Honoring positions

Honor it is hard to give. Think about it, when we do give honor it is only for a moment, a hour, a day, a week...Seriously we tend to give honor for a short period of time. An athlete maybe the best at a certain time but the next year he doesn't perform as good...or didn't win; well he loses all his honor...Think about it, the best of the world come together every four years to compete. The best of the best but if one doesn't win the gold; for the most part he/she is looked down upon...they let us down... and sometimes we tell them, from the stands, how bad they are...sometimes people act like they could do the task...or play better. You know for the most part these people trained, studied...to be where they are. Think about it some of these people are one of the best in the world for what they are doing, and we don't give them honor for the great achievement they have done; even if they never become number one.
In our society we need to honor those who are in a position that deserves honor. Be it a president, vice president, senator, congressmen, mayor, judge, policeman/women, fireman/women and ...Yes, I know there are good ones and bad ones of the above but the fact is that we honor the position that they hold. It is easy to honor someone when they do an outstanding deed... but we also need to honor when they are doing the routine deeds. How about when they are trying hard and it does not work out the way it should have...when things...just seem to go wrong. So we need to honor people in positions be it in government, at work, people doing special things...Yes, we need to give honor. Now let me use one more word that is part of honor, respect. Respect- to consider worthy of high regard. Rom.13:7 "Render to all what is due them: tax to who tax is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor.
Think about it sometimes the ones we honor is not that they did something...but rather that they have a position, a title...that brings honor. At the same time we also must remember the ones who have done something...that deserve honor.

Honor, let's start

Last week we talked about obeying; children obeying their parents... Hopefully as adults we also learned to obey. For if we do not learn, or have a good grip on the obey thing, we will also struggle with the next topic. That would be honor. Honor is more involved than most of us think. So we will take a look at what honor means and how do we apply it in our daily living.
First let's look at one part of the definition of honor: an exalted title or rank. Last week we mentioned that we need to learn to obey; we used as our example obeying our father and mother. But in scripture it also tells us to honor our parents. Deu. 5:16 "Honor your father and mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days will be long , and that it may will go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you." What does it mean to honor? That is the question we all need to figure out. It means more than obeying. Even though obeying is still part of the answer.
Before we continue, let us all recognize that there are types of fathers and mothers. Good ones, alright ones, o.k. ones, bad ones, real bad ones, out of the picture ones, ...But let us all remember that just like our fathers and mothers we all are with our short comings in some way. There is also one common thing that we all have; we all have a father and a mother. With that we all need to bestow on them honor. It is not a question of if they deserve it...or if in our eyes they have earned it...They are your parents and with being your parents they deserve honor. It is not a choice, it is a command of God. As in following the obeying thing helps us in our lives so does giving honor to our parents. Oh, but you do not know my father/mother...Yes, I do understand some situations(not all) that it wasn't good. The point is if you are willing to do what is right. To make a difference. How do we honor them? Father's day, Mother's day, birthdays...inviting them to things...now here is the deal, loving them. Yes it is hard for some of us. We are hurt...in all types of ways...but giving honor maybe the beginning of healing....making the difference.

New series

The next topic I would like to talk about is going to take a long time. Yes, maybe even longer than the last; dealing with sin. What is this topic you ask? Well it is best described in a statement...or a title. "We are men and we do what men do; so what are we to do?". Stop and read that over a few times. Did you get questions in your mind of what are we to do? Did you wonder if what you are doing is the right thing/way...to do things? Or did you go right to the things that men do for fun, sports... As you can see it is a big topic! With that let us all understand that we will more than likely only cover some areas of this topic and that even these areas may be covered in a small way. The goal is to help us to act more as real men.
Where do we start? I believe that we need to go all the way back to when we were young. How young? Well let's not get caught up with the age thing, it will be more important now to grasp the principle. The principle will be obedience or to obey. Eph. 6:1 "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." This principle of obedience will never end for us. So it begins for all of us as children, we are to obey our parents. Some of us did well here, some not so well and some of us started well, then lost ground during the teen years...some who started off not well, turned during those teen years to do well; and believe it or not some just have a hard time for a very long time. But if we look at our lives most of us will probably see an up (obeying) and down (disobeying) imposing thing. Something that our parents used to keep us from...fun. As we get older this obeying thing does not go away. If we take the time to think about it, as adults we have to obey even more. As we get older we need to be more responsible. Have you heard those words before? They are true, the older we get the more choices we have. And with the more things we can do... there seems also to be laws and rules that we need to obey or follow. How are you, how am I with obeying the rules...How are you, how am I with obeying the one true God and His laws..?pattern. We do good then all of a sudden were not doing good, in this obeying thing. Really, it is hard!

