Worshipping God's way
When serving God, what you want rarely matters. He gave you all the time to do everything. And he's only asked us for 10% of our time this year. So how he wants you to worship, is how you should worship.
Take Cain and Abel. Cain may have been a vegan. Abel was the shepherd. There was a time when they had to make offerings and Cain made an offering of fruit while his brother sacrificed a sheep. God did not accept Cain's offering; and Cain was angry. Cain may have believed that this showed God hated him. However, I do not think the acceptance was based on hatred; it was preference. I believe that besides its use for sacrificial purposes, God really likes both meat and cakes equally. He warns against eating too much meat and poisoned the quails when the children of Israel sinned, yet He uses meat only for sacrifices. On the other hand, whenever he feeds his prophets, their meals are mostly made of almonds, figs, fruits, breads, and rarely meat.
For the first time, we see God actually talking to a man as if it were his own child. Cain talks with Abel when God reasoned with him; but soon after, he kills his brother. God asked Cain for Abel. He forgot that God knew when His parents ate fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and Cain became the first human to act like a real prick. He asked God if he was his brother's keeper. Obviously, this was not the age where God gave men dire punishments. He put a mark on Cain so no one would kill him. The punishment was taking from Cain what he most loved- gardening. Nothing would ever grow if Cain was the one doing the planting. He became an outdoor man and cared for animals and lived in tents. His son's name was Lamech. He would be the first man to provide the terms of committing a sin 77 times before the other person could retaliate or not forgive anymore. He killed two men. Like father, like son huh?
Because Cain did not want to worship God like God had said, he caused himself a great deal of pain. We are so lucky that God is not dealing with us like that these days. Our lives are set to run it's course as we make decisions to take the road to destruction or the way of righteousness. And there are oh so many chances to decide whether to come back or take a fork to the best road. Just be sure you take God's road.
Take Cain and Abel. Cain may have been a vegan. Abel was the shepherd. There was a time when they had to make offerings and Cain made an offering of fruit while his brother sacrificed a sheep. God did not accept Cain's offering; and Cain was angry. Cain may have believed that this showed God hated him. However, I do not think the acceptance was based on hatred; it was preference. I believe that besides its use for sacrificial purposes, God really likes both meat and cakes equally. He warns against eating too much meat and poisoned the quails when the children of Israel sinned, yet He uses meat only for sacrifices. On the other hand, whenever he feeds his prophets, their meals are mostly made of almonds, figs, fruits, breads, and rarely meat.
For the first time, we see God actually talking to a man as if it were his own child. Cain talks with Abel when God reasoned with him; but soon after, he kills his brother. God asked Cain for Abel. He forgot that God knew when His parents ate fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and Cain became the first human to act like a real prick. He asked God if he was his brother's keeper. Obviously, this was not the age where God gave men dire punishments. He put a mark on Cain so no one would kill him. The punishment was taking from Cain what he most loved- gardening. Nothing would ever grow if Cain was the one doing the planting. He became an outdoor man and cared for animals and lived in tents. His son's name was Lamech. He would be the first man to provide the terms of committing a sin 77 times before the other person could retaliate or not forgive anymore. He killed two men. Like father, like son huh?
Because Cain did not want to worship God like God had said, he caused himself a great deal of pain. We are so lucky that God is not dealing with us like that these days. Our lives are set to run it's course as we make decisions to take the road to destruction or the way of righteousness. And there are oh so many chances to decide whether to come back or take a fork to the best road. Just be sure you take God's road.
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