"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depths of the sea." - Matthew 18:6
"Therefore, if food make my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble." - 1 Corinthians 8:13
Among the many things which may constitute a review of our lives when we die, I cannot help but wonder if one of those things will be those times we acted to drive people away from Christ instead of drawing them to him.
At least for myself, how many times have I acted as a millstone for someone else? How many time times have I brought others to sin by my own?
My attitude, my self righteousness, my hurling of Biblical truths without Biblical love - how many have I turned from Christ or made Him a person without credibility to do what I say He had done, change one's life? After all, He apparently scarcely changed my own?
Sometimes the greatest obstacle to someone else's belief in Christ is not themselves. Sometimes it is those that claim His name.
That last sentence of yours TB comes to mind when surfing through the TV early on a Sunday morning with those "Christians" asking for "seed money" in their spiels. It's December seventh TB.............
ReplyDeleteNylon12, it can remind me of the fact that there are people out there - even as I write this - that act that way. The more terrifying thing to me is that have the potential to be just as much of a hypocrite every day.
DeleteIt is indeed December 7th. Somewhere, buried now, I have pictures from the U.S.S. Arizona memorial that I should dig out and remember.
Good thing "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." I take that to mean he arranges for our goofs to work for the good anyway.
ReplyDeleteWarren, one of the memes that makes its way into my Social feed from time to time is the idea that God accounted for my stupidity when He sends me trials and tribulations. That thought is strangely comforting.
DeleteDec 7th 1941.
ReplyDeleteRomans 10:14
and Acts 17:16-34
Thanks for verses, Michael.
DeleteExcellent observation. How many "Christian" characters in the 1980s and 1990s in TV and movies were created just to turn people away from Christ?
ReplyDeleteJohn, that is not a thing that I had considered - but you are precisely right. Christian characters portrayed as people like any other definitely fell off a cliff there from the years before. I do not know about modern shows - I really do not watch any - but I am hard pressed to think of a recent movie portrayal of Christians in at least a neutral light, if not a positive one.
DeleteIt would be nice to have more characters like Charles Ingalls in our television shows.
DeleteWow! There is a fictional character that I have not heard in years.
DeleteBut spot on. Sincere, competent men and women of faith strike me as being few and far between.
Actually, I've always considered this to be the true taking of the Lord's name in vain. We say it's swear words, but what is more vain than piously talking the talk but behaving the opposite?
ReplyDeleteLeigh, what a great thought! I had never considered it that way, but it is a version of hypocrisy, something that Christ spoke very firmly about.
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