Hello my fellow friends, family, co-workers, haters, lovers, whatever you are. I just want to say I am sorry for not posting much lately, I would like to say I have been busy but that would be lying. I've been tired from work and honestly struggling on how to word some blogs so I didn't want to publish anything yet. But it is Sunday and as I have promised, I will post a blog about Church/Sunday school.
To start out, today was a pretty good day actually. I went to two church services, one at Lewis Lane Baptist with some very nice friends of mine and my own, Buck Creek Baptist. It was nice just experiencing how another place worships and actually, it helped me a whole lot with this blog post. I have been trying to think all week on how to put this together and struggled to do so, but now I feel as if I can! Thanks to Genesis 4:1-16...
Ahem, that means turn there pretty please or Google it right...about...now!
So, for those of you that actually looked for the passage, well you are going to obviously not be lost. For those of you that didn't bother to take a few seconds to search Google or pull out your Bible, well I'm sorry that you didn't. Way to not be cool. Anyways, shall we begin? Uh doi!
So first off in Verses 1 and 2 we really just learn about Cain and Abel being born and that Cain works the soil while Abel keeps the flocks. Pretty simple, no explanation or my input really, I don't think. Unless there is some hidden meaning I am missing. That is a completely serious statement, if there is a hidden meaning, let me know. That is also a serious statement...
Verses 3, 4, and 5 is where I believe it really gets interesting if you think about it. Each brother takes an offering to the Lord and each receive a different "response" of sorts from the Lord. Abel takes fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock while Cain some of the fruits of the soil. Now I am no genius, but I think the responses each received were totally warranted. God was essentially pleased with Abel but not with Cain. Hmmm, I wonder why? Well honestly, Cain's offer didn't seem very special. Heck, it just says "some fruits of the soil". Wow, really? It is almost as if he is not sacrificing anything honestly. Granted, in some cases I am sure God would be pleased, but from Cain I am sure God was wanting more of an effort. Especially when he see's Abel sacrificing fat portions from some of the FIRSTBORN of his flock. I don't know much about flocks and what not, but I would just guess that the firstborn are probably bigger and better than the rest. To give up your best for the Lord is obviously the sacrifice he wants, but all we are told from Cain is just some fruit. Woooohooo! I mean wow, today in Sunday school, I learned that Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac because he was told to by the Lord himself. He went literally to the last second until God stopped him, Abraham proved his faith in the Lord just as Abel did, but Cain did not. Yet Cain is angry.
In verses 6 and 7, God asks Cain why is he so mad and downcast, he also tells him that if he just does what is right things will be okay but if he does not do the right thing, sin will be there ready to take him. So really, if he had given more of a sacrifice everything possibly would be okay, but he didn't so he is really in a heap of trouble.
In verse 8, Cain lets the sin take control of him and he kills his brother Abel. He let the jealousy and anger that God had said would be there waiting for him, control him, he didn't master the sin, the sin mastered him.
Even further in 9 through 12, Cain sins yet again by lying to the Lord and saying he did not know where Abel was. Obviously God already knew so Cain was really just digging himself a deeper hole which is kind of ironic because he is the keeper of the soil. but anyways God knows what has happened and curses Cain from the ground. No longer will he yield crops for his deeds. This pretty much shows us that although sin may be a temporary pleasure, it bites us in our butts because we will pay for what we have done. Also, Cain is told he will be a restless wanderer on the earth...
To speed this up, in 13 through 16, Cain complains about his punishment and says that God is the one doing this to him, when really it was his sin that did this. The blame was all his and not God's, yet he did not see that and did not accept that. He also says that he will be killed but God says that is not true and puts a mark on him. Killing a sinner for vengeance is sin itself, kill someone either way is sin honestly, but yeah! It goes on to say Cain went out from the Lord's presence and lived in the land of Nod, therefore we know for sure that it was Cain that left God, not God that left Cain.
Okay if you are still with me, I am sure you are wondering what the heck I just typed all that for. Well let me get to my point, that point is having complete faith in the Lord. It is shown through the text that Abel's offering was made purely of faith, strong faith in that where as Cain's was not. Obviously God is going to be more pleased when you work through faith rather than just getting by. Having faith is a sign of a follower of Jesus, no faith signifies a wanderer or as I like to call it, a fan (Thank you "Not A Fan"). Therefore do things through faith and you will reap the rewards, no matter the case keep the faith and master this sin. Sometimes it is hard to keep faith, but for real, go read Genesis 22, if you think whatever it is you are going through is hard, stand in Abraham's shoes and then come talk to me. I understand that we each have our own problems but if we maintain our faith in the Lord we will get through them.
When we let sin enter our lives even for just a second, we begin to lose faith. Like we were told earlier, all it takes is just one time. One time drinking, one time smoking, one time of whatever to suck you in, to sweep you off your feet when you least expect it. One time to destroy your life. You can't use the excuse it is just this once no big deal because that shows you don't have complete faith in the Lord to guide you, you are being disobedient because you can, that is not what God wants. He wants your trust and that one time breaks it. As I have said in another blog, it is all in or nothing, so in God's eyes, just this once means you aren't willing to give sin up and you aren't completely committed.
I will be completely honest, I used to say just this once to sin, but it didn't work, it isn't ever just this once and it will never be for anyone. Now I am all in to God, I will not change that stance no matter what people say.
I was just reading the other day a post by a friend and it said at the very end the Bible was just an inconvenience, well if that is really what you think. If sin is how you really want your life to be lived, so be it, I won't judge you but I will pray for you. The Bible's teaching are only an inconvenience to those who let it be, to those that choose to make it their own custom creation. If you choose to only obey bits an pieces, isn't that a bigger inconvenience because it honestly won't get you anywhere. What would be the point in obeying at all? I mean I just said this and I will say it again, it is all or nothing... I want to drill that into your brains, if you pick out what you want, don't bother even doing that. It isn't meant to be a shopping spree where you get what you want and leave the rest on the rack, you get the whole truth or nothing.
So yeah, this ties into what I have said before, so nothing really new... But I mean I believe it is important to realize and understand. So hey, I hope you all liked this post and maybe learned something. I don't know when I will post again, but hopefully soon, I really like being blunt about things so expect a lot more about that, who knows... Well thanks for reading, maybe you liked it, maybe you didn't, that is on you, not me. I'm just giving my opinion and trying to further understand what I learn. But I am thankful you read this, whether you liked it or not.
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