Illness

It's been a few weeks since I posted. Well illness came upon me. The past few weeks... the flu has been around. Every so often I thought I had it... but I would get some what better. Then bang! Guess what it was not the flu. So now I am on the road to recovery and will be posting weekly(or some what) again. Hopefully this ministry will be helpful to you all and a blessing. Thanks for being patient, Peter Dee

True friend / true brother

Some things are just hard to do! When we are doing a physical task, it is easier when you have help. When I was in college, we would sometimes form study groups, each of us helping one another to learn...I had a group of friends that we encouraged each other in doing our studies...We kind of help each other along.
Sometimes we need to have friends to help us along. To encourage us to be better, to help us in our time of need...It seems that in our society today most of us men are non dependent or independent. That most men do not have close friends or a friend that they can go to with, let's say, "disappointing news". News that will make one wonder why am I your friend, if you did or do that, or what kind of a man are you?... As men, that thought or feeling is a real stumbling block. Yes it is true, no one wants to be looked down upon...the feeling of shame. Seriously, when one is looking for help...a friend needs to help! When a brother is looking for help, a brother needs to help. We forget what our Lord has said, "He who is without sin cast the first stone." We forget that we to are sinners saved by grace. We forget that there is a battle going on and that the battle is at your friends/brothers front door and he's not doing good, he's getting beat up...He needs help. We forget that just maybe the battle will be at our front door and we will be the one calling for help.
What do we do as friends, prayer, prayer. That would be the first! You notice prayer twice; that is to represent continued prayer... Helping him with the issue, be it taking him to work...to avoid. Helping him to understand the better way...showing him the better way, example. Bible study... It can get pretty deep. But what if it is beyond you? Well there are groups that help with special issues. For example the For men's only group. Dealing with sexual sins...but here is the deal brothers are you willing to take a brother there, to go with him...People may see! People may hear! That you are there. You see that is the biggest problem, that others see...and other_______________. They do not see the good picture.; that a brother or even sister is going to be healed! It's a good thing.

Trusting to pray

Now sin has a desire for us, it is powerful and it is used powerfully by the evil one. You may ask, is he still talking about how to deal with sin? Yes we are. Let us never forget that this battle will last a life time. Now we have been talking about the tough sins, hard sins, the sins that plague us. You know the sin that we just have a hard time to let go of. You tried all the ways...mentioned...and it still is plaguing you. Sometimes you lose hope, what can I do now...
Well there is still another principle for us to grasp to help us deal with sin. James 5:16 "Therefore, confess your sins one to another and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." Now let me go back a few verses and say this, "there are here in James 5 two more principles/ways to help us to deal with sins." The first is to go to the Elders for prayer, which we see in verses 14-15. I know it is dealing with sickness, but if you read on it deals with sin. Believe it or not sin can also cause sickness. Now in verse 16 it tells us to confess to one another. Yes that does mean to tell on yourself. Tell someone that you are dealing with a sin...Now here is the important part, so that person will pray for you. Just like going to the Elders, it is so that they will pray for you. It is that we need help! The help of a godly man who will pray for us. For our church leaders who will pray for us. For us who have this problem that we cannot handle on our own, that we are willing to reach out for help. That help being prayer, intercession. Let me say this, it is hard to confess a sin to another, a sin that plagues you, admitting a weakness; admitting a strong hold, admitting something bad is wreaking havoc in you.
With that, for the ones who are being asked to help, it is a great responsibility. Another brother is coming to you for prayer, for continued prayer if you will. He is trusting you to pray for him. He is trusting you not to be judging. He is trusting you to help him be healed. He is trusting you because he sees you as a "spiritual" person. Or better yet the word, righteous, is used in our verse. Oh that we will be willing to ask and that we will be willing to pray for each other.

