Who Is To Blame?

Hello Beloved,

I want to talk to you about blame.. Have you ever  been blamed or blamed someone for something?
I am in a Bible study right now , and the lesson for this day was called " The Blame Game".   I thought
it had some really interesting things in it... I sure did learn from this lesson today.  I hope you can too..
Let's start with with what the lesson started with okay?
I want to set the stage so to speak okay?
Adam is in the garden and has been told by God that he can eat of any of the trees
in the garden except for the tree of knowledge of good and evil . ( Genesis 2: 17)
In Genesis 2: 21-25  God causes Adam to go into a deep sleep and He takes ones of his ribs and makes
woman.  So now we can go to Genesis 3: and see Who is to blame.
It starts out that the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
And he said to the woman, " Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Well, we all know the story and how the woman ate the fruit and gave some to her husband , and this is how
we had sin enter into our lives.. Are we in agreement with this?  Okay, moving forward.
 If we read now in Genesis 3: 3-7 (NIV) , we will get to the point of blame.
"  Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.  Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day,  and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man, "" Where are you?"" He answered ""I heard you in the garden , and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
Now, we can start asking the question of   WHO IS TO BLAME ?
When we are reading it , it sounds like Eve should be blamed , don't you think?  Or should we really blame
that old serpent?  What about Adam?  Who is to blame? 
In the study I am doing it starts out with this...  Eve was listening to that old serpent.. Now, just listening is not wrong BUT when you listen to a lie and then you start to dwell on it, then you start to believe it, and then you act upon it...And this is what leads us onto the path of bondage..  ie...  Eve listened to the serpent tell her that she would not die, that she would be like a god , knowing good and evil... LISTENING was not the problem .  She looked at the tree and saw it was pretty and she could become wise and she gave her husband some of it to eat too..  So , she listened , she dwelt a moment and she believed what was told to her by that old serpent and acted upon it..  That was the fall , right?  Or was it?
So , now are we blaming the serpent for the lies or Eve for listening to them?    Well here is something I picked up  in the lesson ..   " God didn't ask them what someone else had done to make them sin;
He held them accountable for their own behavior.  Regardless of what had influenced them to make that choice, it was still THEIR choice."  So pointing fingers at others will keep us in bondage
and guilt.. Freedom comes when we take responsibility for ourselves and the choice that we make..
So, when someone is telling you lies, you do not have to listen to them , but if you do , don't dwell on them and please don't act on them... Remember to be free is to take responsibility for our own choice.
Well , remember to smile , you never know who is looking and might need it today.. God Bless!!
tenderly with arms wrapped about you........ your sister in Christ Jesus, vickie