Have you ever sat down to consider the questions God asked at the beginning?  He spends time creating all the we know: earth, sky, water, air, land, animals, etc.  They were all statements.  But did you ever stop to look at the questions God eventually asked?  In preparation for this message, I started looking and found four of them.  The first one was directed to Adam: “Where are you?”  The second was directed at Adam and Eve: ” Who told you that you were naked?”  The third was directed at Cain: “Why are you angry and your face has fallen?”  The fourth was also directed at Cain and man, was it a doozy: “Where is Abel your brother?”  God knew the answer to each one of them but He wanted to hear our ancestors answer.  For this week’s message the latter one intrigues me.  But actually, not so much His question but Cain’s answer:  “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  Most of us know the story surrounding the question.  Cain was jealous of his brother because God accepted Abel’s sacrifice-but according to Hebrews 11: 4 it wasn’t so much the type of sacrifice as it was the attitude accompanying the sacrifice. Long story short: Cain’s jealousy blew up into a full-blown rage, he killed his brother, then tried to hide him.  That is when God asks His question and gets Cain’s cryptic answer.

That is still a good question to ask, you know?  Richard Stearns, the author of The Hole in Our Gospel (an excellent book I believe everyone ought to read),  says, “If your personal faith, and my personal faith, has no positive outward expression, then your faith-and mine-has a hole in it.”   Last week I spoke about godliness.  There are several things that can be true: 1) godliness should proceed an outward expression toward our brother since we need to be like Christ; 2) outward expression must accompany godliness but not supersede it.  If it does then we have become like a Pharisee in Jesus’ day.   I am not on the “social justice” bandwagon since I tend to feel that it is overblown these days (although I also believe it is necessary to practice) but I will mention Micah 6:8: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” I am going to close with four expressions of how we can love our brother.

Do you have anything to add to my thoughts?  I welcome any suggestions I can use on Sunday.  What are your thoughts on the “social justice” message?  I would certainly appreciate your prayers for me and the church I pastor.

Thanks, as always, to Dan for the banner.  Wait till you see the upcoming ones!