Recent Posts

Archives

Topics

Meta

Culpability

By admin | February 8, 2010

Galatians 6:5 “For we are each responsible for our own conduct.”

<><The other day Clint McBroom, the executive pastor of Cokesbury, was riding in my SUV with me to lunch.  After lunch, I was going to another appointment and he was going to ride back to Ninth Avenue with someone else.  As Clint got in the car, he was drinking a cup of coffee.  We went to the restaurant, finished lunch, and I went on to my other appointment.  I picked up Happy, my golden retriever, at the groomers.  I put Happy in the back seat for the trip to the office.  On the way back home that night, Happy got in the front seat and slurped up the remaining coffee Clint had left in the cup in my car.  Within nine minutes of her drinking the coffee, the coffee spewed from her mouth along with all the other contents of her stomach onto the front of my suit coat.
 
The next day, I laughingly told Clint what happened to his coffee.  He gallantly said to let him pay for the cleaning bill.  I said, “No, Clint, I had culpability as well.  I thought of throwing the coffee away and did not.”  It seems in our culture, we look to blame others for things where we have, at least some degree, of mutual responsibility.  I read about a lawsuit filed against McDonald’s because the person ate there every day and got fat.  Surely, anyone who eats at a fast-food restaurant would realize the potential for weight gain.  In our culture, people don’t want to claim responsibility for their own lives.
 
As a spiritual leader, I have had many say to me, “You need to get some person to come to church.  It would do them a world of good.”  I often imagine myself when they say that going to this person’s house early one Sunday morning, waking them up, and saying, “I turned on the shower for you and laid out your clothes to get ready to go to church.”  I would probably get arrested or, at the very least, my sanity would be questioned because the only person I’m responsible for coming to church is me.
 
Sadly, many times people deny their part of the responsibility in any situation.  Generally in our culture, people have a high expectation of what others should do and a low expectation of what they themselves will do.  The fact is, we’re responsibility for our own lives.
 
In the end, as we come to the judgment of God, we will be judged for what we have done and not done.  The culpability will be all ours for what we have done with our own lives.  It behooves us to claim responsibility for what we do and don’t do.  If there is mutual responsibility, we need to at least claim our share.  We are responsible for what we do with our lives.
 
One of Averette’s principles in child rearing was the principle of natural consequences.  If one of our girls did not do something she had been told to do, she had to deal with the natural consequences of the forgotten task.  For instance, if they didn’t wash their track suits, they had to explain to the coach why they didn’t have the suit.  We did not accept the responsibility.  It was theirs.  The truth in life is we are culpable, responsible for what we do and don’t do.  The next time I will throw away the coffee cup before Happy ever sits in the front seat.
 
Prayer: 
Dear Lord, help us to be responsible for our own lives.   Amen. 

Topics: The "Enough" Series | No Comments »

Is It Okay to Love Our Things?

By admin | February 6, 2010

Matthew 24:14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them.”

<><I love my old backpack.  I honestly cannot remember where it came from or how long I’ve had it.  If I should lose it, I think I would be heartbroken.  My backpack has gone all over the world.  It’s been to Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, England, Ecuador, Honduras, Costa Rica; it’s been through the Panama Canal, and other places I can’t remember.  It’s carried within its bounds a Bible and some of the great theology and literature of the world.  For years, it has carried my daily calendar and notes to myself about things I need to do.  I believe it has gone to work with me every day of my ministry.  It went on Averette’s and my  honeymoon and was at the hospital for the birth of each of our children.
 
It generally finds a resting place in my office so it has heard stories of great celebration and huge sadness.  It has heard all the counseling I’ve ever done within the confines of my office.  If it could speak, imagine the tales it could tell!
 
Maybe the things you don’t intend to happen, happen.  Happy, my golden retriever, gets very upset and barks loud enough to disturb everyone in the apartment complex if I load the backpack up and take it to the car before she’s on the other end of her lead.  She knows if my backpack is in my office or on the chair in Shirley’s office, no matter what time it is, I will come back and retrieve her and it.  I guess in my dog’s mind, she goes wherever the backpack goes.  Last Sunday, Averette was keeping the dog at the apartment as I was preparing to leave for church.   I had the backpack over my shoulder and, as I was leaving, Averette and Happy were standing on the stairwell.  Happy jerked the lead out of Averette’s hand and ran down the apartment steps to go with me…and my backpack.
 
