The devotional - 1042 - Foot Steps in First Corinthians, ongoing

The Devotional – 1042 – Foot steps in First Corinthians, ongoing

It is not easy to cause a brother or sister in the LORD to stumble, it is worse than that! For many of us it is a selfish expression of our character. The setting of a trap to catch someone off-guard is what some may call a practical joke. There is however nothing practical about verbal or intentional stumbling blocks in the way people conduct life. If we care to monitor our actions we can be reminded of this and save relationships. In the world where Christ is absent from the multitude, the souls we work or relate with are precious in the eyes of the LORD. If you look you find many observers, folks watching the actions of others around them. If you are the practical joker or the razor tongued one, you no doubt stand out like a caution light at a busy intersection. You may like that position; but notice this, you are often standing alone like the caution light with more than an arm’s length distance between you and the next person who is waiting for an opportunity to get past you. 

CHALLENGES & COMMENTS – 1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Sometimes I have trouble with the comments and challenges that race through my mind; like “woe, don’t say it that way and expose to the crowd that you are subject of what is being challenged”. Say it anyway but tap dance through those tough and personal parts. Make it look like you are the observer and not one identified as the sluggard or evil steward. After writing all these years I can safely say that the pen in one’s hand is a very mighty tool, it is an extension of the tongue. The apostle James says that the tongue is a fire capable of igniting a total forest with one spark – James 3:5.

Being a stumbling block to others is like the looming storm threat here on the east coast that is blocking the morning sun, stumbling blocks overtake and disrupt our personal resolve that God has for us – Psalm 40:5 and Psalm 139:17-18. There are all sorts of idolatry, the most common we think of are the statues in the yard or in the home. Churches are good with placing idolatrous statues in strategic places too. For the saint of God we see and avoid the obvious, but there are other idolatries that are physically unseen; these do the major damage. 

Food for example is seen and eaten, yet someone may be offended by us in what we eat and stumble; to the one who stumbles in this there is recovery. Conversation can be heard, but the understanding of what enters the heart of someone is not heard and can be a stumbling offense and in this it is hard to recover. The actions of people is observable and can be a stumbling block for some, recovery from someone’s actions is hard, but not impossible.

Now the apostle’s warning to the Corinthians has to do with food offered to idols during any pagan worship service in the city of Corinth. The city was full of the religious and immoral conduct and these men and woman of the church were saved out of these sinful conditions – 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. The question then, are we any different than they, no, NO! We are not, even if saved at an early age of life we still own a piece of – 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 if you look intently at these verses you will see a mirror image of one or several sins anchored within yourself looking back. 

Now do not pretend to be naïve about this since it is these vary things that present opportunity in the lives of others to cause stumbling. The sixty-four plus sins of the Corinthian church run like a rabid animal through the churches of Jesus Christ… it this were not true there would be no need for the many epistles of Paul to encourage the church to remain holy and set apart for the gospel of grace. I think I will close up writing at this point and pick it up again after “Thanksgiving Day” tomorrow I wish have something to say about the giving of Thanks.