2.20.2005 | "a stone that causes men to stumble"

Thus spoke the prophet Isaiah, preaching about God Almighty, the "one you are to fear." In Chapter 8, Isaiah tells us:

13 The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,
he is the one you are to fear,
he is the one you are to dread,

14 and he will be a sanctuary;
but for both houses of Israel he will be
a stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
a trap and a snare.

15 Many of them will stumble;
they will fall and be broken,
they will be snared and captured.

So it was, thus will it ever be. Today we see and hear of countless examples where we stumble, where we fall, because we have not heeded His word. When we do not fear the Lord, and follow His precepts. Where we do not love our neighbor.

You want particulars? Any time some hoodlum robs someone at gunpoint; when a husband beats his wife; when we allow someone to freeze to death because they are not clean enough to invite into our homes. Whenever some jiveass wannabe hoodlum starts rapping about "hos" and "gangstas" with foul language and dirt. Whenever we allow a Christian to be persecuted by the heathens. Things, big, and small, that are sinful. When we do not have the fortitude to label sin as sin, or to love the sinner by not accepting his sinful behavior.

The list is endless, and in almost infinite variety. Our ability to sin, to spit in God's eye, is a reflection of our fallen nature, our total depravity. The reflection, and the reality, that we are born depraved in body, soul, intellect, and will. That we are dead in the spirit unless and until those chosen for grace allow themselves to receive it.

Love God. Receive His unearned grace. Then you shall, as surely as day follows night, fear the Lord and love your neighbor.

| technorati tag | Christianity|