Over the years, I have had three backpacks given to me by the staff at former churches.  My former secretary, Jan, and another dear lady at that church went together and bought me another backpack two Christmases ago.  I said to Jan, “Thank you so much for your kindness, but please take this back.  I don’t want to give up my old backpack.”  Jan said, “My husband, Jim, already predicted your response to this gift.”  My backpack is just a thing, but I love it so.  It would be of no value to anyone else; but to me, like Happy, it is immensely valuable.
 
There are things that we have that we love.  I can’t imagine that God can see that love for my backpack as anything but good stewardship of what I was given or purchased so long ago.  God entrusts each of His servants with belongings and we’re called to be good stewards of what we possess.
 
Prayer:  Dear God, help us to be good stewards of all our possessions.   Amen. <

Topics: The "Enough" Series | No Comments »

What’s for Dinner?

By admin | February 5, 2010


Isaiah 49:10 “They shall not hunger or thirst…”

<><One day a couple of weeks ago, I woke up too late for breakfast and too busy for lunch.  So, when I got to the apartment, I was really hungry.  The only things I could find to eat were a cold sweet potato, baked onions, and oatmeal.  Really, I love cold sweet potatoes, baked onions are good, and oatmeal is one of my staples during the winter.
 
I had everything laid out in front of me and was about to eat, when my mother called.  Mom asked, “Dahling, what are you doing?”  And I said, “I just prepared supper.  I’m about to eat.”  She said, “Has Averette cooked you dinner?”  I said, “Averette’s in Spanish Fort.  I made my own dinner.”  I heard the trepidation in my mother’s voice when she said, “Honey, what are you eating?”  I swallowed hard and said, “A cold sweet potato, a baked onion, and oatmeal.”  There was a long pause and my mother said, “No field hand on the farm ate as poor as that meal.  I didn’t raise you to eat a supper consisting of those foods.  Every supper we ever had, Son, had a salad, a meat, two vegetables, bread, and a dessert.  Why aren’t you eating that type of dinner?”  I said weakly, “I happen to like cold sweet potatoes, onions, and oatmeal.”  My mother said, “Does Averette know what you’re eating?”  I said, “Well, no.”I heard a click as Mother, without salutation, hung up the phone.  Within fifteen minutes, my dialer ID reflected first - my wife, then my sister, and each of my daughters in order of their birth.  My mother missed her calling as Paul Revere.  Instead of “the British are coming,” she replaced it with “Do you know what Chip’s eating for supper?”

In actuality when you consider what most of the rest of the world eats, our culture is pretty fixated on “what’s for dinner?”  On our planet, 40,000 children die each day from causes related to poverty and one billion people struggle to earn enough just to eat.  The most common foods on our planet are beans and rice and a form of maize.  Most of the world rarely eats meat and their diet is almost always monotonous.  For a great portion of the world, a meal with a cold sweet potato, a baked onion, and oatmeal would be a feast.

Perhaps every person in our culture needs to ask, “How can I help?  What can I do to make a difference in world poverty?”  As I look at the bigger issues of denomination, would it not be better for the Christians of the world to unite under the cause of world poverty rather than splinter over differences in practice?  If the world Christian community could unite, poverty would have a better shot at being eliminated.  I think it is wonderful that my family cares what I eat.  I love being loved.  The real question is does the Christian community care about what the world has to eat for dinner.  How can we make a difference in the lives of the 40,000 children that will die today and tomorrow and the day after?

Prayer: 
Dear God, give us some idea what to do with this monumental problem.   Amen. 

Topics: The "Enough" Series | No Comments »

Existentialism

By admin | February 4, 2010

Hebrews 3:1 “…fix your thoughts in Jesus.”

<><My first week at seminary I learned a new word:  “existential.”  I soon found out that existentialism is a philosophical movement centered on individual existence.  Our culture is generally very existential.  We often begin from the perspective of our own ego.  We think first about our opinions rather than examining either the big picture or God’s opinion.
 
I have found in answering e-mails that people react according to what they think.  In actuality, as part of the Christian movement, we as individuals should not start with our opinion.  Rather we should seek God’s opinion.  It is very easy to respond from our own existential perspective.  It is much more difficult to begin discerning God’s will in any one circumstance.  As we filter life, not from our own perspective, but from God’s perspective, it changes everything.  We begin seeking God’s will through prayer, Scripture, experience, and reason.  Or, as we learn in Confirmation, the Methodist Quadrilateral.  Life, truly, is not about us and our experience.  Rather it is about God’s will.
 
