1 Peter 2:6-8
Everyone in my
family knows that I'm a world-class klutz.
I always looked like I had been through a war when I was a kid-bruises,
scrapes, cuts-you name it, I had the evidence on my small frame! It wasn't because I was a scrapper, it was
because I never seemed to know what the rest of me was doing! I had "body/brain dissociative
disorder" (a medical term, entirely fabricated in my own imagination),
meaning my body parts always seemed to do their own thing, without benefit of
any connection to the directives of my brain.
I could walk from the dining room to the kitchen-a distance of about 12
feet-and back again and gain a new bruise.
I've barreled through doorways, banging my shoulder, my elbow, or my
hand and then stood there wondering what in the world happened! Once I even had the misfortune of carrying a
stemmed, glass cake plate from the table to the counter, somehow banging the
bottom of the stem on the edge of the counter as I set it down; the stem broke
off, flipped so the jagged edge was down, and landed on my foot. I didn't know how badly I was cut until my
children, happily eating their cake at the table, excitedly remarked upon the
bloody footprints all over the kitchen floor!
And nothing much has changed!
This disorder I have is apparently not one that disappears with
maturity!
But what has this
to do with discipleship? In 1 Peter 2:6-8, Peter talks a lot about stumbling. There are basically two kinds of
stumbling: one happens to an unbeliever
and the other happens to a believer.
Unbelievers stumble over the Rock who is Jesus when they reject the
Gospel command to be saved. (Vs. 8)
I used to think
that this passage about stumbling pointed only to unbelievers.
But believers
stumble and fall over Jesus in another way entirely and I've experienced it up
close and personal.
I fall as a believer, over Jesus, not because I
don't see the obstacle (sin), but because I do see it and I refuse
to avoid it. I stumble over His
commands because I refuse to obey. Jesus
will enable me to find a path around sin, over sin, and away from sin, but
never THROUGH sin.
This is a matter
of my will. I will not yield to Jesus on
a command, I insist on heading straight into the sin. Then I fall, not because I
"drifted" into it, not because the temptation "took me by
surprise"; not even because I was blind and didn't see it coming. No, I fall because I deliberately choose to go
where my Lord does not want me to go, or I choose to divert from the path He does
want me to tread. Either way, it's a
calculated choice on my part.
I must study the
Scriptures so I know my path, so I know Him.
When the Scriptures say I must not be an idol-worshiper, I must inspect
and evaluate my life, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal those idols. Once they are revealed by God, I must get rid
of them, cut them out, burn them, destroy them as the faithful did in the Old
Testament. There is no other way to
holiness! No other way! It is a hard way, a narrow way, one that
isn't "fun" sometimes; a lonely way at times. But the reward is great: "Well done, my good and faithful
servant. Come, enter into my rest."
"Father, You are holy!
Please so work in my heart, with
Fire and with water, that I am completely cleansed of sin.
Please do what is necessary in me to make me an
empty vessel, ready for the Holy Spirit to fill.
Make me holy! Help me
to daily get rid of idols,
distractions, and pleasures which carry me away from
intimacy with You and bear me right into sin which destroys
that
intimacy. May I live
like a stranger on this earth so that someday
I can be at Home with You."
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