Cain and Abel

It is amazing to me to read the results of sin entering into the world in Gen. 4. How quickly we see the devastating consequences of sin manifested. Here Cain and Abel both bring an offering to the Lord. Abel's is accepted, and Cain's is not. The message to Cain is, "Sin crouches at the door, and its desire to toward you, but you should master over it." In other words, there are things in your life that you need to deal with, and if you don't, they will deal with you. Cain compared himself with his brother, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he got, until he decided that the way to deal with this was to get rid of his brother. He did not stop to consider that he should deal with the things in his own life. He was angry, unhappy, envious, dishonest, lying, deflecting the truth, and shirking his own responsibility. So he eliminated his brother, and thought he had got rid of the problem. But God asked him, "Where is your brother?", to which Cain responded, "I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?" First he lied, for he knew exactly where his brother was, and secondly, he tried to deflect the question by asking another question, as if to say, that is not my responsibility. My brother can do what he wants. Why ask me? But truth would prevail, because the Lord said, "Your brother's blood cries to me from the ground." Truth will prevail, though we decieve ourselves. This is a great story about living in truth, and dealing with the things in our lives privately with God, before those things begin to deal with us publicly. Even a half truth is the same as a whole lie, maybe worse, because a half truth gives the impression that we are telling the truth, when in fact, we are only covering our lie by telling part of the truth. This is a great leadership truth, that God desires truth in our hearts, and we need to ask for cleansing and renewing of our hearts. Psalm 51:6,10-12. Though going through cleansing is painful, the result is very very good!