The other day I was loading up things from the apartment to the car to bring to work:  my dry cleaning, my lunch, my backpack, a large painting, and lastly, my dog.  I had spent some time whining to myself about how I wish I had a garage and how challenging it was to live in the apartment.  A young woman who lives in my building  stopped me.  She is in flight school and she asked me to pray for the situation where a plane had crashed two days before and one pilot was found and a search was underway for the other pilot.  In her request, she told me of another crash that had happened two years ago where two men had been killed.  As I prayed, I prayed for her and others who were in flight school as well as praying as she requested. 
 
As I was going to work that day, I thought perhaps God wishes to use me in the apartment.  I see things, unfortunately, from my personal perspective and from the existential experience of what I feel and think.  I felt ashamed as I rode to work that I wasn’t more open to simply being wherever God chose to use me.  Life is not so much about how I feel.  It’s about how God chooses to use me. 
 
We, as a culture, are much too much concerned about our own thoughts and comfort.  It behooves us, as Christians, to move from the philosophical existential experience to a deeply Christian understanding of life.  If we believe God guides us and uses us as He will, then we may sometimes find ourselves in places we would not personally choose.  Our lives are greater than the sum total of our experience.  Our lives, if we are Christians, are about being available to being used by God.  Probably, I am the only minister that young woman knows in Pensacola.  I believe God knows exactly what He’s doing and, as Christians, we constantly surrender our will to God.
 
Prayer: 
Dear God, please use us.   Amen. 

Topics: The "Enough" Series | No Comments »

Paris

By admin | February 3, 2010

I Timothy 6:6 “But godliness with contentment is great gain.”

<><Our world is a kaleidoscope of opportunity:  things to do, places to go, sites to see, and stuff on which to spend money.  As human beings, we can always be restless or we can find contentment.  A human life that finds contentment is truly a blessed life.
 
My grandparents had an absolutely beautiful farm.  They took tender care of it and I thought they were extremely happy with their lives.  They loved the hard work, reading of their books, and their family.  From the perspective of youth, I assumed that was all they ever wanted to be and do. 
 
One day, while sitting on the back fender of the tractor my granddaddy was driving, he stopped and we had some sweet tea together and talked.  Somehow my grandfather told me of a personal ambition that had been a dark secret from me and maybe everyone else.  Granddaddy had gone to college and then joined the army when World War I broke out.  In his absence, my great-grandmother, Anna, and her two unmarried brothers, Eli and David, managed the farm.  Granddad, after the war, said to my great-grandmother he wanted to go live in Paris.  He wanted to have a life there - not on the farm.  His mother said, “No.”  She said, “My parents worked to build this farm and you’re the only one who can keep it in the family.” 
 
I remember that conversation from my childhood.  He seemed wistful as he told me the story.  In response, I said something like, “I’m sorry.  Did you miss not living in Paris?”  He said, “Sometimes I think about what life in Paris would be and how my life would have been different.  However, I’m content with my life and if I hadn’t chosen this, I wouldn’t have had Bunnie Mae, my children, and a lot of personal satisfaction.”  I said, “But, Granddaddy, you could have had a great life in Paris.”  He looked at me with his big, blue eyes and said, “But then, Chipper, there wouldn’t have been you, and the possibility of your life alone is worth the sacrifice of Paris.”
 
That conversation deeply affected me.  Perhaps we’re all faced with choices. I understand now the contentment of living a responsible life.  I have been content with tending the garden of souls that God has placed in my care.  We all have to decide our commitments.  Contentment comes from the satisfaction of our heart.  Contentment comes from serving God and living a worthy life.  I am now about the same age as my grandfather was then.  I am grateful for the legacy of contentment he passed on to his grandson.
 
Prayer: 
Dear Lord, help us to be content with the choices and decisions we make.   Amen. 

Topics: The "Enough" Series | No Comments »

The Temporary and the Permanent

By admin | February 2, 2010

Psalm 39:4 “…let me know how fleeting my life is.”

One of the great challenges of living human life is to realize it is not permanent.  We’re not home yet.  Human life is minute as compared to eternity.  We become so preoccupied with the temporary we don’t always remember the permanent.  Jesus clearly teaches us that our permanent home is with Him in heaven.
 
<><Our days shade from one to the next and we forget they’ll end.  We put so much into our lives as we live them that we forget every phase will come to an end.  Life as a child and the long days of childhood move to the short days of the aged.  We put too much into each experience and then it’s over.  In my life, there are three experiences that remind me that everything comes to an end.  Preaching, painting, and writing are intensely temporary experiences.
 
