An obstacle may be either a stepping-stone or a stumbling block.
Author Unknown
Romans 14:13-15
Therefore, let us no longer criticize one another, but instead decide not to put a stumbling block or pitfall in your brother’s way. (I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.) For if your brother is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. By what you eat, do not destroy that one for whom Christ died. (HCSB)
Before we leave these verses, it would serve us well to define the two words that are the subject of these verses. Those two words are stumbling blocks, and pitfalls. Can you and I define these from within ourselves? Most certainly not, the reason being is that what we may call a pitfall, or cause to stumble, may not be someone else’s cause to stumble.
It could be someone watching a Christian walking into, or talking about an “R” rated movie that they went to see. It may be someone at work that watches us in our daily work life and sees our stumbling, our times that we get angry of frustrated. It could be that person who was hurting, or needed a hand, and we never called, but we talked about God’s love.
So stumbling blocks and pitfalls are not defined by us, but by others. If we are to be effective for Christ in this world, then we must have a real love and concern for others. Not just saying that we love others, but getting out of our little world of selfish desire, and living in someone else’s world. When we go there, we remove the stumbling blocks, and we become stepping stones to Jesus…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William
Author Unknown
Romans 14:13-15
Therefore, let us no longer criticize one another, but instead decide not to put a stumbling block or pitfall in your brother’s way. (I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.) For if your brother is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. By what you eat, do not destroy that one for whom Christ died. (HCSB)
Before we leave these verses, it would serve us well to define the two words that are the subject of these verses. Those two words are stumbling blocks, and pitfalls. Can you and I define these from within ourselves? Most certainly not, the reason being is that what we may call a pitfall, or cause to stumble, may not be someone else’s cause to stumble.
It could be someone watching a Christian walking into, or talking about an “R” rated movie that they went to see. It may be someone at work that watches us in our daily work life and sees our stumbling, our times that we get angry of frustrated. It could be that person who was hurting, or needed a hand, and we never called, but we talked about God’s love.
So stumbling blocks and pitfalls are not defined by us, but by others. If we are to be effective for Christ in this world, then we must have a real love and concern for others. Not just saying that we love others, but getting out of our little world of selfish desire, and living in someone else’s world. When we go there, we remove the stumbling blocks, and we become stepping stones to Jesus…God’s Blessings.
Pastor William
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