Two New Revelations from Scripture

I saw two things in scripture today that for some reason I had never seen before.

First - I was reading through Genesis again. I remember questioning many times, "Why is Abel's offering acceptable to God and Cain's isn't?" There seemed for a long time to be no clear written word as to the "why" which lead to Cain's awful act of murder against his only brother. But today I think I might have found it.

Let's look at the passage:

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course
of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the
LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of
his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on
Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and
his face was downcast.
Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

(Genesis 4:2-7)

This passage specifies that Abel brought "fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock", whereas Cain is said only to have brought some of the fruits of the soil.

The issue I can see, for the first time, is that Abel brough the "firstfruits" of his profit. Cain brought God some of the leftovers. Why else would God accuse Cain of not doing what is right, according to verse 7?

I know that so many times I do not give to God my "firstfruits" (tithe) in many areas of my life, not only financially. I think I struggle most with not giving God the firstfruits of my time. How many times do I make excuses or procrastinate on spending time with him, putting it off until
"later", only "later" so often takes weeks to come.

A friend of mine posed a question on his blog (to see it, click on Brock Paulk's blog in my list of links to my friend's blogs), about worship. I think the reason why we struggle with worship has many facets, but I think a big part of it has to do with our lack of intimacy with Him. I say this
because I truly believe that if we were truly initmate with our Father, Savior, Friend, Beloved - then worship would be a natural response. But that intimacy only comes from time spent together. A marriage cannot survive if the couple never has alone time together, never spends time listening to one another's hearts, never seeks to constantly learn more about one another.
A couple's relationship cannot maintain "till death do us part" if there is alack of intimacy. How then do we expect to maintain a lifelong, thriving relationship with our God if we have the mentality of 15-minute "quiet times", which if we are honest are nothing more than 15 minutes of agonizingly trying to focus on reading a passage of scripture, all the while thinking of the many other things we need to get done that day, or just struggling against a bored, wandering mind.

The second passage of scripture that I had a great revelation about was Matthew 24:37-31:

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of
Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they
knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all
away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will
be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be
grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

For all my life I have been taught that the one taken is the Christian ("raptured") and the one left is the non-Christian. But I was encouraged recently to take a deeper look at the phrase that preceedes it all: "As it was in the days of Noah. . ."

That hit me like a windstorm! What happened in the days of Noah?! It was the righteous who were left, and the unrighteous who were taken (killed)by the flood! Does that just blow you away? Has anyone else always read that passage the same way I always used to? Is anyone's view of the second coming of Christ as dramatically changed as mine has been?

Now, I know I could be wrong. And I'm ok with that - because I know, either way-whichever form the 2nd Coming takes, that I am part of the righteous (only because of Jesus' redemption of my sin) who will be with God. But you've got to stop and think about it. My heart and my passion is to stop reading scripture in such a way as to prove what I've always believed, but rather to read it in such as way as to grow and mature in my wisdom and depth of insight into the heart of God! I hope that someone else out there might stumble upon this blog and question and dig into scripture with me!

That's all for now!