Clean clothes

Are you ready to do something, something different? When we talk about sin's that seem to plague us, we need to ask that question. Isn't it true that if we do not replace the wrong action, we tend to go back. Or as we mentioned if you have too much time, spare time, it needs to be focused. Is sin that hard to master? Yes, it is! If I was to ask all of us, is there a sin or sins that just keep on popping up in your life or a sin that is just so deep inside you just kind of gave up. That is you tried... you decided to just live with it.
Before you were saved the clothes that you were wearing were filthy rags, dirty and stained. You washed them but the stains still showed and even sometimes the dirt just did not clean up. When you became saved, through Jesus Christ, you were given a new set of clothes(new creation). So you are walking around on the earth and guess what you trip and fall. Now there is a brownish green mark on your knee. Some of us will continue that way for different lengths of time. But let's say you are on top of your game; you go to God. "God look what I have done, I have stained my new clothes." God replies give them to me I'll have them washed. In the back of your mind your have done this before, washed your clothes...but the stain never came out. And then God says, here you go, good as new. You look at your clothes put them on, you feel good again...You ask what kind of soap...He replies, My son uses miracle soap to wash clothes, it's powerful, no stain will be left behind. You have your clothes on and you feel good again, all cleaned up, ready to go. Now some of us we tend to play near the mire(mud), it seems to pull us. We get dirty all over...what do we do? We do the same as the example above; we ask God to clean up our mess. He does! And guess what? It feels good to be in clean clothes...
You see guys, we need to remember what it feels like to be in clean clothes. The more readily we confess that sin that plagues us and we get clean...Hopefully,we will start staying cleaner longer and longer...it feels good. We start to like that more than playing in the mire...You see sin can be fun for a season. Let's be real here some sin(s) seem to fun...if you will; but sin will get you dirty and can even kill you. Being all cleaned up in clean clothes...eventually, hopefully that will be more fun! Psalm 51:7 "Purge me with hyssops, and I shall become clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." and if you continue reading to verse 10 it says " create in me a clean heart...and renew...That is what our God is about, cleaning us up and restore, renewing...go to the Savior.

Turn around, and do something else

Last week we said that God wants to forgive; that we need to ask for forgiveness and admit the sin/wrong. And with that that we turn from that actions; repent. There are things that we do that are let's say one time or few and far between things that we confess and we feel the power of forgiveness...we have a handle on that type of action. On the other hand there are those things that we do that seem to plague us; for some reason we just have a hard time to stop. Now there are a lot of these things, some will plague one but another will have no problem with that, but with another thing it is hard...There are all types of things...and we are all different and different things effect us differently.
Seriously is there that one or more thing, issue, sin that seem just to stay on. You go before God and ask...your mournful...over what you done...then bang your doing it again. It's like you cannot stop. Or that you can only stop for a short period of time. You may even question what type of a person you are...and may even question if you are a Christian. Some may even after a while question if there is a God...Let's face the facts here sin is powerful...
Let me say one thing, I am not an expert in dealing with sin, I am not an authority, and I do not have all the answers. Now when one deals with sin before God we often refer to the word repent. Repent means to turn around, change direction. Most of us have heard this before, right! Now here is where we get caught, we turn from the thing but that is all we do. Then before you know it you are turning your head looking back...then the pull comes. Sin has a strong desire for you and some sin seems to satisfy. You see when we turn from our sin we need to do some other action that is not sin. It is more than just stopping! It is redirecting our actions, thinking...even sometimes doing something different to replace the wrong action...
In Eph. 4:17-5:21 There are a lot of good principles for us; this includes the section of put-off the old and put-on the new...and near the end it says this "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil." Are you still going back to your old self? Instead of going forward in your new self; doing righteous deeds... Do you have too much time on your hands...and not focusing on the Lord. Here is a start to help us dealing with the sins that can plague us. First replacing wrongful actions...with right(Godly)actions deeds. The other is to make the most of your time. Thinking about our Lord and Savior...

Confess, when?

