Genesis 4:9 (NKJV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Then the Lord said to Cain, \u201cWhere is Abel your brother?\u201d He said, \u201cI do not know. Am I my brother\u2019s keeper?\u201d \u2018<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I am my brothers\u2019 keeper. It is part of my calling and fraternity to watch out for my brethren. That\u2019s why we are a family. That\u2019s why Jesus taught us to pray, \u2018Our Father!\u2019 We have One Father and His Spirit flows in all our hearts. How then can I pull away and refuse to care for what happens to my brother? Cain had done a dastardly act and even at that, he was not willing to own up to his responsibility to his brother. His heart was hard, even after doing such a wicked thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The greatest strength of the Christian community is that we are one. We are called to be one. We must cover for each other. And we must speak up when we hurt each other. The early Church had \u2018all things common\u2019 and they shared according to the needs of the community. If we have a struggle, we need to share that struggle with the community. If we have an overflow, we need to share that also with the community. We need to make that pronouncement loud and clear: We are our brothers\u2019 keepers! In Christ, we cannot act like Cain did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Deliver us Lord from selfish thinking and self-seeking. You did not die on the cross to create a fragmented community of self-centered men and women. Help me to look out for my brethren and seek their well-being. And give me the courage to admit wherever and whenever I may have hurt them. This I earnestly ask in your name. Amen.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Genesis 4:9 (NKJV) \u2018Then the Lord said to Cain, \u201cWhere is Abel your brother?\u201d He said, \u201cI do not know. Am I my brother\u2019s keeper?\u201d \u2018 I am my brothers\u2019 keeper. It is part of my calling and fraternity to watch out for my brethren. That\u2019s why we are a family. That\u2019s why Jesus taught […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-genesis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Reflections-from-Genesis.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4844,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4842\/revisions\/4844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}