Todd's Tips For Tackling Tough Times Untangling Today's Twists With Timeless Truths The once perfect garden called Eden had been tainted by sin. Work had become toil and perfect communion was no longer a guarantee. Adam and Eve broke the continual vertical communion that was a natural part of paradise, but it was their boys who broke the horizontal communion that marked the human race. The lesson is that sin always separates. It is guaranteed to separate us from the Heavenly Father, and it is also likely to separate us from other people. Jealousy reared its ugly head there. A dictionary definition of jealousy is mental uneasiness from suspicion or fear of rivalry, unfaithfulness, etc., as in love or aims. Abel was afraid that the rejection of his sacrifice equaled a rejection of him. The result was a consuming anger that led to the murder of his brother. God's response could have been the inverse golden rule: let me do unto you what you have done unto others. Instead God chose to exile him from his home. The burden of leaving the only surroundings he had ever known seemed unbearable to Cain He responded, GE 4:13 Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." Cain assumed that God was confined to Eden. That attitude lives today. God is only in... You fill in the blanks. Some believe He only resides in Southern Gospel Music. Some seem to believe that our God is a casual God and dressing up for worship doesn't suit Him. Still, others confine the Lord to a specific translation of the Bible, or a specific group of worshipers. God has never been and will never be as small as those who worship Him. Why do we become so narrow minded and plagued by tunnel vision? It is because we equate our experience with God with His existence. If we move to another place, we don't leave God behind. David confessed in Psalm 139:15, "My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was formed in the depths of the earth." Can you look inside a mother's womb and observe the making of a person? You can watch the movement of who is there with an ultrasound, but to watch the intricate crafting of the Creator is a hidden process. Yet it is not hidden to the Maker. The Lord saw you there and He sees you now. The one who formed you sustains you. Cain was worried about being abandoned. He was concerned that leaving all he had ever known meant being left by all who ever knew him. God placed a mark on Cain which was a mark of safety. GE 4:15 But the LORD said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the LORD's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. God placed a mark on His kids today that is a mark of safety and security. We are marked by the Holy Spirit. The Bible puts it this way. Ephesians 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory. I love that word included. Cain was worried about being left out, abandoned. God promised to keep Him safe. Child of God, when you received Christ, you were included. The seal of the Holy Spirit is evidence of that. When you feel convicted of sin, it is a reminder that sin is not who you really are. When you long for a place besides this place, it is because your true residence is another place. Our sin often forces us to go where we never wanted to be, yet His grace shown at Calvary assures us that we are headed to the place we were sealed for. Just as the Lord made you in a secret place, He will transport you to another unseen land. This place is unspotted by the thorns and thistles that mark our current residence. It is a place where the presence of God is never doubted because it is a place where the residents are no longer blinded, but see clearly. |
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