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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“For both Israel and Judah, He will be a stone that causes
people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of
Jerusalem, He will be a trap and a snare. Many of them will stumble; they will
fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.”
“Bind up this testimony of warning and seal up God’s
instruction among my disciples.”
Isaiah 8:14b-16
This ends this
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
For the last couple of years, I
have been working as a facilitator, training military members and their
families in how to deal with the separation that comes with military
deployments. It’s difficult to have to leave to support and defend our nation
while leaving your family behind to fend for themselves back home while you are
gone. I know because in my lifetime, my family and I experienced this on nine
different occasions, nine times when I went away from them for extended periods
of time, one of which lasted a whopping 14 months. That’s a long time to be
gone from the people you love most.
So how do you deal with these times
of extended separation?
There are many coping mechanisms we
talk about from communicating to establishing a support system but perhaps one
of the most important suggestions we make is for both the service member and
their partner to set positive goals for themselves during the deployment. We
encourage them to seek to grow in some way whether professionally, spiritually,
educationally, personally, or spiritually. For people who use this approach
find that the deployment typically seems to go by faster. This is opposed to
just doing nothing and spending the separation time being miserable and upset
about being apart.
In other words, we encourage them
to make the separation time a building block and not a stumbling block, a time
of growth and achievement vice a time of melancholy and lethargy.
This matter of something or someone
being a building block or stumbling block is found scripturally too as seen in
today’s passage from Isaiah, Chapter 8. Look at these words directed at the
people of Israel, Judah, and Jerusalem but also by extension to us:
“For both Israel
and Judah, He will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes
them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem, He will be a trap and a snare. Many
of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and
captured.”
“Bind up this
testimony of warning and seal up God’s instruction among my disciples.”
The “He” mentioned in this Old
Testament passage is none other than Jesus, the One who was coming to save all
of mankind, the One who was anticipated by the Israelites as the Messiah who
would come to liberate Israel and set them free from the oppression they were
under. He would soon walk among them to be their building block toward
achieving a righteousness that wasn’t possible under the law, the new covenant
for all peoples, Jews and Gentiles, who would make the way clear to the Father
through His death and resurrection on Calvary’s cross. Jesus was the coming
cornerstone who all could build their life upon, the One who was the Way and
the Truth and the Life (John 14:6) and the only stepping stone to reach God the
Father, the One who sent Him to save out of love for His people.
But there was only one problem. Many
of the Israelites rejected Jesus, especially the Jewish authorities, the
Pharisees and Sadducees. To them, Jesus was the stone that caused them to
stumble and fall, unwilling to accept God’s one and only Son, the One sent to
deliver them from death to eternal life. Indeed, those who strived to discredit
Jesus in His ministry work, and there were many attempts to do so, ended up
entrapped and snared in their deceitfulness. They failed to see that Jesus was
fully human like they were but also fully God with a powerful wisdom and
insight that peered into the very hearts of everyone He encountered. All illicit
motives were exposed and dashed by the Jesus, leaving all attempts to dishonor
Him fruitless.
This truth was summed up nicely in
these words of Peter in his first letter:
As you come to Him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by
God and precious to Him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a
spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:
‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the
one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.’
Now to you who believe, this Stone is precious. But to those who do not
believe, “The Stone the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone,” and,
“A Stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they
were destined for.
1 Peter 2:4-8
Friends, the word of God is asking
us all a simple question today:
Is Jesus a building block or a
stumbling block for you?
If you stubbornly refuse to receive
God’s gift of salvation, rejecting Jesus while placing your hope and trust in
other things of life, then He has become a stumbling block you have fallen over
to your own doom. Death awaits you because you have refused to accept the only
One who defeated death and the grave, the only One who can lead you to God the
Father (John 14:6). Anyone who tells you there is another way is a liar who is
leading you astray.
Conversely, if you come to Jesus,
the living Stone, then you will find yourself like a living stone yourself as
He builds you up in Him to a life where you live self sacrificially in
righteousness as He did, ever seeking to make a difference in the lives of
others as you share the gospel message of salvation. And when we are fully
living for Jesus, offering ourselves as spiritual sacrifices holy and pleasing
to Him, then everything we do will take the form of worship unto His precious
and holy name for all that we do will be done in a way that brings honor and
glory to Him (Romans 12:1-2).
My brothers and sisters, this life
lived in and through Jesus is like no other. Jesus left this earth to sit His
Father God but promised He will return for us. It has been an extended
separation of more than 2,000 years now but every day we live in Him we add yet
another building block as He shapes and molds us into His likeness until that
day when we will be reunited and what a blessed day that will be. My prayer is
that you’ll join me then with all the other saints who accepted Jesus, the
living Stone, as Savior.
Amen.
In
Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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