Praise God for a new year and new life in Christ! His mercies are new EVERY morning - including today! May the Lord keep our hearts and minds set on Him and may He work thru us today. As His followers, may we reflect His character in all we say and do.
Today we're reading about Cain and Abel, Adam's Geneology, and how mankind had so degenerated, prompting God to call Noah to build the Ark in prep for the Flood. In our New Testament reading we're still in familiar Christmas related texts and looking at Joseph and Mary and the infant Jesus fleeing Herod into Egypt, Herod's wrath on the children of Bethlehem and their finally settling in Nazareth where Jesus would grow up.
Good reading! A couple things from Genesis to think about:
Gen 4 Rather than admitting he was wrong, Cain became angry with God. People today are angry with God because He will not accept them on their terms. A lot of people don't want to come to God by the sacrificial lamb, Jesus Christ, that God has given. They want to bypass Jesus and just come to God. They think they don't need Jesus, but you can't relate to God without Christ. It is impossible! Jesus said, "...I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6). If that's too narrow for you, then you can go sit with Cain over in the corner. You're in no position to dictate terms to God. Who are we to tell God how and under what conditions we will come to Him? We must come by God's way. The way of sacrifice. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us. We can not change the terms. Cain tried and God rejected him.
Gen. 4:7 - How many times have you promised not to do something only to do it again. Why? Because resolve isn't enough. Only the power of Jesus Christ in your life is sufficient to break the chain of sin that is binding you. You should rule over it and you can rule over it if you just submit your life to Jesus Christ. He will give you the power, through the Holy Spirit, to rule over the sin that has been destroying you. These are God's terms!
How do we keep sin from mastering over us? By first being mastered by God. If we will not have God as master, then we will be slaves to sin.
Gen. 4:17 - Where did Cain get his wife? Adam and Eve, at this point, are about a hundred and thirty years old. (note 5:3) If they had Cain and Abel in the first couple of years of their existence on the planet and if they had a child every two years after that there would have been at least seventy brothers and sisters. Those brothers and sisters that were born in the early years could have been married and if they had produced children at the rate of one every two years, there could have been several hundred people on the earth by this time.
Have a very blessed day in Jesus! Pat
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