I'm having a little issue with my throat so I'm doing a text only message this week and hopefully I'll be back to normal next week and I'll do a FB Live on this, but probably a different subject. Thanks for reading and if you don't mind add me to your prayer list.
Have you messed up this week? You like me are human so I'm assuming your answer was a yes. It might have been at work, at school. It might have been a hastily written post or tweet submitted in the rush of emotions. Maybe it was in a conversation with your spouse, kids or parents...maybe a store clerk, phone solicitor or just someone in line at the register. It might have only been a small thing that no one other than you will even notice.
When you mess up you have two choices...admit it, makes things right and take steps to make sure it don't happen again or deny it. You can get mad, make excuses, blame someone else or try yo hide the evidence and hope no one finds out.
You know what you need to do and so did Cain. There is many stories in the bible about the Lord giving people second chances, but for this we'll stick to the earliest. Most everyone knows what Cain did in this story from Genesis but do you remember God gave him a second chance? Unfortunately his response to that chance was to turn things from bad to worse.
In Genesis we read about about Cain and his brother...Abel , making offerings to God. Sounds like a good idea, right? Except when Cain offered his gifts to the Lord they were rejected. What may have made this even more irritating was that God seem delighted and pleased with the gift from Abel. The bible doesn't specifically say why Cain's gift wasn't worthy, but the bible may give us a hint when we read that Abel's give was top notch. The best of the firstborn lambs from his flock so maybe Cain skimped and didn't give his best to God or maybe his heart just wasn't in the right place.
In any case, God gave Cain a second chance and even spelled out the consequences if he didn't do what was right.
Genesis 4:7
If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
What does Cain do with his chance? Does he gratefully fill a bushel basket with his best vegetables and offer them to God? Does ask Abel for help in preparing a sweeter offering? You know what happens...he blows it. He ignores the instructions and commits the first murder. He loses the ability to grow crops and is banished to wander the earth away from the presence of the Lord.
Cain was given a second chance, but he chose to dig his hole deeper and paid a steep price for not taking advantage of it. Cain's story is a perfect illustration of the promise that is made in Proverbs 28:13
Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
We know for sure that God is a loving God, but He is also a just God. He has given us plenty of ways to know right from wrong and even if we make the wrong choice he gives us ample opportunity to make things right and turn back to Him. In the end however it's completely up to us to make the right...or wrong decision.
SO....here's the next item on our to do list. Later today, tomorrow or sometime within the next few days when you get the chance to do so. Don't ignore the Holy Spirit when he says make things right. Make that needed apology, take back that little "white lie"...*(a lie is a lie whether it be little or big because the impact could be just as troublesome or devastating to whom it was told.) or flee from that impure thought. Also you need to make it right with the Lord, ask forgiveness.
That's your second chance, take it, you might not get another.
God speaks directly to Cain and gives some pretty clear instructions. He says, "Do what is right". That tells us a few things worth remembering. There is a right and a wrong, we can know it and we have a choice. We need to follow the path that is righteous because there are consequences if we don't. Thankfully, we're not a alone in this fight. Genesis 4:7 also tells us that although sin is waiting to pounce...God has provided us a way to face sin and claim victory.
When God offers a way out...take it.
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