You are invited

Every time I create an invitation to a party, I flashback to grade school when one of my teachers taught us about writing a news story.  The fundamentals of Who, What, Why, Where, When and How.

Last time I read the story of Cain, I thought if I were to write a book entitled Life Outside the Garden, Chapter One would be “God’s Invitation to Restored Relationship”.  These fundamental questions reminded me of God’s continuing invitation to have a personal relationship with each one of us.  The introduction of my book would be the eviction from The Garden and most likely every chapter would be “God’s Invitation to Restored Relationship”.  The humans in the Bible insisted on following their stubborn, independent hearts rather than becoming dependent on God’s stubborn love for us.

As I read the narrative in Genesis 4, God asks Cain three questions.

Question 1 - Why?

God asks Cain, “Why are you angry?”  He was warning Cain, before the sin, not to let his anger control his heart and actions.  God even gave him the advice of “if you do right...”

Question 2 - Where?

After the murder of Abel, God asks “Where is your brother?”  God knows exactly where Abel is but he is giving Cain an opportunity for relief, to come clean, to confess.

Question 3 - What?

When that didn’t work, God confronted Cain with, “What have you done?”  God let Cain know He knew what he’d done but again gave Cain an opportunity to confess.

Here is one of the earliest intimate “peeks” into a personal relationship with God and I see God reaching out and pursuing Cain.

*    God loved Cain and desired a relationship with him so much He took the time to ask Cain three questions.  God reached out to Cain and, likewise, to me to warn me to Do Right.

*    Even when Cain didn’t take God’s advice and sinned, and sinned Big Time!  God reached out to Cain again.

*    When Cain still wouldn’t confess, God gave him a third opportunity and confronted Cain with “What have you done?”  God reached out in spite of Cain’s stubbornness and sin.

I’d like to learn from Cain’s mistakes.  Here’s the beginning of what I’d like to put into action in my life:

-    Do not let sin master your heart and actions.  Do what is right, all the time.
-    God loves me, even after the sin.  Do what is right and confess the sin to Him.
-    God reaches out to me, in spite of my stubborn self and my sin.  He will confront me with my sin. Do what is right and confess before I get to God’s third question.

Choosing to do what is right is choosing to deepen my relationship with God.

God invites us to the greatest Good News story of all time with those same fundamental questions.  Jesus delivered that Good News to us in a tangible message.  Jesus showed us that we need a Savior. 

Why? We are human and will fail.

Where? He paid the price for our failures by giving His Life on the cross.

What? We can have a personal relationship with God.  We can have relief from the daily failure of life and experience the greatest love and acceptance to fill our void.

So we need to:

Acknowledge that we need a Savior
Believe that Jesus alone is the Savior and
Confess our sins to begin and continue our personal relationship with God.

God asked Cain three questions to show His love for Cain.  Jesus loved Peter enough to ask him three questions (“Do you love me?” John 21).  Do you hear God asking?