We have been talking about listening to the Holy Spirit and reading the word of God... We have been doing this as part of our study of verse Gen. 4:7. Which ends saying, "but you must master it." That is we must master sin. Let's use a scenario to help us understand what happens when we sin. One is walking down the road, the easy road, and He stumbles. All of a sudden he is over there doing something he should not be doing. Now the Holy Spirit is doing what He is to do, convicting of that something...Now let's say that this person is a Christian, he may hear the Holy Spirit or he may not. So here is when reading the bible...comes into play. The word of God also does its work with the Holy Spirit...But one can still not listen...But for our story let's say that the person listens.
The Holy Spirit is convicting you of that thing. You agree with the conviction, and want to stop that thing...So what does one do? Seriously what are we to do? There is a process if you will. The first is to confess that sin to God. Now that is to do it the right way. Remember Adam and Eve when God convicted them? They played the blame game. Don't try to blame you actions on someone else...If you did the thing, take the blame. I know that there are so called bad sins and the so called little sins and the so call little white lie and the sin of neglect...guess what all sin carries the same price and all sin separates us from God. Now there are different consenquences for different types of sin... But we need to confess our sin to God. He is the only one that can forgive us our sin and that is done through His son Jesus Christ. You see He even does all the work of forgiving us, all we have to do is ask. Let me say to ask truthfully. We don't have to bring money or do some extra good works, or say some special type of prayer...We just ask for forgiveness on the merit of what God has promise, knowing that the price of our sin has been paid by Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Now the question is when? Is there a special time, a day, like Sunday? The time is right when God convicts you. That means don't wait. So many times don't we wait, put it off for the right time...Seriously we tend to wait...This will be the first part of being healed, forgiven; to ask right away. A brother told me that we have to keep short accounts with God. That we need to confess our sin daily! Short accounts with God; you see He already knows what you did, He's waiting for us to bring it up, to ask for forgiveness, He wants to forgive, He wants to restore. "The steadfast-love of the Lord never ceases; His mercy never comes to an end, they are new every morning..."Lam.3:22.

Take the time

Now let us continue in our study. The end of the verse says 2 things, one that sin has a desire for us and two that we must master it(sin). Gen4:7. Last week we talked about memorizing God's word...This will help us to see that certain actions/behavior is not right...and when we do them they are sin. Now there are those times when we read God's word that it just goes in and right out. We see it, hear it and just as fast we forget it. But when we read it over and over...it starts to sink in. We also give the Holy Spirit a chance to work. Let me explain it is that we are more apt to listen to the Spirit of God. There is something that happens when we take the time to learn God's word and we ponder it in our mind, then in our heart. That the Holy Spirit seems to work...that His wisdom seems to come to us...Let me take the time to say it is not that He is not working...or that there is a formula that He works by or that there is a time constraint that needs to be met. But it is when we take the time to hear and when we are willing to wait to hear. Let's face it we want to hear now, we are too busy to take the time...
You see we all need to read God's word; taking the time to let it soak over us. To let it to seep inside of us and to reach in to the depth of our being...To let it reach deep, deep down where it can replace the hardness of our thinking. To reach the harden walls deep inside, washing over them and filling us with the truth of His word and the presence of His Spirit. That we change our old ways into the new ways of our Lord Jesus Christ. So reading God's word, memorizing it, pondering it, let the Spirit help you understand the word, and letting the word of God work deep down inside to replace what was not true...
With that being said above, what is an important part of reading God's word? Yes, prayer. Prayer is more than asking God for things. It is also important for us to hear God when He does answer. You ask for wisdom in an area; so God answers yes go do or don't go do...but if you are not listening. What happens? We go back to our own knowledge or our old way of working out problems. We so easily rely on ourselves and not God. So as we read our bible we also need to ask God to help us understand His word. That we take the time in prayer to be listening to the meaning of the word and How God wants us to apply it to our self. Prayer, reading the bible, memorizing, and listening to God; all that takes time. So let's take the time. reread Psalm 119:9

