ and the reality of his physical life on earth.  The authors of those documents come from a variety of walks of life - fishermen, tax collectors, Pharisees, doctors, family members.  Within 70 years there were 5,500 documents (copies) of books or parts of books of the New Testament.  Other documents outside of the New Testament also refer to Jesus Christ.  With all that evidence it is very hard to deny the reality of Jesus of Nazareth - that he existed.
What is the historical evidence that I am my kid's father?  Their birth certificates is about it.  Their may be a few other documents I could round up, but I am at the advantage of being past the age of the printing press and into the digital age and also not 2,000 years ago.  And still I cannot find as much evidence for me being my kid's father as the evidence of Jesus Christ living on this earth.

Claims of Christ

Here are some of the claims of Christ I have seen in the Scriptures that point to him being "it."  He claims to be:
I AM (John 8).
the Resurrection and the Life (John 11).
the Light of the World (John 8).
assent to Thomas's declaration "my Lord and my God" (John 20).
This is not meant to exhaust or even represent all of Christ's claims, but to help us to pursue them.  Christ claimed to be God, and one with the Father, and there is really only a few things we can do with someone like that as Clive says in Mere Christianity.  We send them to the loony bin.  We say they are the Devil.  We say they are a liar.
The other choice is to worship Him as God.
My claim to my kids is that I am their father.  That is my claim and they must decide what to do with it.

Who does Christ claim to be?

Why C.H.R.I.S.T.?

Why C.H.R.I.S.T.?  Why should we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and our God?  I mean, how can I be sure that Jesus Christ is the One to follow.  I want to share an acronym and use various analogies to share with you some of the reasons why I follow Jesus Christ and have given my whole self to him.  Maybe it will help you and your Christian family.  I will share the acronym today and in the days to follow I will go into each one more in depth.
Claims of Christ
History of Christ
Resurrection of Christ
Indwelling of Christ
Signs of Christ

To whom shall we go?

Acronyms (Isaiah 53)

I love acronyms.  They help me remember things and I need all the help I can get.  Oftentimes I will use acronyms in a sermon and this last Good Friday was no exception.  I made an acronym of Isaiah 53 to use as a part of my message.  So here is the acronym.

Isaiah 53:1            What is God’s Message?  What is God’s Strength?

Isaiah 53:2            John Doe looks

Isaiah 53:3            Eyes with tears

Isaiah 53:4            Sack with sorrows

Isaiah 53:5            Under the whip

Isaiah 53:6            Suitcase with sins

Isaiah 53:7            Closed mouth

Isaiah 53:8            Hanging dead

Isaiah 53:9            RIP the grave

Isaiah 53:10           In My Plan

Isaiah 53:11           Satisfied Righteousness

Isaiah 53:12           To pay for our sins

So what acronym will you make of a Scripture?  Maybe it will help you and others remember the Scripture better.

Isaiah 53

1Who has believed our message?

To whom has the LORD revealed his powerful arm? 

² My servant grew up in the LORD's presence            John Doe looks

like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground.

There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,

nothing to attract us to him. 

³ He was despised and rejected-- a man of sorrows,   Eyes with tears

acquainted with deepest grief.

We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.           

He was despised, and we did not care. 

⁴ Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;

it was our sorrows that weighed him down.                Sack with sorrows

And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,

a punishment for his own sins! 

⁵ But he was pierced for our rebellion,

crushed for our sins.

He was beaten so we could be whole.

He was whipped so we could be healed.                       Under the whip

⁶ All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.

We have left God's paths to follow our own.

Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.                  Suitcase with sins

⁷ He was oppressed and treated harshly,

yet he never said a word.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,

he did not open his mouth.                                               Closed mouth

⁸ Unjustly condemned, he was led away.

No one cared that he died without descendants,

that his life was cut short in midstream.                          Hanging dead

But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. 

⁹ He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone.

But he was buried like a criminal;

he was put in a rich man's grave.                                      RIP the grave

¹⁰ But it was the LORD's good plan

to crush him and cause him grief.                                      In My Plan

Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,

he will have many descendants.

He will enjoy a long life,

and the LORD's good plan will prosper in his hands. 

¹¹ When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,

he will be satisfied.

And because of his experience,

my righteous servant will make it possible

for many to be counted righteous,                                    Satisfied Righteousness

for he will bear all their sins. 

¹² I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,

because he exposed himself to death.

He was counted among the rebels.

He bore the sins of many                                                   To pay for our sins

and interceded for rebels.