Aug 17

Genesis 4:1-10
1 Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the LORD’s help, I have produced a man!”
2 Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel.
When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground.3 When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the LORD.
4 Abel also brought a gift—the best of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The LORD accepted Abel and his gift,
5 but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.
6 “Why are you so angry?” the LORD asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected?
7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”
8 One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him.
9 Afterward the LORD asked Cain, “Where is your brother? Where is Abel?”
“I don’t know,” Cain responded. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”
10 But the LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!

Exodus 20:13
13 “You must not murder.

Poor Wile E. Coyote. Even with all the help of ACME technology, he has been unable to kill the Roadrunner (meep, meep)! Slingshots, rockets, nets, bear traps, holes in the ground, trains, cars, and snares have been used to try and catch Roadrunner; anvils, bombs, guns, special bow-and-arrow sets, missiles, fighter planes, and a variety of other weapons have been used to try to kill Roadrunner. But Roadrunner just pauses long enough to wag his tongue, say "meep meep," and speed away in a cloud of dust. And Elmer Fudd has yet to have "Bugs Bunny Stew." He's used more shotgun shells than anyone on television, yet that "wascally wabbit" is still kicking, still chewing carrots, and still asking, "What's up, Doc?" We root for Roadrunner and Bugs; we love it when Tweety outwits Sylvester, when Jerry outruns Tom. We pull for them to escape the murderous intentions of their enemies. They're just cartoon characters, but we naturally want to see them escape harm. Why do we care what happens to cartoon critters? Why would we be horrified if Wile E. Coyote finally succeeded in his aim to end Roadrunner's life? Two reasons: We know, deep in our heart, that life is beautiful, and we know that murder is ugly. We know it because God has planted that awareness in us, and it's reflected in his command, "Do not murder" (Exodus 20:13). That's why murder is wrong. But there's more to it than that. Murder is wrong not just because it has something to do with God's commands. It is wrong because it does not reflect God-his nature or his character. God commanded us not to murder because his very nature is offended by murder. He is a living God, the author of life itself, and he commands us to be like him in our respect for human life, for all those created in the image of God.

REFLECT: Some ancient rabbis taught that the name God gave himself "I AM" (Exodus 3:14) revealed God as pure being, pure life, the source of all being. Can you think of any form of life that does not owe its existence to God? Why or why not? Does respecting human life only mean not committing murder? What are some other ways to show respect for human life? As you pass people in the halls at school or church or elsewhere today, try to look at each person as someone infinitely valuable, created in the image of God.

PRAY: "Thanks, God, for life! Thank you for creating me in your image. Thanks for creating... too."

ok, I don't have much from the reflect part, but I did get some from the story of Cain and Abel.

Cain was upset because God was not satisfied by Cain's offering. He did give, but not out of the heart. Cain got upset and frustrated. He gave a lot but nothing changed. What he did next did not make things better. His anger made things worse. Without following and living according to God's word, we are lost. We need to have our lives like Abel, not Cain. We always think about how we should act like Abel. But we don't know very well that part us is like Cain. We do sometimes go to church without actually praising. What I mean my that is we sing the songs, but don't mean the words we are singing. Listen and follow to what God tells you.

Alright, I'm really tired. Good night everyone!
~Audrey~

i think i sort of get the message of this short story. When we watch cartoons and we see them getting chased to death. Even tho it is just a animation, want the character to live. This can somewhat relate to our lives. We are all children of God, so imagine if one of his children killed another. It would really hurt him. Imagine if your brother/sister was killed by another family member. You would be saddened all the way to the core. God gave us life. We should use this to use ourselves wisely. Thank him for all he has done for us. He gave us soo much mroe than what we needed. He gave us life, family, and just soo many things that were not needed. We should respect human life because GOd did create it and it is not something we shouldtake away.
Gnite

hey guys i have a big day tomorrow and im mssing practice....zzz
ill do this tomorrow cause i need to get some sleep!
hae a great practice!

Hey guys I can't really concentrate right now. Shouldce done this earlier but I'll do it tomorrow!

I had a fun time reading this one, and thinking back to various arguments with myself, on values, and how they were instilled, what they are, that kinda stuff. And a lot of the morals placed in the world today revolve around quote on quote "not being a douche." With that being said,

I always viewed sticking to God's laws as being the best you can be. Not just "not a douche." So yeah, for some reason, the thing I got from the devo today, was that Christians shouldn't be building the image of "Oh, he's/she's a Christian." It should be more something like, "Christians are really cool. Actually, one of my best friends are Christian-(and so forth 'im wondering if i should be too xyz etc etc.' )

Yuhp.

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, when I got home, I wasn't exactly aware of the time.

I kept viewing this passage as if our lives are sacred, as we're created by God.
As we, brothers and sisters, are creations of God, no way do we have the right to take that away.
Not even our own.
Sometimes we forget how crucial are lives are, Christian or not.
Nothing puts us above each other, yet, we're so important to our father.
An unbiased and unconditional love given from our father.

Hi! I don't have much to extract from this but have things on the same topic to talk about! I remember someone told me that when you kill someone or kill yourself you are putting yourself in gods position and are judging whether this person is worthy of living on this planet anymore. You're also destroying gods creation and are basically saying that it sucks to gods face! So yeah I just thought that was a different way to view murder! That is all! Bye :$

Well this one's obvious but one thing to kill as person physically but another to kill someone emotionally and spiritually.
For example bullying, I used to get bullied sooo much when I was in elementary school. Up to the point where I was contemplating about committing suicide. I mean when you bully someone, you are basically killing another person. Of course you're not killing someone literally but what the bully's doing is something very violent in a sense. The bully doesn't care about the person's feelings and wants to just make that person suffer. Iunno about you guys but that's worse than physically murdering, that's torturing. Just the intentions of making life a living hell for a person is murdering and a very slow and agonizing fashion. I know we all know bullying is just terrible and I'm pretty sure non of us does it but this is what this verse made me think of

This devotional was kidna confusing but obvious at the same time..
Its clear that we have to respect human life because everything is Gods creation.
Even if you arent physically killing them, you could be mentally hurting them and killing them little byu little. We should watch what we do and say.

Im just gonna pray for what it says in the "prayer" section!