Category: Life

The story of Cain and Abel should scare us

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Why did God have respect for Abel’s offering and not Cain’s?

The answer to that question should have us doing some serious soul-searching.

In Genesis 4, we’re told the story of Cain and Abel. The story is that Cain and Abel both brought their offerings to the LORD.

Cain, a master gardener, brought some of the fruit he had grown to the LORD. Abel, a skilled shepherd, brought of the firstlings of his flock.

Scripture records in Genesis 4 how God respected Abel’s offering but had no respect for Cain’s offering. This upset Cain, as his countenance fell and he began to harbor a hostile attitude toward God, and toward Abel.

God confronted Cain about his attitude, and Cain confronted Abel, ultimately killing him. This led to Cain’s banishment, his horticulture skills being supernaturally taken from him, and his ostracization from what little society existed at that point.

Now, the question becomes, “Why did God have respect for Abel’s offering, but not for Cain’s?”

Many answers have been offered to this question over the years. Few have any real basis in scripture.

Some say God respected Abel’s offering over Cain’s because it was a blood sacrifice. While this answer does make sense (because scripture says without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins), it overlooks the fact that grain offerings were part of the Temple sacrifices outlined in the book of Leviticus. Plus, scripture does not give that explanation for this specific circumstance.

Others say Abel brought the best of his firstlings to sacrifice, while Cain brought subpar fruit to sacrifice. Again, this makes sense, as God has been known to reject subpar sacrifices in other passages, but once again, lacks any scriptural support of this particular instance.

In fact, if you look at Cain’s demeanor following the sacrifices, you may get the idea that Cain brought his best. He is really offended that God did not honor his sacrifice. This is not the attitude who of someone who was giving his leftovers, but rather of someone who wanted God to be impressed, and wasn’t.

So, what was the difference between Cain’s sacrifice and Abel’s sacrifice? Why did God respect Abel’s offering, and not Cain’s?

Scripture (to my knowledge) only addresses this once. In Hebrews 11:4, which says, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.”

What separated the sacrifices was that Abel offered his by faith. Cain offered his out of obligation.

Faith is a deep-rooted trust in the Lord, and a conviction of His truth. Faith trusts not only that God exists, but that He is good and He intends good toward us. Faith believes that God rewards those who diligently come to Him.

It was that trust and conviction that motivated, that spurred Abel’s sacrifice. Cain made his offering because “it’s what you’re supposed to do.”

As I pondered this while preparing Wednesday night’s lesson on Hebrews 11, it hit me… how much do I do out of obligation to God?

What all do I do because it’s what a pastor should do?

And what all do I do because I love God and I trust Him?

The things that we do “just because,” or because they are expected, or because they are a great idea, God looks at those actions the same way he looked a Cain’s fruit. It might have been some of the best fruit ever grown, but God did not respect the heart from which it was given.

However, the things we do because we love God create a sweet smell in his presence. He regards that as highly as He does the sacrifice that Abel made. He honors such actions and such efforts.

The moral of this story in Genesis 4, and the scriptural commentary given in Hebrews 11:4, is that we need to reflect on our heart, learn to trust and love God, and learn to let that love and trust motivate our actions and offerings to God.

So, let’s take an inventory on our lives. And once we have that inventory complete, let’s correct our motivation where our motivation needs correcting, and our actions where our actions need correcting. We want to please God, and we want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Having your faith deeply rooted and living by that faith is how you will come to hear those words.

A Dissertation on White Wall Tires

Hands down, Cars is easily one of my favorite movies. It falls in somewhere behind Forrest Gump, but ahead of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Cars is a sentimental piece evoking nostalgia for Route 66, the Southwestern lifestyle, and for the relationships of small-town life.

There’s a moment in the film, as Lightning McQueen is preparing to return to his normal life of racing for Piston Cup glory, where he decides to patronize the businesses of the cars that hosted him in the fictitious small Route 66 town of Radiator Springs.

First stop, Luigi’s tire shop.

Luigi, who hasn’t had a customer in years, is overjoyed at the prospect of fitting Lightning for the perfect set of tires. (The scene is reminiscent of the old days of buying shoes in an actual shoe store with a salesman who not only helped you find the right fit, but the right look as well.)

