Genesis 4 reveals the story of Cain and Abel.  What I find most interesting from the story is found in verse 2.  “Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.  In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord.  But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.”

Where did that come from?  Did God hand Adam and Eve a handbook on Worship etiquette when He escorted them out of the garden?  I don’t find any scriptures that reveal any communication between God and Adam and Eve concerning bringing offerings and placing them before God.  I do find many scriptures, however, that reveal many things about the act of worship to God.  Let’s never forget how God created us.  Genesis 1:26- ” Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”   We were created in God’s image.  We came into being with “pre-installed” parts.  One of the most important “parts” that God put within us is the ”instinct” to worship.  Acts 17:26-27 says, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”  The fact of the matter is that we were created by God to worship.  We were created to be in relationship with Him.  All mankind comes into this world with the “pre-installed” instinct to worship. It is absolutely amazing to read about different civilizations being discovered in our world today that have never been exposed to any outside influence.  Usually they are discovered deep in the jungles of some far off place completely secluded from the modern world and all its thinking and systems.  What is most amazing is that this group of people have survived without the modern technology that we enjoy.  They have survived and literally thrived without television or radio or fast food places.  And what is completely shocking is that within the group there is always some idea of a god that they serve.  Somehow they have come up with an idea that there is a “higher being” and that ”higher being” is to be worshipped.  Granted, the “higher being” that they have established might not correspond very well with who we know  the only true God to be, but the truth remains, they were worshipping a god. There was  no outside influence concerning religion or church,  no outside influence concerning creation or a creator,  yet somewhere along the way, they established a system of worship to a god.    Where did that come from?  It came from God.  It is how we are ALL created- In the image of God.  We have a natural “instinct” to worship.  Now whether man decides to use that instinct to worship the one and only true God is entirely their choice.  Many choose to use that instinct to worship other things, usually themselves.  Still others use that instinct to worship a god or gods that they have created.  Regardless, we all have this God-given instinct to worship.  The only challenge remains in how we choose to respond to that instinct.  Do we worship the God who created us with that instinct?  Or do we reject Him and choose to worship someone or something else?  The conclusion remains the same.  We choose.  The truth also remains the same.  There is only one true God and creator of all mankind and He has created all mankind to be in relationship with Him.

I have found that trying to sort through all the events included in the creation story from Genesis can give you a headache.  It would be interesting to have a list of questions put together from everyone that has read through the story.  I personally have many more questions than answers.  What did God and man talk about during the day?  Weather certainly wasn’t the topic.  The environment was perfect.  No cold fronts to talk about or slight chance of thunderstorms.  How old did God create Adam and Eve?  Were they teenagers or older or perhaps younger?  Belly buttons or no belly buttons?  Genesis 2:15 tells us, “God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it”.  What work did the garden need?  There were no weeds or thistles.  What about this snake?  What does it mean, Genesis 3:1- ”the serpent was ”more crafty” than any of the wild animals”?  Was it a walking snake?  Did all the animals talk?  The subject of the snake alone has resulted in commentary after commentary being written with all kinds of different perspectives.  Some say that the snake was an entirely different creature before the curse turned it into the snakes we know about today.  Some say that satan just made his voice come out of the snake  while others say satan entered into the snake.     How much time passed from the time God told them to stay away from the tree until they ate from the tree?  Genesis 3:16 says the curse on the woman would involve the pain in childbirth greatly increasing.  How would Eve know if the pain was “greatly increased”?  I wonder how the the perspective of Adam and Eve changed towards the snake after they were banished from the garden.  Did they hunt it down and stomp it to pieces? 

There are certainly more questions than answers when I read through the creation story.  There is a very serious and very real danger involving “questions without answers” for many people.  People are wired differently in how they think and reason.  Some people can read the creation story and think about some of the questions and simply shake their head and move on knowing there isn’t a documented explanation or answer.  Other people will read the story and think about the questions and will not be able to move on at all.  They will come to a stop and not be able to continue until someone or something helps them to understand or to “make sense” of what they are questioning.  It is a sad situation because God doesn’t want any of His creation, for any reason, to stop in their walk with Him. I know the standard encouragement given to people struggling with questions is to wait until they get to heaven and then they can ask God.  That never worked for me.  I took a different route and today I am very thankful that I don’t have anymore questions.  I took the route that kept me walking on the journey with God.   That doesn’t mean I don’t have all sorts of thoughts, ideas and proposals about all kinds of diffent things I read from God’s word.  It just means I no longer get “hung up” on the things that I think about which I know do not have any defined answers that I can find.  No more headaches.  

And as for the waiting until I get to heaven to ask God?  Thanks, but no thanks.  I don’t like waiting lines.  Besides all that, I can’t imagine having anything at all to ask once I am in that amazing place. 

