daily prayer

     Good morning! How are we faithing?  I missed something in the Cain and Abel story. I never got the point of why Cains offering wasn't acceptable and why he killed his brother. I knew there was something deeper yet obvious but I wasn't seeing it. Cain was a farmer so what else would he offer? Abel was a shepherd therefore his sacrifice. Let me tell you what I missed. Cain's offering was a product of his hard work. Abel's was the sacrifice of an innocent. This is an example of a boastful man taking his best work to God and saying, "see what I did?"  Shall I prove this? Here it is. If he wasn't in the bragging mode he would not have been mad at his brother when his sacrifice was accepted, he would have inquired why and modified his behavior but instead, he get mad and killed what was righteous hoping he could be accepted. His boastful state saw his brother as not even working hard for his sacrifice and jealousy set in. Kinda like the fall of satan from heaven hmm? The Word tells us that we can't earn salvation and without blood there is no remission of sin. Jesus did just that. An innocent who shed his blood for us. Now this could go into much more detail but I implore you to look into this yourself. Tallying up good deeds vs bad deeds and hoping the good outweighs the bad is not at all what God teaches. Any religion that demands good works in order to get to heaven is contrary to scripture. Good works come from the abundance of grace in ones heart. Good works are a result of compassion and not of compulsion. Read Genesis 4. Then look at these;

Rom 3:23-27
  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;  To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

remember Terry and her family...

Heavenly Father,
  Thank you for revealing truth. Thank you for opening our eyes. Lord help us be mindful your grace and gift of pardon. Soften our hearts even to the knuckleheads we meet. Help us be examples of your grace and not lord it over them. Grant us wisdom and courage in Jesus name, amen