As I prepare to preach, there is this looming deadline of Sunday.  On Monday, my secretary, Shirley, and I start talking about the sermon.  We do the research and type a first draft which may have extraneous material.  As the week progresses, the other ministers and I confer, I continue to write, and I try out stories on people I meet.  There comes a point where the manuscript is finished and then I begin practicing the message.  When Sunday comes, I have my routines and preach the three services at the Ninth Avenue campus.  At high noon, the sermon is, for me, completed and over.  For the congregation, it lives on in Podcast - it still exists, but for me it’s over.
 
The writing of devotionals is another kind of experience.  It begins with an idea and a scripture.  It involves much more concentration on the grammar and the editing than the sermon.  Each devotional is limited to one idea.  When it is finished, it is e-mailed to the computer file that sends the devotionals.  The devotional is over for me although it may not go out for two weeks.  In truth, when someone mentions it to me, it’s like a fond memory of something my secretary and I did - finished - and I go on to the next.  It lives again in cyberspace.
 
Painting a canvas is an intensely living experience.  I study, dream, photograph, translate, paint over, and invest my heart and soul in that painting for the time that I paint it.  The day comes when I sign it, frame it, and usually it goes to live on somebody’s wall.  And again, I’m on to the next painting and it’s over.  When I happen on the painting at somebody else’s house, I feel fond memories, but in a way, it becomes divorced from my living experience. 
 
The living of this life is so uniquely like preaching, writing or painting.  Temporarily I invest everything in that experience.  It is the best I can do and it is intensely life as I do it.  Then it’s over and I go on to something else.
 
Our life on earth is temporarily permanent.  The experience of our days is temporary, but the godly greatness of our souls never ends.  We must always remember and delineate between the temporary and the permanent.
 
Prayer: 
Dear Lord, help us to live the temporary and never forget the permanent.   Amen.  

Topics: The "Enough" Series | No Comments »

Only in Pensacola

By admin | February 1, 2010

Acts 2:5 “Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.”

Stuart Worth, one of the associate pastors at Cokesbury, was in the passenger seat as I was driving south on Ninth Avenue.  As we approached the intersection at Airport Boulevard, there was a person preaching using a ventriloquist’s dummy.  Stuart said, “Slow down, Chip.  I want to take a picture.”  As we drove away, Stuart made the comment: “Only in Pensacola.”<><Recently, I was driving to work down Davis Highway and had a similar experience.  I was in the turn lane and a man was selling newspapers on a cold day.  Happy had seen him in the past and always noticed him because the man wears a huge furry, foxtail hat. This hat is exactly the same color as my golden retriever.
 
Happy looks at me when she sees him with a look that I read as, “I hope I’m not related to him.”  It was a slow traffic day and the man noticed Happy.  He asked me to roll down the window and he tried to pet my dog.  She plastered herself against the opposite side of the car and looked at me with deeply fearful eyes.  He walked to the other side and asked me to roll down that window.  Happy has this great move when she’s afraid.  She jumps in my arms with her feet up in the air and puts her face around my back so she doesn’t have to see the fearful object.  As I rolled down the window and he stuck his hand inside, she jumped in my lap, flipped, and while I was trying to steer the automobile, put her head on my shoulder, and whimpered.  The light turned green as I remembered Stuart’s words:  “Only in Pensacola.”
 
The previous community I lived in for so long had a sameness that Pensacola does not have.  Pensacola is this wonderful, eclectic city with such great energies.  Stuart’s implication is correct.  You can meet all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds in this city.  What a great opportunity to serve God and be a witness!
 
At the time of the early Christian movement, Jerusalem was at the crossroads of the world.  People from all walks of life came to Jerusalem.  For the first time in history, the Roman roads made it possible to meet many different kinds of people from every nationality.  In that period of time, travel was easily possible.  Within a few generations, the Dark Ages would descend upon the world.  However, God’s timing was so perfect that Christianity had been carried all over the Mediterranean and European regions or the known world at that time.  In that day, you could meet any kind of person on any Roman road and have the opportunity to impress them with your faith.  Pensacola, because of the Navy base and the beaches, has people living here from all over the world.  This community could be remarkably influential for Jesus Christ. Cokesbury United Methodist Church is at the center of our community.  People in the church are from all over the area.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we, as a community of faith, got really excited about Jesus?  We could show our community what real faith in God looks like.  Perhaps only in Pensacola could this movement come alive.  What a great difference we could make for Jesus if we, here and now, understood the magnificent message of our Messiah.
 