The right helper

O.K. we mentioned the Helper, the Spirit of Truth. How He helps us on our Christian walk. That is He wants to help us on our Christian walk. The problem is that we get in the way... which is true but also there is another one trying to act like the Holy Spirit. That is the devil. Not only that, the ways of our world fight against the Spirit of Truth. Not only that people get in the way of the Spirit of Truth.
So what do we do? How do we know if it is "Truth" or not? There are 2 points that I will be sharing, one about how the Spirit of Truth works and the other how to test if it is from the Spirit. Now the Spirit of Truth(Holy Spirit) works in two ways 1. John 16:8 "And He(Holy Spirit), when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment." He does this to all the world...His work on us as "pre-believers" this is the first thing the Spirit does. If we read on in John 16:13-14 "But, when He(Holy Spirit) comes, the Spirit of Truth, comes. He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you." The second is to guide us into all truth. That is God's truth. So how do we know if the spirit we are listening to is of God? If it is of God it will not contradict His word the bible. You see the bible is the word of God. The Holy Spirit cannot give us guidance that is contrary to His written word. God will not tell us to sin...or to allow us to live differently than His word says. So we need to be reading our bibles daily to make sure we are listening to the right spirit and also we need to be reading our bibles to discern what is of God and what is not of God. Psalm 119:105, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." It is very important to understand that the Holy Spirit will always be in line with the word of God. Let me say that one more time, the Holy Spirit will always line up with the word of God. If it doesn't put on the breaks...it is someone else, not some one good. Refute them with God's word. Just like Jesus did when Satan tempted Him.

The helper

Last week we ended with "the first good deed" if you will. We asked the question, "What did you do with the good news of Christmas? Have you put your trust...and accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior? For this is the beginning and without this, no one can please God. Now what we need to notice is that this first deed, does not involve work on our part; God does all the work. Eph. 2:8-9 "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." You see the beginning of our Christian walk is based on the works of God through Jesus Christ.
A lot of things happen when we make that decision to accept the Gift of God. Better yet God does a lot of things (works) when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord. You are redeemed, you are forgiven, you are not judged, you become a child of God, ...and the Spirit of truth comes to you. John 14: 16-17 Jesus speaking, "I will ask the father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you." God does a lot of things for us after we receive the Gift of God; He gives us more and more. But what we all need to notice is that He gives us the Spirit of Truth to help us here on our Christian walk.
The thing is that we need to let go, let go of ourselves, our ways, thinking, directing, planning...and to listen to the Spirit of God. To help us in our ways, thinking, directing, planning... You see God knows that we in of ourselves cannot please Him, that is that we miss the mark...we fall short. So He sends to us a Savior, Jesus Christ; who paid the price of our sins, to restore us. Also a helper to help us because we still need Gods help in doing what is right...You see we still live in a fallen world...there all sorts of things that draw us a stray. We need Gods help all the time. We need to learn to listen to the Spirit of God as He helps us. Now that is not an easy thing to do. What I want us all to recognize is that we have a Helper. That we must learn to listen to Him...For most of us it may mean to slow down, quiet our hearts and minds; to pray. To pray and ask for wisdom, direction....guidance. It is not easy to pray; but is easy when we take the time. We all need to choose to take the time to pray, to be with God talking. Not only asking for forgiveness, I need this thing...but to say God what does this mean, How about that? Is it alright to do_______. So let's make time to pray.

