OUR DAILY BREAD : A WORTHY OFFERING

[cimi]

May 20
Thursday


A WORTHY
OFFERING

READ:
Genesis 4:1-7
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If you do well, will you
not be accepted? And
if you do not do well,
sin lies at the door.
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I was delighted when a mutual friend gave my neighbor a Bible. But my neighbor told me she stopped reading it because she couldn't understand why God would be so unfair as to reject Cain's offering. "After all," she said, "as a farmer, he simply brought to God what he had. Did God expect him to buy a different kind of sacrifice? Sadly, she had missed the point.

It wasn't that God didn't like vegetables. Rather, he knew that Cain's offering was masking an unrighteous attitude. Cain wasn't fully committed to God, as expressed by the fact that he wasn't living according to His ways.

It's easy to worship God on the outside while stubbornly keeping territory from Him on the inside. Jude writes about outwardly religious people who use religious activities to cover the reality of their sinful lives: "Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain" (Jude 11). We can faithfully serve God, sing His praises, and give sacrificially to His work. But God doesn't want any of that without our hearts.

Does the Lord take priority over our plans and dreams? Is He worth more than the sin that tempts us? When we express to Him that He is more worthy than anything or anyone else in our lives, it's an offering He won't refuse. __Joe Stowell
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``````````````````Lord, may our worship and our praise,```````````
``````````````````From hearts surrendered to Your ways,``````````
```````````````````````Be worthy offerings of love```````````````
```````````````For all Your blessings from above. __Sper```````````
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God won't refuse a heart that is surrendered to Him.

**************Today's Bible Reading __ Genesis 4:1-7*************

1 Now Adam knew Eve his
wife, and she conceived and
bore Cain, and said, "I have
acquired a man from the
LORD." 2 Then she bore
again, this time his brother
Abel. Now Abel was a
keeper of sheep, but Cain
was a tiller of the ground.

3 And in the process of time
it came to pass that Cain
brought an offering of the
fruit of the ground to the
LORD. 4 Abel also brought
of the firstborn of his flock
and of their fat. And the
LORD respected Abel and
his offering, 5 but He did
not respect Cain and his
offering. And Cain was very
angry, and his countenance
fell.

6 So the LORD said to
Cain, "Why are you angry?
And why has your
countenance fallen? 7 If you
do well, will you not be
accepted? And if you do not
do well, sin lies at the door.
And its desire is for you,
but you should rule over it."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Some Bible teachers have speculated that Abel's offering was
accepted because his sacrificial sheep fulfilled blood atonement
(v.4). The cite that the first sacrifice of animals occurred when
Adam and Eve were given animal skins to cover their nakedness.
Some also claim that Cain's gift of fruit was rejected because it was
a bloodless sacrifice. This may be the case, but the Bible does not
explicitly teach this. What we are told is that the motive of both
brothers differed. Hebrews 11:4 proclaims "By faith Abel offered to
God a more excellent sacrifice." It most likely was better because it
was offered by faith. Whereas Cain's offering was not.
__DENNIS FISHER