Lightning, being as good a customer as possible, asks for the best set of black wall tires Luigi has, to which Luigi iconically replies, “No, you don’t know what you want, Luigi knows what you want.”

Lightning replies, “You’re the expert,” and completely goes along with whatever Luigi suggests. The same thing happens when Lightning visits Ramone’s paint and body shop.

The result, a shiny, sparkling Lightning McQueen that radiates on a main street that has just been repaved, with the neon signs fixed, and its Route 66 glory on full display. For a moment, the people, er, cars of Radiator Springs enjoy a beautiful time reminiscent of their former glory.

Lightning McQueen, a modern racecar, had only known racing tires, black wall, slick tread, and made by Goodyear. Yet, when he followed Luigi’s advice, he was introduced to a whole new world.

Out on my walk today, I got to thinking about how often we fail to understand what we really want, defining our desires around things that we’ve already known, and missing blessings that we’ve never seen.

You see, we don’t know what we want. God knows what we want.

Just like Lightning thought black wall racing slicks would meet his need, as it is all he has ever known, we think that our desires can be fulfilled with a better job, more money, better health, or maybe we’re just wishing that our one main problem would be solved.

And as Lightning so innocently asked for black wall tires, we pray to God asking for those things. Asking for the new job, the financial solution, for healing, or for God to resolve our conflict and win our battle once and for all.

But, unlike Lightning, who was fitted and placed into a set of white wall tires within a matter of seconds, often, our requests seem to go unanswered for days, weeks, months and even years.

What strikes me about this is that scripture says in Romans 8:28 that “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

The premise of this verse is that God is good. Not only is God good, but God does good. Not only does God do good (for the greater good), but He does what is good for us personally.

Romans 8:28 says that all things work together for our good. Our own good. Everything that life brings you, God uses it for your good.

That doesn’t mean that everything that happens in your life was God’s idea, neither does it mean that everything that happens in your life is good.

Some things happen in your life that are horrible, things that were perpetrated upon you by people who had the worst intentions. Yet, God, in His infinite wisdom, knowledge and goodness, saw a way to turn the evil done to you into a blessing. So, the road may be paved in suffering, but God drew the map and the road is taking you someplace amazing.

And the wild thing about this concept is that the good God is leading you to is something that you may never have imagined. That thing may be better than the solution or the desire you have imagined.

Sometimes, we get what we think we wanted, only to find out it’s not what we really wanted.

But, with God, we get what we didn’t really think we wanted, only to find out it’s what we really wanted all along.

The thing that helps me get through tough times, and gives me hope even when my prayers go unanswered, is that God knows me better than I know myself. Therefore, even if I don’t get what I ask for, I will come to realize that the answer that I do get will be good, and will probably be better than I could’ve imagined.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

It’s Time for the Great Pumpkin!

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For some reason, I always identified with Charlie Brown. I always understood his plight. Nothing ever seemed to work out for him, and he always seemed to be laughed at.

Which is one reason why, when Halloween rolled around, I always enjoyed watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”

The show was whimsical and full of childhood experiences with ironic twists. In a time designed to scare people, it was just plain fun.

Which is what the Halloween holiday has become in our culture… just plain fun.

Kids dress up in costume and “play-pretend.” Sometimes, even adults dress up as well… not just for the children’s Halloween party later that day, but for work as well. Walk into any insurance office, and you may find Elsa from Frozen, the Wicked Witch of the West, or Morticia Adams.

The objective for the kids is simple… leverage your Halloween costume as best as possible for as much candy as possible. In the words of Sally from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, “Get while the gettin’s good.”

That will be the objective this evening, as a trunk or treat will be held in the parking lot of Spieker Stadium before tonight’s game between Hermleigh and Ira.

It may seem like good clean fun, but is it?

While the face paint is being applied, and costumes are being fitted, blogs and social media posts from various individuals and groups are criticizing Halloween as a satanic holiday and urging people not to participate, even in fall festivals and trunk or treats.

Are they correct?

To explore this, we’ll look to two sources. Bro. Ray Brooks, who served as president of Texas Baptist Institute-Seminary, and Romans 14.

