Bible Study Isolation

[Guap]

I have some friends that never let you pay for anything. They never want you to do anything for them because they don’t want to feel ‘in debt’ to them. I find this quite sad.

In Gen 4 we read the story of Cain and Abel and how sin uses Cain’s feeling of rejection to strike out in anger at his brother. After God’s first response to Cain’s sin (trying to engage in relationship through questions!), Cain reacts to the punishment he receives from God. He finds it too difficult to bear. He feels so low and worthless that he expects anybody that he meets will kill him.

However God responds with grace to Cain’s anguish, even though Cain doesn’t ask for it. God puts a mark on Cain that will protect him.

Cain seems to be like my friends who never want you to do anything for them. Although God has given him his protection, Cain rejects it. How do I know this? He goes and builds a city! In the culture of the day, a city was walled and a place of protection. Cain tries to create his own safe place, rather than accept God’s protection.

For me this image is of someone locked up and distant from others. Cain has rejected what God has done for him and rather than empower him, it isolates him.

Makes me wonder where I don’t accept what God has done for me? Am I trying to earn his grace? Am I trying to earn his love? Are there things I’m trying to redo that he has already done for me? How does this lead to isolation and lack of community in my life?



(From http://ontoxenos.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/isolated/) Used with permission

 

[Chopper]

I have some friends that never let you pay for anything. They never want you to do anything for them because they don’t want to feel ‘in debt’ to them. I find this quite sad.

In Gen 4 we read the story of Cain and Abel and how sin uses Cain’s feeling of rejection to strike out in anger at his brother. After God’s first response to Cain’s sin (trying to engage in relationship through questions!), Cain reacts to the punishment he receives from God. He finds it too difficult to bear. He feels so low and worthless that he expects anybody that he meets will kill him.

However God responds with grace to Cain’s anguish, even though Cain doesn’t ask for it. God puts a mark on Cain that will protect him.

Cain seems to be like my friends who never want you to do anything for them. Although God has given him his protection, Cain rejects it. How do I know this? He goes and builds a city! In the culture of the day, a city was walled and a place of protection. Cain tries to create his own safe place, rather than accept God’s protection.

For me this image is of someone locked up and distant from others. Cain has rejected what God has done for him and rather than empower him, it isolates him.

Makes me wonder where I don’t accept what God has done for me? Am I trying to earn his grace? Am I trying to earn his love? Are there things I’m trying to redo that he has already done for me? How does this lead to isolation and lack of community in my life?



(From http://ontoxenos.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/isolated/) Used with permission

There is my friend a feeling of "blessing" that one feels in giving to another. There are those Christians who always want to give, give, give, asking nothing in return. That "ministry" can go too far, IMO. They are the ones who isolate themselves from allowing others to bless them.

I don't see where you are being isolated, except that you feel you are helpless to bless that one who has blessed you. God says in His Word that "My people perish because of lack of knowledge." When you received Jesus the Christ as your Savior, you received all that the Godhead had for you. It is simply a lack of knowledge of what He did for you that is your problem, IMO. I suggest to folk just like you to re-read the Gospels, and the Book of Romans as a starting point in realizing just what God has done for you, and when you come to a subject that you were unaware of, receive it into your mind, or simply acknowledge it.

If you get an opportunity to bless the person who blesses you, wonderful, you have completed the circle of blessings. If he refuses, that is his problem, not yours.

 

[for_his_glory]

Guap, it's the love of Christ that is in you that you want to do for others. Gods love and grace comes freely to us as we can not earn it, work for it nor deserve it, but is given purely out of love, but it is our choice to accept it or reject it.

I use to be the same way as I have always been a giver, but hard to allow others to bless me back. It took me a long time to understand that I was shutting down the blessings of God through those who wanted to bless me. In a sense I was isolating myself from God and that of others around me that wanted to show their love to me.

 

[Chopper]

Guap, it's the love of Christ that is in you that you want to do for others. Gods love and grace comes freely to us as we can not earn it, work for it nor deserve it, but is given purely out of love, but it is our choice to accept it or reject it.

I use to be the same way as I have always been a giver, but hard to allow others to bless me back. It took me a long time to understand that I was shutting down the blessings of God through those who wanted to bless me. In a sense I was isolating myself from God and that of others around me that wanted to show their love to me.

 

[His_nee (Jeff)]

......

Guap, are you Nathan Eyland ?
if not, do you have the same questions(s) or what specifically from the quote?