Does An Apple a Day Keep the Doctor Away?

Last week my daughter had an appointment. As we sat in the waiting room I looked around, every person had their head down buried in their phone. 12 total, various ages. It was eerily quiet. I fought the urge to pull out my own phone.

The longer I sat there the more unsettled and disturbed I felt. Luke 21:28 came to mind, “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” I thought, how ironic! When we should be looking up, we’re all looking down.

I was sharing with a friend, and she said, “Isn’t that wild! Looking down at something with an icon of an apple with a bite out of it in our hands!” I sat stunned. I’m still wrapping my brain around this revelation. I had never noticed the bite out of the Apple logo.

I felt prompted to read Genesis 3, “Now the serpent was craftier than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made, He said to the woman, “Did God really say, “you must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Verse 6 is what got me! “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

As I contemplated this all day, something came to me. I thought how many times in our rush to get something done, selfishness for “me” time, or let’s be honest laziness, have we put our kids in front of the tv or handed them a phone or tablet? “She also gave some to her husband, and he ate it.”

Don’t be deceived my friends, 2 Corinthians 11:3 says, “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” I have this urgency of God shaking my shoulders saying, “WAKE UP and LOOK UP! Don’t be so distracted you forget your purpose.”

Last week I got stuck on this passage, “He must become greater; I must become less.” John 3:30 For three days I kept reading it over and over. I couldn’t get away from it. In a culture that’s become completely self-absorbed and entitled, this is the battle we war against every day. Dying to ourselves. I think this is what Jesus meant when he said, “take up your cross and follow me.”

I’ve been listening to Lamb (Live From The Loft) | feat. Tiffany Hudson | Elevation Worship

The lyrics say,

“You did not suffer for nothing When You shed your blood Every drop was on purpose What amazing love

I will make my boast in Your cross alone Laying every crown at Your feet

Lamb of God Worthy is the Lamb of God Worthy is the Lamb of God Worthy is the Lamb

And as You knelt in the garden

Was I on Your mind?

What was the joy set before You? Was my heart Your prize?

I really do think he saw each of our faces as he hung on the cross. He knew who he was dying for. The Bible tells us when we get to heaven there will be a judgement of our lives. One of my greatest fears is that I’ll stand before my savior and when he shows me my life it will be filled with missed opportunities.

When he embraces me in his arms I don’t want to hear, “well, done my good and faithful servant.” Instead, I want him to wrap me in a big daddy hug and whisper in my ear, “I’m proud of you daughter. You ran your race well.”

C.S. Lewis said, “If you live for the next world, you get this one in the deal; but if you live only for this world, you lose them both.”

"The apex of all Christian endeavor must become to place the jewel of a soul in the crown of our savior, that the Lamb of God slain may receive the reward of His suffering." ~ Dr. Rod Parsley

Narrow Road - Josh Baldwin

2 Timothy 3:1-5 it “but mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God- having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”

Romans 14: 10-12 “For we will all stand before God’s judgement seat. It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account himself to God.” And 1 Corinthians 3:11-15