Genesis 4:2 – And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

Hello readers, for this year I will be changing the blog format a bit. I am hoping to do more blog entries, and keep them more concise. I will still do my usual longer posts as well here and there, but will be focusing more on shorter and to the point type blogs. There are numerous reasons why, but hopefully with a shorter format I can be more regular with my posts and also get things that God says in his word out there. There’s nothing worse than learning something from God’s word or seeing something you hadn’t understood or noticed before… but then forgetting it or not writing it down! I am in the process of gleaning through the book of Job, but first and foremost I just blog about whatever God shows to me from his word.

Today’s thought is on “tilling cursed ground”. That’s what Cain did. The ground had been cursed in Genesis 3, the chapter before, due to Adam and Eve’s sin. And Cain tilled and tilled it. Tilling something is a gardening/agricultural term, gardeners till their soil by digging it up and turning it over. Tilling is labor, it may involve plowing or harrowing, but basically it is the process of preparing and using the land for growing stuff. Cain was a tiller of the ground. He then brought the fruit he got from his labor to God as a sacrifice… but God rejected it. The fruit of his work was rejected. That’s why he got mad, which is what led to him murdering his brother and departing from the presence of the Lord. This is why the world has a problem with God, they don’t like it when their own way, their own thoughts, their own works, their own person is rejected. All may come, but you are only acceptable to God by coming God’s way.

How do we till cursed ground? Well like Cain, we can till a life of sin. We can till a life of being in the world and living like the world and doing like the world does. You look at this world, you see that it is just vain labor… people tilling and tilling cursed ground. Year after year after year of doing what seems right to us. But no matter how you slice and dice it, it is all cursed, and produces cursed fruit not accepted by God. Tilling is work. You can spend a lifetime of work, yet be rejected by God. You can be proud of your work, you can have put your effort and integrity and discipline and diligence and skill and best intentions into it. But it still is not accepted. It highlights how important obedience to God’s word is. There is nothing we can produce of ourselves, by our work, that makes us worthy or acceptable before God. We are only acceptable to God on the basis of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only one God is well pleased in. He did the work, he said on the cross… it is finished. We believe in he who had done the work, he who lived a sinless life, he who IS the way, the truth and the life.

But think about tilling cursed ground of life in this world. This world has it’s philosophies, it’s ways and means, it’s beliefs, it’s fads, it’s trends, its pleasures, its occupations, its religions too numerous to count… but no matter what it is… it is all cursed ground. This world is cursed ground … we are sinners. You see the world consisting of work, of money making, of business, of pleasure, of sport, of parties… all people going their own way to the destination they have in mind, doing their own thing, with their own set of right and wrong… but it’s all tilling cursed ground, it all has rejected fruit. It doesn’t matter what you try, you can try religion, or you can try going it yourself, or you can try being a better person, or you can try this, or you can try that… none of it is acceptable to God, none of it has fruit that God has respect to. Sportsmen till their sport, businessmen till their business, musicians till their music… yet it is all a godless pursuit and work, just look at Cain’s descendants. Enter into the rest of Christ.

You can devote your whole life to worldly pursuits. But outside of Jesus Christ it’s all vain… it’s all a waste… it’s all futile… it’s a lifetime of work… for naught. People till all sorts of cursed ground. They till a life of pleasure. They till a life of chasing their ambitions. They till a life of working their way up in society. They fail, they have setbacks, they have successes, they have breakthroughs, they keep tilling even as time goes by of a life that is departed from God like Cain was. The system is broken but they keep tilling it. Even look at this world and the way it thinks and does, nothing works, everything’s broken, but it keeps trucking along.

Is your life cursed ground? No matter what you do, no matter the new leaves, the new yous, the best efforts, no matter the pursuits, no matter the ambitions, it’s just tilling and tilling and tilling something that is inherently cursed. Many people work a field that is not a field based on the truth of God’s word, you have to get to the ground of God’s word. No matter how much you prepare or justify or excuse a life of sin, it’s not ok. Think of Cain tilling that soil, turning it over, breaking up the clods… but it was always going to fail. It doesn’t matter how much you polish the outside or work on it… that’s why Jesus said ye must be born again. True Christianity is a new birth, a new you born of God, forgiven of sin and delivered from it’s bonds, free to serve God. The solution to not living a vain wasted futile life is getting to the cross of Jesus Christ and obedience to his word.

Your life doesn’t have to be vain toil like Cain’s was. Cain was disobedient to God’s word. How long will you till a life of disobedience to God’s word? That’s tilling cursed ground. How long will you till a life of going your own way? That’s tilling cursed ground. How long will you till a life of sin. That’s tilling cursed ground. All of the fruit is unacceptable. And it is all work. See a life of sin… it’s work. Yet salvation is not, yet the life of a true believer isn’t work, but grace and the power and blessing of God. It’s God’s power based on God’s work. You can rest in Christ, or you can work, and you can till away at whatever you are busy tilling away at. This world tills all sorts of cursed ground, you see businesses, organizations, governments, individuals … but they’re all tilling away in a broken world, a world that lies in wickedness. A world that despite it’s best attempts, despite it’s facelifts, yet is lost and dead in sin. Is your life cursed ground? Are you tilling a life of sin? You don’t have to be a Cain, your life doesn’t have to be tilling cursed ground, whose fruit is birthed out of disobedience to God’s word and ultimately and wholly rejected by God… you can be an Abel… bring that lamb, the Lamb of God, it’s when you get Jesus Christ in your life that it will no longer be a long futile toil, it’ll no longer be taking and tilling cursed ground.

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