In the book of Genesis, we find this admonition that God gives to Cain.

“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 rule over it’” (Genesis 4:6-7).

Have you ever thought about what it means that sin is crouching at your door? To be in a crouching position is an offensive posture where you are prepared to attack when the right moment presents itself. While these words only appear once in Scripture, this idea of sin standing at the door of your heart is not a foreign concept throughout the Bible.

For a moment I want you to consider the imagery of this verse in Genesis. Can you see sin lurking at the door, in an attack position ready to pounce on Cain and take him down? Whether Cain realized it or not, he was dealing with a reality that not only affected him, but has the potential to affect every one of us, requiring us to make sure we understand what it means that sin is crouching at our door.  

What Does It Mean That “Sin Is Crouching at Your Door”?

When you think about what it means that sin is crouching at your door, this is probably one of the best pictures of temptation that we find in the Bible. Temptation forces us to decide between doing what is right or doing what is sinful; this is the battle that Cain was fighting. Cain knew what was right to do, the question is would he do it?

In Cain’s life, as in ours, sin was pulling him in one direction and his knowledge of doing what is right was pulling him in the opposite direction. This is something we all must come to grips with.

While there are different angles you can use to understand what it means that sin is crouching at your door, I believe this passage begs us to go deeper into the reality of temptation in the life of a Christian. Everyday that you live you will have decisions and choices to make. You can choose to do what is right or you can allow sin to overtake you. How you handle these decisions makes all the difference in the type of life you live and the impact your life will have.

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Thanksgiving is when you show gratitude for all of God’s goodness and all of God’s grace that he has shown to you. Imagine the difference it can make in your prayer life if before you ever ask God for anything else, you simply thank him for what he has already done. This can cause a dramatic shift in your prayer life.

Truthfully speaking, prayer is the most powerful force or weapon on earth. You can be in one place and impact situations around the world simply by asking God to intervene. That’s why it is important for us who are Christians to make prayer a priority and not leave it on the back burner. When we do, we position ourselves to see God’s power in operation.

It feels like the 21^st century church has shifted the focus from the importance of prayer to the importance of worship. We celebrate worship, we celebrate worship leaders, we have tons of worship conferences. There is nothing wrong with worship except for one thing – as wonderful as worship is, it cannot substitute for prayer.

One of the things the Bible speaks about quite frequently is the heart. The number of times this word appears depends on which translation you use.

For example, in the New International Version (NIV) the word heart appears more than 500 times. In the King James Version (KJV) the word heart appears more than 800 times. When something is mentioned this many times, it is important and we should pay attention to it.

Understanding what the Bible says about the heart is really understanding a lot about our human nature.

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If you search through the scriptures, you are not going to find a lot of information about these two women. What you will discover is that these two women had a genuine faith which didn’t just live in their lives but also in the life of Timothy.

There are many aspects about God you will encounter as you read through the Bible. One by one as you turn the pages of Scripture, you will see who God is laid out before you. Different aspects of God’s character that are revealed in Scripture help us to understand a little more of who God is.

Without question, one of the realities of God that you must come to grips with is his holiness. If you are reading the Bible with an open heart, it forces you to recognize and acknowledge that God is holy. This does not appear only once, but it is repeated all throughout Scripture. Because this attribute of God is core to who he really is, we must take time to attempt to understand his holiness, and why it matters so much.

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While I would love to shout a resounding yes to this question, I find it difficult to do so. The problem with declaring that God will heal every believer is that it violates a very simple but obvious principle in Scripture – at some point everyone is going to die.

Back in the day, tithing was a pretty simple process. You'd just put your cash or check in an offering plate. But with so many digital options these days, we have to ask - is it okay to tithe from a rewards credit card?

Instead of just saying he is the vine, why does Jesus say he is the true vine? What is interesting and emphatic about this statement is that Jesus makes a definitive distinction between himself and anyone else, because there can only be one true vine.

To have knowledge is to have facts, information, or awareness of something or someone. When we have knowledge of God, we understand his nature, his character, and who he is. This process of growing your knowledge and understanding of God will require you to engage with God on three different levels.

I was sitting in church recently and during the worship they sang a song that talked about cities in revival and salvation flooding the streets. Thinking about the possibility of many people getting saved, turning their lives to Christ, repenting of sin, and becoming true disciples of Jesus is very exciting and there would be nothing greater to see happen in our world. In that same moment when I heard those words this thought also popped into my mind. Are we willing to pay the price to see this type of revival happen?

As good as salvation flooding the streets sounds, it’s not going to magically happen just because we sing about it, or we declare it in some way. There are some things we must do if we are going to see this type of outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the land. My desire today is for you to understand these truths that will bring revival to our land.

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In a church setting, excommunication is when a person is either cut off from fellowship within a church or they are barred from participating in the sacraments. The purpose of excommunication is not to exact revenge, but to hopefully encourage repentance. The thinking is that by doing this the person will realize the error of their ways and turn away from them.

Galatians is a great book to study especially if you are struggling or dealing with traditions.