Prayer: Dear Lord, help Your message to be real in our community of faith.   Amen. 
 

Topics: The "Enough" Series | No Comments »

Careless Words

By admin | January 30, 2010

Matthew 12:36 “I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter…”

<><Years ago, I used to love to tease my children on the telephone.  There was a lady in my former church.  Her name was Marie Woodall.  Mrs. Woodall had a very distinctive voice that I could imitate.  I would call my house and get one of my children on the phone.  I said, in an elderly ladies voice, “This is Marie Woodall.  I want to speak to your father, Reverend Hale…You know I own Woodall Funeral Home and Crematory.  Our motto is “You kill ‘em, we chill ‘em; you stab ‘em, we slab ‘em.  I need your father to come do a funeral for me.  I’ll pay him $5.00.  The service is at the home and then it’s graveside.  This man who died was an inmate at Atmore prison and most of his friends won’t be able to attend.  Please ask your Daddy to call Marie Woodall.”
 
Well, my girls will tell you I did many variations of the Marie Woodall impersonations and it became a part of our family lore.  Unfortunately, one day, the real Marie Woodall called our house and got Anna Camille and said, “Honey, this is Marie Woodall.  I’d like to talk to your Mommy or Daddy.”  Anna Camille said, “Stop, Daddy.  I don’t feel like you teasing me now.”  Marie Woodall said, “Please, I’d like to speak to Reverend Hale.”  Anna Camille said, “I guess you’re going to tell me now you own a funeral home that’s called Woodall Funeral Home and your motto is…”  Mrs. Woodall said, “Anna Camille, would you please let me speak to your father.”  And Anna Camille said, “Daddy, stop it!  You really do sound like an old lady now.”  Mrs. Woodall said, “I’ll just call your father tomorrow at the church.”
 
That night Anna Camille told me about the phone call and how my impersonation voice had gotten much better.  She said, “You sounded just like an elderly lady and you never let on that it was really you.”  I said, “That’s because it wasn’t me.”  Mrs. Woodall called and invited Averette and me to eat with her at her home.  When we got there, we had a delightful meal and a wonderful conversation.  She turned to us at one point and said, “I’m so sorry your younger daughter is not quite right in the head.”  Under the table, Averette kicked my shin as hard as she could, smiled, and said, “Would you think me rude if I asked for another small piece of that delicious pecan pie?”
 
My wife, lovingly, pointed out that there might be a price to teasing.   She said, “Perhaps it would be better not to do that again.”  My daddy always taught me never to miss a good opportunity to shut up.  So, I just smiled and drove home.
 
Teasing has a price tag.  Sometimes teasing is not funny, but hurtful.  I think it is better to always speak and remember that our words are accountable at the Judgment Day.
 
Prayer:  Dear Lord, help us to be supportive in the words that we say and always mindful that we are judged by the words that we speak.   Amen.

Topics: The "Enough" Series | No Comments »

Seed, Soil and Sower

By admin | January 29, 2010

Luke 8:8 “Some fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.”

<>< Jesus’ first year of ministry was a year of great popularity.  People followed Him from place to place and He taught many stories.  One of my favorite stories was the Parable of the Sower.  We remember that story of the sower who went out to sow his seeds.  As he scattered the seeds, some fell along the path and were trampled upon or the birds ate them.  Some seeds fell upon the rocks where there was little soil and sprouted quickly,  but because they had no nourishment, they died.  Other seeds fell among the thorny ground and were choked.  And some seeds, thankfully, fell on good soil and yielded up a great crop.  As we think about this parable, we think of the three ingredients that it took:  the seed, the soil, and the sower. 
 
