The way of Cain is the way of sadness.

In Genesis we have a situation where "by faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain" (Hebrews 11:4). As a result Cain's "countenance fell"(Gen. 4:5 NASB); or as the NIV puts it, "his face was downcast".  Cain was depressed and without joy, because of his failure to have faith in God, which is evident from the fact that God was not pleased with his sacrifice.  This is clearly seen in verse 7: God says to Cain, "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?".  This is a rhetorical question given to Cain, but this can be applied to all humans.  "If you do well"--  Abel did well because he offered the best of his flock to God.  He not only understood that there needs to be a sacrifice for our sin problem, but by giving the best of the flock, Abel is showing that his contentment, satisfaction, and even delight is in the Lord.  "If you do well"-- if you put your hearts content, satisfaction, and delight in the Lord then "will not your countenance be lifted up?"
 The heart needs to filled with something, and that is why God warns Cain: "if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you"(v7).  If we do not fill ourselves with the God, then sin will certainly overtake our hearts.
Our hearts will never no true joy, peace, satisfaction, and fullfillment until we look to God to be our treasure.  Oh Christian, if you are in sin right now then you know what I am talking about; how when we stop seeking Jesus, then we lose the joy that we had in God, and sin is there desiring to consume our hearts.
So may we not follow the way of Cain, who did not put his faith in God, and as a result was given over to depression and sin.  Let us live as we were created to live.  Let us worship our glorious creator, let us "draw near to God and He will draw near to [us]" (James 4:8), and in doing so our countenance will be lifted up.

Garden of Eden and the Garden of Gethsemane: exploring the temptations in both these gardens

The garden of Eden would have been the most beautiful, breathtaking, and Glorious place in the entire planet.  More beautiful than anything the human mind can concieve.  Even the the most luxerious garden made on this fallen earth would look like a garbage dump in comparison; and the main reason as to why the Garden of Eden was so magnificent is because God created it.  It was also a place where one could receive eternal life and communion-- face to face with God (Gen 3).  The Garden of Gethsemane was almost a stark contrast in comparison.  It was made by the hands of men, and existed in the fallen, post-flood world.  What both of these places do have in common though is that they were testing places for Adam and Jesus.  This is a very important theological truth, because Adam was the head of all mankind, and according to Romans 5, Christ is the new adam.  I want to show the contrast between what Adam went through and what the new "adam"-- Jesus Christ went through.
When Adam was tested, he was in Eden.  Adam was to enjoy life forever, and with God in a perfect paradise.  The only condition was that Adam had to let God be God of his life.  This commandment is not only about preserving God's glory, but also for Adam's maximum joy because that is how we are designed to live.  The consequence of failing to obey God is death.  Adam is tempted with living life on his own without his amazing creator and dying as a result or living life with God and experiencing the riches of His fellowship forever in a paradise so beautiful that it would improper for a man to speak of in this ugly, fallen world.  As we know, Adam chooses the foolish way-- to live life as his own god and finally dying as a result.  Adam was the head of humanity so inevitably death spread to all humans (Romans 5:12); that is why we are born sinners (Psalm 51).
The Bible says that Jesus is the new "adam", meaning He is the new head of the new humanity-- which is those who put their faith in Jesus and "partakers of the divine nature.."(2Peter 1:4).  Just as Adam was tempted in a garden, Jesus was tempted in a garden.  Christ was tempted for different reasons than our first Adam though.  Adam's temptation was inward focused and Christ's temptation was about those whom He is destined to redeem, nevertheless both scenarios are about the will of God.  Adam had way more reason to obey God, because of the magnificent blessings for obeying God; but when Jesus was tempted, obeying God meant death and seperation from God, which is the very consequences for Adam of not obeying God.  If Adam took God's will seriously then he probably would have been praying for strength and also protecting his wife who was "deceived" (1timothy 2:14).  Jesus took the trial very seriously, because He prayed fervently and exhorted His disciples three times to pray.   When Satan came again to a garden, this time he was dealing with Jesus the "new adam", and the temptation to disobey God was far greater than that of the first Adam. Satan came into the garden through Judas Iscariot, and we know this because John 13:27 tells us.  Jesus submitted to the Father, and "endured the cross, despising the shame..." (Hebrews 12:3).  Even as Jesus was being carried off by Judas and his mob, a man came following Jesus; the crowd tryed to seize the man and he lost his clothing, and ran away naked-- hiding into the garden just as Adam did in Eden.
Our first Adam was a fool for disobeying God, because he had everything to lose and nothing to gain for disobeying the Lord.  God "bestowed on [Jesus] the name which is above every name..." (Phillipians 2:9), because Jesus obeyed God even though obeying God meant dying upon a cross.

Praise be to Jesus that He poured out His life for us!

New Blog site

This is of course my first post on my new blog. The purpose of starting this blog, is that God would be glorified and man would be edified.  I will probably post some older notes before I really get going.