Year 4, Day 4: Genesis 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: People of Peace, Octagon

• People of Peace: A person of peace is someone whom God has prepared to hear God’s message through you.  God does all the work of preparing that person for your presence in their life. Because of this preparation, these people will like you.  They will listen to you.  They will serve with you as you live out God’s calling for your life.

In this passage, I believe we see two examples of the person of peace principle.  One of them is a negative example.  The other is very much a positive example, although it is quite a generalized one.

Let’s take the negative example: Cain.  Cain killed his brother.  He was guilty of impiety (v. 3), anger (v. 5), deception (v. 8), murder (v. 8), falsehood (v. 9), self-seeking (v. 13), and self-alienation from God Himself (v. 16).  Of course, we all sin.  So Cain isn’t really guilty of anything more than I am guilty or even that Adam and Eve were guilty.   So here is where the Person of Peace mindset comes in. 

We see that when their children are born, Adam and Eve still give praise to God.  In spite of their sin and being kicked out of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve recover and continue to have a relationship with God.  Cain, however, is not prepared to learn from their example.  At any point Cain could have admitted his sin, accepted the consequences, repented, and turned back to his relationship with God.  But he does not do so.  He is not willing to receive that testimony out of his parents’ lives.  So his sin divides him from God because he does not allow God to prepare his heart.

However, at the end of the chapter we hear that Seth is born to Adam and Eve and Seth himself has a child.  At this time other people begin to call upon the name of the Lord.  Adam and Eve – in spite of the failure of Cain – are not hindered by that scenario.  They continue to look for people that they can teach to see the value of having a relationship with God.  They continue to look for the people who are open and in whom God has prepared their hearts.  The result is great.  People begin to call upon the name of the Lord.

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Year 3: Day 359: Revelation 15-16

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: People of Peace

• People of Peace: A person of peace is someone whom God has prepared to hear God’s message through you.  God does all the work of preparing that person for your presence in their life. Because of this preparation, these people will like you.  They will listen to you.  They will serve with you as you live out God’s calling for your life.

It might seem odd to talk about people of peace on a day that we read about the outpouring of God’s final judgment of the earth.  After all, could there be any time of human existence where people were less receptive to God than at the end of this age?

In that question, though, we can find the reason why I decided to focus on the concept of People of Peace today.  The people of Revelation 16 rebel against God.  These people curse God when He comes against them.  These people are antagonistic to God having power in their life.  These people have no interest in repentance.  These people are focused on themselves and that means nothing can be done with them except judgment.  These people are in the time of judgment because none are left who will listen.  These people are in the time of judgment because there is none who desires to be at peace with God.

What can we learn from this?  A person of peace perceives God’s preparation within them and receives it.  A person of peace is willing to submit to the power of truth.  A person of peace is one who desires relationship with God and God’s people.  A person of peace is one who receives God’s proclamation about our need to repent and live according to His ways while rejecting the ways of the world.

When we cease being a person of peace to God and God’s people, there is nothing that remains for us except judgment.

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