The first good deed

As we start off this new year, what do we expect of ourselves? Are you one to set goals...new year's resolutions? We will all agree that we want this year to be better than last... But what are the things that make it better than last. More money, better housing, children doing better, easier job...These are all good! But what do we expect from deep within ourselves? Do we want to be of better character...closer to God? Seriously do you want to be closer to God? For most of us that means change; a lot of change and even hard change. Sometimes it even brings about fear; can I start to get closer to God? Look at me, my life...I'm a wreck deep down.
Our last devotional ended with this verse Gen. 4:7 "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." This is a very important verse for us to consider, and it is a principle that we all must put into practice. So what we are going to do is to use this verse as the "cornerstone"...for our devotionals over the next few weeks...we will talk about touchy, hard...topics.
So here we go, "If you do well,". What does this phrase mean? Does it only apply to offerings? No. Remember Adam and Eve, what happened when they did not do well. What we need to do, is to do well according to God's standard. Not of what man may think but what God wants. So many times man's approval...get's in the way of us doing well. The next thing I want us all to recognize is that we need to think about doing well. That in our daily living we need to be thinking about doing well. That every day we have choices...and in these choices we need to be thinking about of doing well. If you are like me sometimes I just do without thinking about doing well according to God; I just do. We all need to keep our Lord God at the fore front of all that we do. Is what I am doing pleasing to God. Is my work pleasing to Him? Is my play time pleasing to Him? Am I more interested in pleasing myself versus pleasing God? You see you can be doing the littlest of things that is pleasing to God and guess what He lifts you up. Or better said is that He accepts you and what you have done. Or you can be doing something big and guess what He lifts you up, accepts what you have done. Be it little or big God accepts those "good deeds" and to have God's acceptance is what it is about. Now with that there is a beginning or a starting point. No one can by pass this, let's call it the first good deed. Last week was Christmas week...on Dec. 25, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God. The Savior of all mankind. Now here is the question what have you done with the good news, the good news of Christmas? Have you put your trust in that child, who was born that day in Bethlehem? The child who grow up into a man, doing miracles...then dying on a cross as it was written; then three days later coming back to life. Proving to the world that He is the son of God, that He is the savior of the world, that He has the ability to do what He said He could and would do. I know we have heard these words before, but they are so important John 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him." Have you believed? Have you put your trust in Jesus? For this is the beginning of being accepted of God. It starts with God giving us the Gift of His Son. All we have to do is believe, trust...and accept this most important gift of God. This is the most important thing for being accepted...of God. You cannot by pass this first step.

Christmas is here

For us as believer this is a special time of year. It is the time of year in our country and many others call, Christmas. There is a little more excitement in the air. More decorating of homes, businesses, towns...Planning of big meals, families trying to get together... Yes there is a lot of shopping...But the season of Christmas is here! Even the real spirit of Christmas is here too. That is there are more things about our Lord Jesus being said, being displayed...that are acceptable in the public eyes. It's Christmas, the celebration of the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Luke 2:10-14 "But the angel said to them. "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you; you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."
This is the season of great joy! Great joy that the Lord Jesus was give to us, all men as our savior. What good news this is; it was good news back in the day of the Lords birth and it is still good news today! It was such good news that a heavenly host (many angels) appeared praising God. At the end of this praise it says this "And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." God is pleased with us His creation, and He sent His son to save us from our short comings, imperfections...(sin) to bring us to back to Himself... and this is done through the Lord Jesus Christ, the son God. So let us all get with the rejoicing of the season. Praising our Lord for the great things He has done and is doing. So put on the Christmas cheer this week. And merry Christmas to you all and to all your families.

Anger...countenance fallen?

As we go through life we experience many things. We even have questions about God, about Jesus...religion...Then for some reason we have questions about this word, sin. A word that just popped up. Now when we talk about sin we think of bad deeds...or even thinking of the meaning of the word sin- missing the mark. In our story of Cain and Abel we are at Gen.4:7 God talking to Cain, "If you do well will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." Cain had just missed the mark. The mark of bringing first "fruits" if you will. Cain became angry and his countenance fell. Was it while he brought the offering or was it after when God had no regards? The reason I ask, is that for us we sometimes know we are missing the mark but we still continue. But there are those times when we are trying...we think we are doing it right...then we find out we were doing it wrong.
What I want us to see here is that Abel hit the mark, when he gave an offering. God accepted it...regarded it, and Abel felt that acceptance of God. Let me use the word, fellowship, Abel still had fellowship with God a good fellowship. Now Cain on the other hand missed the mark, sinned. Sin is at the door, it is here for Cain, it has entered in. When we do those deeds, things, actions, or thinking...that misses the mark, sin has enters in. It is there in our house...we might not think so...but it is there. God is telling Cain a basic truth if you do well...if you do not do well sin enters in. Look at yourself Cain, anger...your countenance, fallen. These are signs of sin. You must deal with them, do what is right...Go back and correct the matter. Humble yourself admit the wrong and do what is right. You see God even way back here and before (Adam and Eve) is making a way for us to be in the right with Him. Now sin has a desire, a desire to consume us. Let's face it, sin is wanting for us to commit more and more. Sometimes it seems like it grows. But us the redeemed must acknowledge when we miss the mark to God, through His son Jesus Christ. Last week we mentioned not giving of the "first". But sin can involves a whole lot. Let us humble ourselves before our God in these areas...