I have heard (and perhaps claimed myself) that God told Abel what to sacrifice. The argument goes like this:

1. The Lord had regard for Abel's offering, but not for Cain's (Genesis 4:4-5). In those verses it explains that Abel offered of the firstlings of his flock and Cain brought of the fruit of the ground.

2. The REASON God had regard for Abel's sacrifice was because he offered it by faith (Hebrews 11:4).

3. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17).

THEREFORE, the conclusion becomes this: God had obviously told Cain and Abel what type of sacrifice He wanted, and Abel was the only one of the two brothers who offered the RIGHT sacrifice.

That may be so, but that's not what the Scriptures say. We should be very careful to not jump to unprovable conclusio ... Read More »

A group of feminists were gathered together one evening. The speaker was fired up about the power of the woman and how she could do everything a man could PLUS SOME. Finally, as she was wrapping up, she cried, "And where would men be without women, anyway?" A woman from the back of the room shouted, "In the Garden of Eden picking strawberries!"

We can speculate why Satan approached Eve instead of Adam with the first temptation, but all we know is the fact that he did. Satan did not threaten Eve. He did not say, "You're going to eat of this fruit, or I'll break your arm." Satan did not try to scare Eve with some story about how if she didn't eat it all her hair would fall out. Satan TEMPTED Eve by completely twisting the truth of God's command not to eat of the fruit. He enticed her with a half-truth that she could be like God knowing good and evil. God does know what evil is, but he doesn't KNOW evil in the sense of expe ... Read More »

I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone ask, "What was the ONE command given to Adam?" And everyone responds, "Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." I'm not sure why people have it in their heads that all Adam and Eve had to do at the very beginning was avoid transgressing this one covenant. The fact is, there were several commands given to them at the beginning.

1. Be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28)

2. Subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28)

3. Cultivate and Keep the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15)

4. Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16, 17)

God gave man a purpose which was much larger than simply avoiding the forbidden tree. God gave him a great task. He gav ... Read More »

Did God create the earth?

Did God create the earth in 7 days?

Godless men have examined the evidence in the earth's crust and concluded human beings are the latest achievement of a long process called evolution. We are really no better than the animals around us. We have no more right to this earth than a dog or a cow or a bug because we all came from pond scum.

Some, claiming to be God-fearing and yet wanting to appear "enlightened" in our great age of understanding, have tried to reconcile the Biblical account with current theories of evolution. They came up with a solution: God created the world AND evolution happened. This is called "theistic evolution." The idea is that God started the ball rolling millions or billions of years back and every once in a while introduced something new into creation, but the evolutionary process still occurred. Talk about riding the fence! These peop ... Read More »

There are many FIRSTS in the book of Genesis. The earth was first formed with everything in it. Time first began. There was the first man and woman: Adam and Eve. There were the first commands of God: keep the garden and don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The first sin came about when Adam and Eve broke God's commandment not to eat of the tree. The first murder happened rather quickly in human history: Cain killed Abel. God gave His first prophecy of the coming of His Son, Jesus, in Genesis 3:15.

Some beginnings are good and some are evil. But it is valuable to study the beginning. There are multitudes of lessons to be learned from even the first couple of chapters of the book of Genesis. I'll be taking a little time with this book over the next few days.

Did you know Genesis is divided into ELEVEN logical sections? Moses, through the direction of the Holy Spirit, wrote the book in a very logical ... Read More »

There is a great principle of self-examination found in 2 Cor. 13:5: "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?"

1. We should Personally test ourselves. Each of us should constantly be comparing our speech, thoughts, and actions with the pattern given by our Lord. A good driver constantly checks his rear-view mirror, side-mirrors, and the road straight ahead. He does not tie the wheel down with bungee cords, press the gas peddle down, and then lay back for a nap! He probably wouldn't last 30 seconds that way. The car tends to drift to one side or the other and the driver must correct it's course over and over again to "keep it between the lines." The same is true ... Read More »

My favorite verses in 2 Cor. 12 are 12:9-10:

And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ my dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

But, though those are my favorite verses, I was taken by 12:1-4 today where Paul references a revelation he had at one time. Paul didn't know if it was an out-of-body experience or not, but he knew it was amazing beyond words. In fact, he saw "Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a ... Read More »

Apparently, there were some preachers at Corinth who spoke out against Paul. I figure they wanted power. They wanted followers, and they thought the best way to obtain a following would be by tearing down Paul and esteeming themselves.

Paul, an apostle by authority given him through Jesus Christ, took the battle to a higher level than these carnally-minded preachers were thinking. In 1 Cor. 10:3-5, Paul wrote, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."

These self-centered and self-serving men WERE warring according to the flesh. They argued that Paul was Read More »

God set up certain principles in this world which will always be true. "He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully," Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 9:6. This is the "reap what you sow" principle. It is true in the negative (sow bad seed, reap a bad crop) and in the positive (sow good seed, reap a good crop). It applies to our discussion on giving.

If we give liberally and with a generous heart, we can expect good things.

1.  We will have an abundance for every good deed (9:8). If we are truly loving our neighbor and loving God in our giving, God has promised to make sure we have a sufficient amount to give.

2. God will supply and multiply our seed for sowi ... Read More »