Shame

It has been a long time since I last posted my blog. Life has been very fast moving as now we are ending our 1st half a year of 2011. But life goes on and because I rarely have time to blog.
Anyway this is my first blog since March'11. Of this three months duration, one thing keeps popping into my life. I came to realise that one part of our sin in life is shame. Shame by itself is not a sin. It is part of our human nature. It is how we are as a human being. We are always living in shameful world. Perhaps nowadays people tend to do things in an shameless way. I mean the world is ending and people tend to do things according to their own understanding.
The beginning of shame came from our beloved Adam and Eve. They ate the fruit of tree of good and evil. Let me show you through the Word of God, The Bible. Let me read it to you from the book of Genesis Chapter 3, verse 1 - 13

1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man[a] and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”

11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”

12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”

13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”

“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

Well what we have just read is one part scheme that the devil is putting on us. We are all feeling guilty over the same thing. I am sure all of us have faced the same situation where we do something we are not supposed to do and yet we do. And when we do we are living in shameful manner. Well guess what? Jesus came into this world to cover our nakedness. A lot of time we felt guilty but I do believe as long as we continue to repent of our sins and not drift away from God, we will still be under God's covering. Just learn to overcome. I do fall into sin a lot of time and yet each time I repent if I ever done any of it and because of that I still trust God is still with me. I guess we are all the same. All equal but then when sin appear try to go against it. Nothing will harm us if we cling on unto God.

Anyway as we read the passage just now, remember that Adam and Eve were blaming each other after they ate the fruit. Part of our life as a human being when comes to guilt and shame is we direct our finger to others. It's not my fault but hers, his, theirs and even its (for animal or any other thing non-human being). We blame everything from the seas to the sky and yet it is not our fault but theirs. Well one thing I want to add here is this. Money might be the root of all evil but shame is the beginning of all evil, simply because when we are shameful, we want the best for ourselves and ourselves only. I am saying this because I am also part of this sinful man. I am putting it into words to remind me that I am no different than Adam or Eve. Perhaps they are different a little bit cause they do have the chance to spent a short period of time talking to God face to face. But other than that I am no different than them.

So by saying that I hope that what I posted here would help us to understand who we are actually. You are God if you do not have shames because part of shame came from the sin that we did. God do not shame simply because He is God and He is perfect and by saying that when anyone of us sin, I guess we do not live in shamefulness but rather let us live in repentant heart and allow God to cleanse us thoroughly. In fact to be precise, I am also having trouble in allowing God to cleanse me simply because I do not know. But this stands as a reminder that each and everyone of us needs to live a repentant heart so that God can use us mightily for Him. =)