The Spirit of Cain

My pastor mentioned something to me last night as we were discussing what happened yesterday, the assassination of Charlie Kirk. He said he was killed for the same reason Abel was killed--because he was righteous. Evil has always wanted to kill what is righteous. Cain was angry because God was pleased with Abel's offering but he was not pleased with Cain's offering. I never completely understood a lot of things in the Bible, but I have not questioned them for several decades because God has proven to me that he is reliable and his word is true. The passage does not say why God was not pleased with Abel's offering, but my Bible notes say it was not because it was fruit, while Cain's was an animal. "Cain's angry reaction suggests that the offering was rejected because of sin in his heart, not the nature of his offering." In 1 John 3:12 in the context of God's commandment to love one another, is the explanation: " For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he mourder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous" (1 John 3:11-12). So, there you have the "motive" for Abel's murder, the reason for Christ's crucifixion and the motive for Charlie Kirk's assassination. It always strikes me as strange that when someone is killed, the TV announcers always want to talk about the killer's "motive." What was the motive? I guess that works for murder mysteries, and for solving cases, but what is really behind murder? Anger and hatred, of course, that's the motive. Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hellfire" (Matthew 5:22-23). It's everywhere--rampant--today, hatred and violence, and haters justifying their hatred, and, obviously, not paying any attention to what Jesus said about the subject, that subject or any subject, and twisting what they think Jesus said without ever cracking open a Bible. Last night I said I was angry about Charlie Kirk's murder, so, just to be clear, the Bible also says, "Be angry and sin not," often explained as, "In your anger, do not sin." In other words to be angry is not sinful in itself. There is such a thing as "righteous indignation," although we should probably be careful not to ignore something wrong in your heart and call it "righteous indignation" when it is unrighteous. Well, if everyone would really live the way God intended us to live, most of this hatred and violence would go away, but it doesn't seem to be going away, does it? Some people even say, "If there is a God, why is there so much evil in the world?" Well, the truth is God didn't expect us to change the world, he only expects us to be responsible for our own heart and our own actions. What if everybody did that? Wouldn't that be something? Jesus said for us to be reconciled with our brother. Sometimes, you can't do that because the other person does not want to be reconciled, and you just have to forgive them and go on with your life, and I see what I call the spirit of Cain in the world today, and it is very alarming and very treacherous. I hope and pray it will go away because it is so destructive and there is no excuse for what happened to Charlie Kirk yesterday. I pray for the killer that he would turn himself if and become accountable. This retired FBI agent or something (I'm not sure what he was) on TV while I was at the gym, was talking about how there are three possible outcomes with this shooter. Either he will kill himself, or he will be killed in a conflict with law enforcement or he will turn himself in. I really pray that he will do the latter. I am asking God to give that man repentance as well as all the wicked people that are rejoicing over this horrendous act. I have not seen any, I have just heard that they're out there, and it's shameful, and I pray for them too, and I pray for everyone who is unrepentant and proudly hating, that somehow God will touch their heart. All things are possible with God. And that's all I have for tonight.