It was approximately 21 years ago, on the morning following Halloween. Apparently, none of us had the nerve to celebrate the holiday around campus or in student housing. I vividly remember panicking when my classmate and next-door neighbor, Mike Gribble, caught me in the act of making a Jack-O-Lantern.

Mike, great man of God that he is, and gracious as he is, gave me a devotional about how the transformation of the pumpkin into a Jack-O-Lantern is similar to our transformation in Christ. Thus, I could now legitimately make a Jack-O-Lantern (my favorite activity of Halloween.)

Almost all of us were married with children, living in seminary-owned apartments and houses. Some of us stayed home. Some went to fall festivals hosted by our respective churches. Apparently, no one took their kids trick or treating around the neighborhood, and absolutely no one took their kids trick or treating to the president’s door.

He expressed his disappointment the following day in chapel, telling us to “let the kids have fun.”

The argument against Halloween centers on the holiday’s pagan roots. Yet, I don’t believe anyone can say with a straight face that a young girl dressed up as Princess Elsa, or a young boy dressed up as Chewbacca, are really trying to engage in spiritualism or the worship of the occult. And worshipping the occult and summoning satan is not something you do accidentally.

The holiday may have been rooted in the occult centuries ago, but the modern version centers around costumes, imagination, play-pretend, and candy. There’s no spiritualism to it. It’s just good plain fun.

If pagan roots are to deter us from celebrating holidays, then we have to wipe Christmas and Easter off the calendar as well. Both were created as the Catholic church co-opted pagan holidays and rebranded them as Christian in order to convert pagan tribes to Christianity.

But, when Christians celebrate Christmas, they’re not celebrating a pagan season. They’re celebrating the birth of Christ. When they celebrate Easter, they’re not celebrating a Norse god, but rather the resurrection of Christ. (The eggs and bunnies are just an excuse to eat more chocolate.)

While some have taken the step of refraining from celebrating Christmas and Easter, others understand that the holiday is what you make it, and meanings change over time.

Christmas may have started as a pagan holiday, but Christians made it their holiday, and Coca-Cola made it a retail holiday. The Christians I know center that day and the entire month on the birth of Christ.

Easter may have started out as a pagan holiday, but Christians made it their holiday, and Hershey, Mars and Nestle made it a chocolate holiday.

And Halloween may have been a pagan holiday, but Americans turned it into a chocolate and candy corn holiday.

Basically, what you celebrate is determined by what’s in your heart. Are you celebrating Christ, cola, new toys, debunked ancient gods, or chocolate?

In the case of Halloween, it’s chocolate.

Now, all of this sounds good, but where’s the scripture?

Romans 14:1-8 says, “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. 3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. 4 Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. 5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. 7 For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. 8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

In all truth, the context of these verses deal with the Old Testament Jewish feasts and festivals. Still, the concept remains. Some eat, some don’t. Some celebrate holidays, some don’t. The ones who eat, do so with thanksgiving and eat unto the Lord. The ones who don’t, refrain from eating in order to honor the Lord.

Those who celebrate holidays do so for the Lord. Those who don’t celebrate refrain for the Lord.

So, regardless of which camp we fall in, we belong to the Lord and we live for the Lord.

The point to Romans 14 is that we are to leave each other alone and allow each other to live for the Lord in a way that our conscience can be settled.

So, at Christmas, if you want to celebrate Jesus’ birthday, please do so with your whole heart. And if you’d rather not celebrate Christmas, then honor God with your non-observance.

At Easter, if you want to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, then do so and glorify God by proclaiming the Gospel. If you want to refrain from celebrating Easter, then honor God by regarding every Sunday as resurrection day.

And at Halloween, if you want to play dress-up and eat candy, have fun! For God never forbad fun. But, if you’re uncomfortable participating, then you are honoring God with your abstention.

But no matter what you do, recognize that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. That we are all honoring and living for God as best we know how, and that there are times that we need to step back and let God work the relationship between Himself and His people. Meanwhile, we keep our fellowship between each other.

But… one hill I will die on… unless you are a severe diabetic, chocolate is always appropriate.

May God bless you with a wonderful evening this evening, and a beautiful autumn weekend.