Here Goes Nuthin'

To the good people of the blogosphere:

Hello. This is my initial "post." My wife has blogged for a few months and I had this thought this morning that I would join in the fun. I may realize in a few weeks/months that this is a whipping, but I'm willing to give it the 'ol college try.

I think this blog will be mainly thoughts or observations, with a few questions thrown in for others to ponder with me.

Okay, let's begin.I read today in Genesis 4 some things that interested me:

• It seems that worship was in our dna from the beginning. As you may recall, Cain kills Abel in this chapter. Why? Because God seemed to like Abel's offering better than Cains. Offering? Who told them to bring an offering, what an offering was, or who should the audience of their offering be? It's possible God told them this, but it's not recorded. Also, the final verse in the chapter is interesting because it says that "At that time men began to call on the name of the Lord," where "call on" could be translated as "proclaim." Again, this means to me that guys were going around talking of God - this sounds "worshippy" to me also. Who told them to go around talking about God? Again, it's possible God suggested this, but it's not recorded that He did. If worshipping God with offerings and by publicly speaking about Him (praise) came so naturally to fallen Cain & Abel & others (remember, this is on the wrong side of The Fall), then why are those activities so unnatural for us?
• Who are they talking about? In verse 14, Cain responds to God's punishment of him (banishing him and having him become a wanderer) by saying the punishment is too great and that "whoever finds me will kill me." Who is he talking about? God graciously puts a mark on him "so that no one who found him would kill him." Who are these other people out there that Cain's going to run into? It seems to me that God had created some other people (where else did Cain & Abel's wives come from?), but their creation was just never mentioned - obviously God knew how to create humans (see Adam & Eve), so creating some more would not have been a big deal and, therefore, maybe didn't warrant being recorded.
• The prophecy of sin leading to death mentioned in chapter 2 & 3, is already being fulfilled in chapter 4. Cain killed Abel because of jealousy, an emotional reaction that didn't exist before The Fall, but did come as a result of The Fall. It stinks that sin has made relationships difficult every since then and can even kill a relationship. Even in our best relationships, sin usually kills true intimacy. To have truly intimate relationships, we have to be willing to be vulnerable and being vulnerable is unbelievably difficult because of the shame we have about ourselves (see Adam's reply to God in 3:10 - we hid because we were naked - 1st sign of shame). Isn't it also interesting that God, in His graciousness, covers their shame/nakedness with animal skins - how does one go about getting skin from an animal? It takes a death - again, sin leads to death.

Ok, that's enough for tonight. I don't think I'll have this much to say very often. I could be wrong.