Weep and Rejoice Together

Cain says, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9).  This is just a chapter later after the Fall when man chose to turn their backs on God.  We see the root of sin here in chapter 4 when Cain views himself as being only responsible for himself. God created us to be responsible towards Him and each other as well.  This is implicit in the Great Commandment to love the Lord our God and our neighbors as ourselves.  This is the way that it was supposed to be, but sin has happened.

I am burdened for TrueVine Church to be a people of God who are thinking of others before ourselves, not the church that mimics Cain and says “Am I my brother’s keeper?”.  But instead when one of our brothers and sisters in Jesus are weeping, we weep with them.  When they rejoice we are there to rejoice with them.  This is one reason why it is commanded, not suggested, to not forsake meeting together (Hebrews 10:24-25).  When we care only for ourselves, think only of ourselves, and live only for ourselves, we are saying to God that we are most important.  Let’s be there for each other and point to how loving and awesome our God is that we serve.

When someone gives testimony to how great God is working in their life, then we are there to rejoice with them and praise God with them as if it were God doing that in our lives (because this is actually one and the same thing).  When our brother is going through difficulty, death in the family, or any tragedy then we are there for them to have a shoulder to weep on and we weep with them. 

I pray that TrueVine is a people of God gathered together to for the purpose of glorifying God by putting ourselves aside to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.