Moment With The Master
“Tough Choices”
Categories: Moment With The MasterIf you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” (Genesis 4:7)
These words God spoke to Cain as he contemplated killing his brother Abel. Jealousy was about to consume him. His sacrifice had been rejected and his brother’s accepted. However, Cain can avoid another sin if he will choose to “do well”.
C.S. Lewis once wrote, “Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing with into a heavenly or hellish creature; either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is in heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.” Mere Christianity (New York, NY; Macmillan Publishing Co. 1952)pp 86, 87
Most know the unfortunate end of Cain. First he chooses an unacceptable sacrifice. Instead of correcting his mistake he allows his relationship with God to lead to jealousy and finally murder. Thus, Cain became that lonely, hellish creature of which CS Lewis spoke.
Each day we must make important decisions that point us in one direction or the other. What will it be for us – heaven or hell?
By George Slover
