Straight Ahead

Not so long ago I had serious heart burn.  I don’t know the scientific/official name for this. . . But I’m guessing you don’t either, so heart burn it is. 
Google quick home remedies, top of the list is banana. Not happening, especially because its the last thing I’d had,  before I stuffed my face with Muthokoi. :|. I don’t like it. But I was hungry.  Its sooo drab(and dry), muthokoi. So robbed of life.  It doesn’t matter what you do to it.  The only other thing less creative in any pot is Gikuyu githeri.  Atleast muthokoi has been skinned… Or something.  *sigh 😕
Anyway,  I also find cold milk, baking soda solution, bla bla bla. . . It’s like 3 in the morning.  I drag my feet to the kitchen, and at some corner,  is this milk bottle. I pick it up and without thinking, take a nice loong sip. The confusion in my mouth in that dead night! It’s this porridge mix, left in there to ferment. . . For later preparation of the real deal. 
Funny thing is, I’d gone out earlier to shop. I’d seen that milk bottle, so I knew there was milk, thus didn’t buy any.  This fermentation in a bottle well presented itself as milk. Never take anything at face value guise.  Probe.  Get in.  Need to know. 😂. No, seriously.

***

Yesterday I’m chilling in one of my friend’s office, people I look up to,  Pst Kibira. I’m going through a book I found on the table.  The audio Bible is playing…  He’s working on his computer,kila mtu shughuli yake.  I think he’d just fired up his machine because when I came in,  it was chapter 2.
I’m beginning to sink into the book when I hear, 

You shall not,  certainly, die”

I frantically begin to search all versions of Genesis 3:4

Almost all put it that way, interchanging “certainly” with “surely”.

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. [Genesis 3:4 NIV]

I found one better, 
Douay-Rheims says,  “… You shall not die, the death”

The atmosphere in that room totally changed. There was this stirring in me.  I felt like screaming,  ” I got you, devil” *insert dramatic praise break & TD Jakes dance*

The devil was not presenting anything different to Mama Abel? No.  He was just doing what he comeS to do.  Lie. 

Grammatically, these statements are different. 
°You, CERTAINLY, shall not die
°You shall not, CERTAINLY die.

The 1st indicates that the absence of death is certain,
whereas the 2nd merely indicates that the certainty of death is absent.

In Simple terms,  what God said (2:17), was that they certainly would die, if,  but here is the father of lies saying, they would die,  true,  just not certainly. 
That they would die,  true,  just not THE death. 

He hardly makes up his own thing.  Little wonder scripture calls us to be Alert! Sober! Of sound mind! [1Peter 5:8]. In close communion with God.  Dressed up,  in the full armour of God [Eph6:10] . 

Take up,  friends, the Shield of Faith,  that you may extinguish all his fiery darts. His lies will hardly be full-on lies.  Infact,  I doubt ever. 
Always half truths. Like a used diaper, in a new gift bag… Pleasant in presentation, just not fully labelled. He’s after your relationship with God, through your friends.  He’s coming after your job and health.  He’s going to try and paint this beautiful rainbow out for you, if he hasn’t already. Telling you about the zest in that bottle. . . Or that gusto in the hypodermic needle. All true,  only,  he’ll conveniently leave out that it won’t last. He’ll tell you how pleasurable it is to entertain a plus one in your marriage, and leave out that as you arise ,  you leave your destiny right there on her thighs. He’ll tell you how everyone is doing it.  How you’re too young to straighten it out, how you’re too weak to walk the high and narrow . . . And leave out the part that you have everything it takes.  All the strength you need to move it along. That you have every spiritual blessing, and are seated in heavenly places, having received all things that relate to life and godliness, called to glory and virtue.  He has all that info.  He knows.  But he is the father of lies [Jn 8:44], you expect nothing else from him. 
God too expects nothing else from him. 
But God does expect something from you.  That you be alert.  And in interacting with the Holy Spirit, you say No.  In combing through the Holy Scriptures you put up the shield of faith and put out them darts. 

You received the instruction, not the devil . You have the relationship. Not him. You have the crown waiting. Not him. So walk straight ahead.  Past him, and his new scented gift bag of used up lies.

📷 Dennis Skley - Straight Ahead

We are those that refuse to barter trade with the enemy! Esteeming suffering, like Moses,  than the fleeting relief of Egypt.
Refusing the greedy ambition of Eve to taste better, at the expense of our freedom.
Refusing the passivity of Adam,  when we know the instruction God gave us. 
Because to die is to die,  whether it is to die the death,  or whatever other form the devil had in mind for Eve. 
The life of God,  on whatever conditions, is the life I choose!