As Jesus told this parable, the seed obviously represented the Word of God.  The Book of Acts states:  “…and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  The ends of the earth weren’t even dreamed of during that period of time.  We are called as Christians to take the seed of the Gospel to everyone we meet.  We must trust this seed will germinate in human hearts.  Obviously, the seed must be planted there for it to grow.  As a farmer, my grandfather took tender care that the seeds were from the best possible crops.  I remember every time he would plow a field and planted - whether it was corn, watermelon, or squash - he would take his hat off and pray for that seed to germinate.  He would always say, “Anybody can plant a seed, but only God can make it grow.”  We, as Christians, are called to plant the seeds and trust God with the growth.<><The soil in the parable was very important.  The seeds were lost when they fell on the hard ground just like a seed on the pavement would be lost.  The seeds that fell on the shallow ground or in the briar patch wouldn’t have much chance either.  One of the tasks on the farm that was highly glamorous was having a trailer behind the tractor, driving through the pastures, and picking up the cow manure to mix in with the soil.  I always looked forward to that aromatic pleasure.  One of us would get to drive the tractor slowly while the other got to pick up the natural fertilizer.  The soil or the environment is so important for the seed to grow, but it must be nurtured.  A loving church family is one of the places where the seed of God is nurtured.
 
We all have the opportunity to sow the seeds.  All we must do is share God’s word with the people we meet.  We don’t have to claim any responsibility except the sharing of the Word of God.  The sower, just like my grandfather, trusts in God and prepares the soil.  God must do the rest.  We must simply tell the story of Jesus at every opportunity, and share the words of life with all whom we meet.  My first sermon in my first church on my first Sunday lasted five minutes and I thought I had told everything I knew.  I called a minister friend who said, “Don’t tell what you know; tell what God reveals to you in the Bible and through your heart.”  From that point on, seldom did one of my sermons last just five minutes…ever again.  Over thirty years of sermons and many hundreds of devotionals later, the Word of God is prolific.  We just have to trust in Him.
 
Prayer:  Dear Lord, help us to sow the seeds and create a nurturing environment so that Your words may grow in every human heart.  Amen. 

Topics: The "Enough" Series | No Comments »

Actions and Attitudes

By admin | January 28, 2010

Genesis 4:10 “What have you done? Listen, your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground…”

<><If we sin against someone else, that sin is not passive.  God always weighs the things we do that hurt others.  God hears the injustice and we live with the consequences of that injustice.  Our best assurance is right attitude and action as we approach life and others.
 
After Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden, they had two sons - Cain and Abel.  Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil.  Cain and Abel both brought offerings to place before the Lord.  The Lord looked favorably upon Abel and unfavorably upon Cain and his offerings.  I surmise that Abel offered his gift with a different heart than Cain.  It certainly didn’t mean that God didn’t love Cain.  The Lord spoke words of encouragement to Cain.  When Cain was angry that his offering was not accepted, his face was very downcast and, obviously, he was unhappy or angry.  I can take one look at my girls and tell if they’re happy or not.  I have learned because I love them to even see hurt that they try to hide behind their eyes.  Because I am their father, I can tell on the phone when something is bothering them.
 
The Lord asked Cain “Why are you angry?  Why is your face downcast?  If you do what is right, will it not be accepted?”  So much theology is expressed in those lines.  I have learned from observing life that if we’re righteous, even if we suffer, in time, we will transcend the difficulties.  God expects us to have a right attitude and actions.  If our attitudes and actions are always based on doing the Godly thing and serving Him, nothing can defeat us.  Even when we have disappointments or trials, if our attitudes and actions are righteous and Godly, the outcome will be favorable. 
 
The Lord spoke to Cain with one of the most poignant lines that is in the Bible:  “But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”  I love that line.  It sums up a huge truth about life.  If we don’t do the right and Godly thing, then sin, like a tiger is crouching at the door of our lives.  Our attitude affects our lives.  Sin or evil desires us and we all must master it.  The truth is that all human beings have their places of weakness - our Achilles heel - places of vulnerability.  Each one of us must master our own attitudes and actions.
 
Of course, we know that Cain attacked and killed his brother, Abel.  When asked by the Lord, “Where is your brother.  Cain lied and replied, “Am I responsible for my brother?”  The Lord said, “What have you done?  Listen!  Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.”  I understand this text to say the sin that we do to others is not neutral or passive.  The injustices done to others cry out to the Lord.  We must not speak or act unjustly.
 
Interestingly, the Lord did not kill Cain nor did Adam and Eve take action against their son.  But the Lord did curse him.  This text is so important and it reminds us that I don’t have to take action against those who have sinned against us.  The hurt of our tears cries out to the Lord.  He will take action and bring His curses on those who do evil.  God encouraged Cain to do right and have a good attitude.  After reading this story and knowing its contents, it speaks to me of the great necessity for a right heart and a right attitude.
 
Prayer:  Dear Lord, help us not to squander our money or our life even on little things.   Amen. 

Topics: The "Enough" Series | No Comments »


« Previous Entries