Greg Smith

Let’s establish some facts here.  God is all love.  God is all good.  God created all things good.  So why is it that everywhere we look there is evil?  Great question.  I wish I could say the same about the answer but I can’t because the answer reveals a problem that is not with God but rather with us.  First of all let’s run a little garbage disposal through the question to “clean” it up a bit.  I see a tremendous amount of “good” in our world.  I certainly don’t have to look far to find evil but I see some incredible good in the world we live in.  I see people loving one another like God wants them to love one another.  I see families that are strong and loving.  I see caring and concern and compassion amongst people here in this world.  Where did that come from?  I look at this issue from a completely opposite perspective.  I do that frequently and most times it gets me in trouble but I look at the question of evil today from a different view.  My question is “Why is there so much “good” in the world today?”

God created the world as a perfect and only good place.  He created man to be a perfect and only good people.  And God created a little thing called “free will” so that His creation had the complete ability to “choose” what they wanted to do.  We know the result of that from Genesis 3.  The perfect man in the perfect environment with the perfect relationship with God made the imperfect choice to sin against God.  It ruined everything.  Not because God wanted it ruined or planned for it to be ruined but because man made the choice that ultimately ruined it.  The result of that choice?  Curse after curse after curse.  Gen. 3:14- Curses on the snake, Gen. 3:16-Curses on the woman, Gen. 3:17-Curses on the man.  My question today is “How is a world that has been cursed directly by God supposed to look?”  I say we should not see “any” good.  It should “all” be evil!  It has been cursed by God!  In fact it is on a timer right now just waiting for the moment when God finally says, “that’s enough”, and then He is going to completely destroy it once and for all.  That’s what a curse looks like.  Expalining the presence of evil in our world is not even close to a challenge for me.  What is a true challenge is in trying to explain why there is any “good” in our world.  Why do we live in such luxury when God specifically cursed the ground so that it would only be through “painful toil” that we should eat of it?  The only ”pain and toil” I’ve experienced from “eating of it” has come from a result of putting more food in my system than I physically had room for! Why do we have it so very “good” if this God fosaken place has been directly cursed by God?  There shouldn’t be one ounce of good to be found as I see it and yet as I stated earlier, I see a tremendous amount of good in our world today.  WHY?  THe answer is that there are many people in the world today that “choose” to do good.  The good that they were origianlly created to do.  Eph. 2:10 tells us, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do “good” works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”.

Just because everything was ruined as a result of mans choice in the garden does not mean that man was no longer created for “good”.  God is the one who creates all mankind.  We are ALL God’s workmanship, created to do “good”.  Now whether we make the choice to do that which is “good” is entirey up to us, just like it was in the garden.  The result of making the choice to not do the good results in what is known as evil.   Evil was not “created”.   Evil is simply the result of not choosing good.  The definition is right that says darkness is simply the absence of light and evil is simply the absence of good.  God did not create evil. it is not possible.  God created only good and he gave that which was good the free will and choice to choose how they should live.  The choice in the garden to disobey God resulted in evil and we are suffering the consequences of that choice every day.  Not because God created evil to consume our world but because man continues to make the wrong choices in life and those wrong choices result in the evil we see and experience.  We need to get beyond the blaming game and accept the responsibility of the terrible consequences of sin in our lives.  Evil is “NOT” everywhere we look.  There is truly good to be seen in many places and that good is there because of people making the right choices concerning how they are living their lives.  We will continue to suffer the consequences of having to live in a world that has been eternally cursed by God but God has created us with the same ability to choose how we will live.  I pray we will always choose to live according to God’s word and always choose to do the good for which we were created to do.  It is so frustrating to witness how God is the first to get the blame when something bad happens in life and God is the last to get the credit when something good happens in life.  It is not right.  We live in a world that has been cursed by God.  How do you expect it to look?  I thank God everyday for the “good” that exists in our world today.  That good is here because people are choosing to do it.  I pray that we will be those people.  I pray that we will live every day demonstrating and making the choices of good until He comes.

Greg

The very familiar verse in Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path”.  That is a very powerful truth that we need to live by.  If God’s word is our lamp and our light for our path then it must be very important to know God’s word.  Not just bits and pieces but all of it.  The question now is how can we know all of GOd’s word if we have not read “all” of God’s word?  I strongly challenge and encourage all people to make the committment to read through “all” of God’s word in 2009.  Many people have done this and I say “fantastic”, read it again.  I will be reading through all of God’s word in 2009 and will also be entering some thoughts and observations on this blogging website.  It will be a first for me in many ways.  The only requirment I will ask of you is that you always acknowledge that these are “my” thoughts and observations and through them I pray that you might be challenged to think even deeper for yourself.  Do not “EVER” take anything I say and file it  under truth until you have filtered it through the only real truth and that is God’s word.  I know for certain that God wants every one of us to “grow” in our understanding of who He is and how He wants us to live (Eph. 4).  I am also certain that we will “grow” if we will make the committment to read and study God’s word.