The House You're Building

2 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, "I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned." 4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Exodus 3:2-4 In reading the story of Moses this afternoon, I noticed something I hadn't before.  When replaying the narrative in my mind, I'd always thought that God just speaks to Moses from the bush.  If you reread verse three carefully, you'll see that before God spoke, Moses chose to turn aside.  God had sent an angel to speak to Moses on His behalf.  Moses saw the angle as a burning fire.  The interesting thing to Moses wasn't that the bush was on fire, but that it wasn't being consumed.  Something mystical and divine was occuring. God set up the encount...

In the course of time Cain brought to the  Lord  an offering of  the fruit of the ground,  4  and Abel also brought of  the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the  Lord   had regard for Abel and his offering,  5  but  for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.  6  The  Lord  said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?  7  If you do well, will you not be accepted?  And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.  Its desire is for  you, but you must rule over it.” Genesis 4:4-7 Abel brought his best, and what God had commanded Cain brought what He wanted. Reading this morning I realized I do that all the time.  I figure in some way if I bring something to God it is good enough.  It shows I'm thinking of Him, right?   But it's not worship. God wants worship.  ...