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.

The problem with acceptable sin is that it WILL destroy you if you do not remove it from your life.  Does this mean that we need to be perfect?… The Bible says that we cannot be perfect, but we are responsible for living our lives as imitators of Christ.  When we follow Christ example you will find that the sin in your life will no longer have a place to reside permanently!

One of my sins is gluttony (love for food).  My family is from New Orleans (nuff said) and culturally we use food to celebrate, comfort, bring families together, ect.  Now food is not evil, but the place of food in my life was inappropriate.  In the past, when I needed comfort instead of going to God, I went to the fridge.  Over time, this “acceptable sin” would have destroyed my relationship with God, my family, my career and eventually my own life.

As I write this today, I have decided to destroy the root of this sin.  Dieting is not longer a seasonal thing for me… proper nutrition is a lifetime responsibility.  When I am overworked or stressed I am deciding to go to God instead of to the fridge!

Look, it is not easy to admit that there was an issue here in my life.  I made every excuse, I negotiated with myself that I was being unreasonable or taking the Bible out of context.  However, once I was willing to look at the truth it was obvious that this “acceptable sin” must be removed from my life.  I am here to pray for you if you need support and I can refer scripture and materials that deal with these types of sins to help.

Just hit me up via email at james[at]jamesrobertsonjr.com (Substitute [at] for the @ symbol.)