{"id":4039,"date":"2022-06-20T03:17:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T08:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4039"},"modified":"2022-06-20T03:17:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T08:17:28","slug":"devotional-on-genesis-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-genesis-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Genesis"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_13684\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13684\" style=\"width: 584px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/P9209119.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-13684\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/P9209119-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/P9209119-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/P9209119-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/P9209119-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/P9209119.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13684\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2013 &#8211; Great Smoky Mountains National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"color: #444444;\">On being my brother\u2019s keeper<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Genesis 4: How should I know? Am I his babysitter?<br \/>\nAn interesting thing about the Lord\u2019s exchange with Cain is that they both know the answer to the question that\u2019s asked. Obviously, the Lord knows what has happened. Of course, Cain knows where Abel is, after all, he\u2019s his murderer. Cain\u2019s response: \u201cAm I my brother\u2019s keeper?\u201d has become one of many famous one liners from the Bible. This murderer not only pretends he doesn\u2019t know about Abel, but that, even if he does know, it isn\u2019t his responsibility to take care of him. On a very specific level, I agree with Cain\u2019s statement. As creatures with free will we\u2019re not responsible for what others do. As a pastor of several years of experience, I\u2019ve heard plenty of excuses from people who place the blame for their failure on someone, anyone, else. Because of that, I agree with Cain on at least one level. However, Cain\u2019s suggestion that he operates solo and isn\u2019t accountable for his brother\u2019s whereabouts is a pitiful failure on his part. Even (and that\u2019s a mighty big \u201ceven\u201d in this situation) \u2013 even had he not killed his brother, and had poor Abel just wandered off in search of one of his sheep and gotten lost, in God\u2019s eyes, Cain has a certain amount of responsibility for him. Our lives are connected at many points and the Lord expects our behavior to reflect this. Many years down the road, Jesus will help me understand this better in the parable of the Good Samaritan and even better when he takes personal responsibility for my lost condition.<br \/>\nTake away: I\u2019m not responsible for what others do of their own free will, but I am accountable before God to show compassion to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On being my brother\u2019s keeper Genesis 4: How should I know? Am I his babysitter? An interesting thing about the Lord\u2019s exchange with Cain is that they both know the answer to the question that\u2019s asked. Obviously, the Lord knows what has happened. Of course, Cain knows where Abel is, after all, he\u2019s his murderer. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,7],"tags":[21,127,373,917],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4039"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4039"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13685,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4039\/revisions\/13685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}