From the Pastor...

“Am I my brother’s keeper?!”

During the season of Lent, at the very time when we are trying to be intentional to follow God’s call to put others first by sharing the Good News and living out the Gospel…these words of Cain from Genesis 4:9 ring in our ears, get in our face, irritate us uncomfortably, and make us squirm!

These words are Cain’s words to the Lord when asked about his brother, Abel, with whom he had quarreled and eventually killed. They are words that, in spite of being “short and sweet”, reveal the human condition, a powerful force that draws us to be self-centered instead of concerned with the lives and needs of others.

This struggle can manifest itself with a simple benign self-absorption which distracts us from God’s will for us and keeps us from being committed servant-disciples. Or this struggle can drift into a more sinister level of evil that eventually is dangerously destructive to those around us.

We also are afflicted with the same human condition as Cain…Thank God for the saving Grace given us through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection!!! Only the shed blood and broken body of Christ on the cross could be the God-given sacrifice that would provide the way out for you and me.

Yet even in our Christian life, we can fall prey to the Cain-syndrome…God’s call comes to us to put others first, to be filled with compassion and mercy for others who are spiritually lost and dying.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:19 NIV)

But we get distracted from this great commission, getting caught up in the deceptive unholy cycle of self-absorption. We get all too comfortable with our very busy lives, and at times we respond to God’s call in irritation like Cain… “Am I my brother’s keeper!?”

The words of the apostle Paul in Romans 12 are the Spirit-filled correction for us:
“Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual act of worship.”

Because God first loved us even when we were unlovable…We will love others!

Because God first sought after us when we were lost…We will seek others for His Kingdom!

Because God wooed to win our hearts even when we had rejected Him…We will be the hands, feet, and mouthpiece for the Lord’s wooing grace in the lives of others!

During this season of Lent, may God give us renewed wisdom, strength, power,…and fruit to our labors in the harvest fields of God’s mission!

Pastor Dave