It did not take man long to continue to fall into sin.  Chapter 4 talks about the birth of Cain and Abel.  In Gen Ch4:2 Eve says that she received a man child (Cain) with the help of the Lord.

This scripture tells me that God’s hand is active in conception of Cain.  God does not make mistakes and each and every one of us that was conceived was done purposefully by God.  She gave birth to Cain first, then Abel and Able was keeper of the flocks and Cain tiller of the ground.

Trouble came when they were giving offerings to God. In Genesis Ch 4:4-7  Abel brought his offerings and their fat portions and the Lord had was satisfied with it.  When Cain rolled up with his offering he was not pleased. Gen 4:5 “but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became angry and his countenance fell”.

Now I did not understand what countenance meant, so I went to dictionary.com and looked it up:

coun·te·nance

1.

appearance, esp. the look or expression of the face: a sad countenance.

2.

the face; visage.

3.

calm facial expression; composure.

4.

approval or favor; encouragement; moral support.

5.Obsolete. bearing; behavior.

So Cain was upset that God was not pleased with his offering. In Gen 7:7 “Then the Lord said to Cain,  “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 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.”

There are a few things that really stood out  to me in this scripture.  Cain was being affected by sin and sin had influenced Cain to not work as hard, have a negative attitude (countenance fell), have jealousy in his heart, and anger.  I also highlighted the verse where God told Cain to master sin.  Cain and Abel were so close to God that they could talk to him, yet Cain was still affected by sin! I don’t know about you, but I experienced all of the emotions that Cain has and this chapter strengthens my resolve to fight sin with the help of God.

Cain could have chosen to work harder to please God, but he did not.  He chose wrong and was punished for it.

The rest of the chapter shows Cain’s life after he kills Abel and is punished for it.  Even after Cain’s mistakes God makes provision for Cain by giving him a mark so that no one that knew what he did would kill him.  Even in our sin, even when we fail, God still loves and will provide a way forward.  His will is perfect.

Gen 3:1-4″… And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, “You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?”. 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.” 4The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!”

When God found out about what Adam had done, Adam blamed Eve for sinning, and Eve blamed the serpent. (devil made me do it)

Satan starts by asking a question which Eve knows the answer.  Jesus Christ left the Holy Spirit with us to help us in our walk with Christ.  I believe that the Holy Spirit helps us understand what we read in the Bible, what we hear in Christian fellowship, and what we hear during prayer.  Satan lies by flipping the script on Eve telling her that God is wrong, she will not die, and that God is hiding something from her. Of course later in the reading Eve eats the apple, gives it to Adam and when God finds out, there are dire consequences that we still live with today.

When you deal with temptation, flee from sin!  Sometimes I wonder, why did Satan take the form of a serpent?  Eve could have run away or Adam could have drove the snake out of the garden… What if they both cried out to God to remove this conspiring creature out of the garden?

I thank God that through the blood of Jesus Christ that we have been forgiven.  When we have to deal with the serpent in our lives remember the scriptures so that we can understand how the enemy works and to call on God.

I decided to talk to my friend (let’s just call my friend “Sam” for this post) about Christ.  My friend Sam participated in many different religions. He took pride in the years of research, study, and praying to find the right “fit”.  Sam told me that he was open to all religious experiences from A to Z. Sam believes that we all serve the “same God” we just call him different names. (That just makes things so easy to rationalize doesn’t it?) He then went on to discuss the similarities between religions from an academic perspective.

I asked Sam, “Do you know where you are going when you die?”

He replied, “I don’t know”.

Then I asked, “Do you believe there is a Heaven and hell?”

Sam replied, “Yes I do”.

Then I asked, “How are you getting to Heaven Sam?”

Sam responded, “We are responsible for what we do in our lives.  At the end of life God will ask us what we have done and we have to answer for our decisions.”

I then asked, “Do you believe that God is perfect?”

Sam replied, “I do.”

I then asked, “Do you think that you and I are perfect?”

Sam replied, “No, I have done lots of wrong things in my life but I try to do the best I can.”

I then told Sam that I am a liar, a thief, adulterer (lust), and have broken God’s commandments as well.  Once we both agreed that we were far from perfect I then asked Sam,

“How do you think a perfect God would judge a sinner like you and I?”

Sam did not have an answer for this.  Instead Sam grew a little irritated and said to me, “Look…. I know what you are trying to do.  You think that I am going to “hell” unless I believe that Christ is God.  I know where you are at James… I used to be there as well, but after my research and prayer I know that am a good person and I am “pretty sure” that I am going to Heaven.”

At this point I was very slow to speak because I love my friend and did not want to argue or speak from my own understanding.  I listened for several minutes on how my “well intentioned” invitation to Christ was appreciated, but he refused to open up his heart to Christ.

At this point the Holy Spirit reminded me of this verse:

1 Corinthians 3:6-8

⁶I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. ⁷So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.

This passages says to me that I may plant the seed (Christ), someone else can water the seed (Christ),but God causes the growth.  It goes further to say that “neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything”…  but only God causes the growth!

My friends, keep this scripture close to you when talking to your friends about Christ.  I am not a Pastor nor am I a Bible expert.  I believe in my heart that my job now is to pray for Sam so that he too may know Christ as I do.  If you are reading this, please pray for my friend as well…

I am sharing this message so that Christians that are sharing the gospel with friends and family understand that you will not always be received warmly talking about Christ.  If you friend has another religion, has a family that has never gone to church, or a bad experience with Church there can sometimes be a very emotional response.  If this happens, remember that you do not cause the growth.  God does.  Trust in him, pray for your friends and let God’s will be done.

Scriptures that I used during my discussion with “Sam” below:

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 14:6

⁶Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.