Considering my own life and seeing the similarities with others of the Christian Faith, I can say with certainty that one of the most costly failures that we all experience is the equivocating, mistaking, and substituting of wisdom for/with knowledge or intelligence. This, in turn, has elevated our pride, making us more self-centered, resulting in a growing acceptance among the Church of certain sins we downgrade to "controversial issues." Can you see the "Tree?"

We are blessed to be the parental yet live as if we have the utmost authority within ourselves.
We call murder merciful, forgetting the Creator of life and the Author of mercy.
We emote from perversion and call it love.
Have you smelled the "fruit?"

Church, we cry "crucified with Christ" while reaching for Adam. We attempt to "love thy neighbor" without first loving God completely.
Making peace rather than seeking peace.
Our interpretation.
Our perspective.
Do you hear the "serpent?"

With Jesus, the sins of the believer are not simply erased; we are given a new pad upon which our lives are drawn in perfect precision with color to be added. Still, rather than be His masterpiece of creation, our intention has become to take the Cross in hand and sketch a self-representation, using the reflection of the Fall as the reference. Ours is an image with a nonjudgmental, passive God over our shoulder as we stand in an Eden. Colorless -- no paint to fill our lines -- that is, until the focal point is fixed.

Shall the thirsty be sated by holding the Water?
Should those who are in the Light close their eyes?
Will the pad continue to amateurishly fill itself in scribbles as the Grand Artist stands waiting?

The Father composes in the blood of Christ, and by the Spirit we are brushed.

Church, stop using the Cross and live the Cross.
Listen to the instruction of Wisdom.
And, be not a tracing of Eden but a portrait of Calvary.