The first two boys born in the world chose two different eternal paths. Abel chose to trust in Christ and received God’s blessing to be the lineage of Messiah. Cain rejected the way of salvation in Christ, and in anger, killed Abel. After being raised in the home of Adam and Eve, with the clear knowledge and presence of God, “Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod”. Nod means “to wander”. Cain left the presence of the Lord to settle down and be at home in a temporal world with temporal pleasures.
But in the New Testament, after Jesus was risen and ascended, a man named Paul, hearing of God’s love through Christ, left the world to follow Jesus. He wrote, “I count all things worth losing for the excellency of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord… I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:8,14). His prize in life was the upward call taking him into the Lord’s presence. Eternal life with eternal joys.
It's the Cross that leads to the Prize. Those who reject the Savior, like Cain, are wandering in the land of Nod. We get the term “nodding off,” to describe those who leave the realm of reality and reason, to wander in the darkness of sleep.
Although there are those who, “have gone the way of Cain” (Jude 1:11), there is a harvest of others, like Paul, who hearing of Christ’s love at the Cross, “come out of darkness into His marvelous light,” who “count all things worth losing for the excellency of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord.” Keep sharing the Gospel and pressing on toward The Prize of the "upward call."
(Devotional by Lisa Cataford)
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