ONE PEBBLE AT A TIME
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
TEXT:
Romans 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the
offence might abound,
but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound...
Mark 9:35 And He sat down, and called the twelve,
and saith unto them: IF ANY MAN DESIRE TO BE FIRST,
THE SAME SHALL BE LAST OF ALL, AND A SERVANT OF ALL.
I ponder Failure and Perseverance.
So you have failed? You are in some mighty good
company.
In ministry I needed some lumber to help me build.
I prayed for the lumber, and God GAVE me an acorn.
I said, "No! God, not an acorn, I need the lumber now."
God said: "HERE IS THE SEED!"
I prayed again,
"God I have this mountain, it haunts me!"
God heard me, and sent a bird,
that move the mountain, one pebble at a time.
I have had to learn to love the little changes and
yet keep dreaming for greater.
Read Psalms 51:1-19
David was a big failure and yet the Bible says he
was a man after God’s own heart.
David disappointed many people,
sin disgraced the King’s family ...
Yet Psalms 51, the greatest chapter in the Bible on
repentance was written because of a failed moment.
We would not have Psa. 51 if David had been perfect.
David clearly was penitent.
David was not just sorry he got caught,
he was very sorry he had broken the very heart of
God.
David came home to God.
David was an example of changing a heart.
David failed, but he was not a failure!
Peter often wore his foot in his mouth.
Peter had the nerve to rebuke the Son of God,
along with many other stupid things,
yet a change came over him in the book of Acts.
He delivered the first message to the church after
the resurrection...
"What meaneth this?"
Peter failed, yet he was not a failure.
Ponder this:
When he was seven years old,
his family was forced out of their home on a legal
technicality, and he had to work to help support
them.
At age nine, his mother died.
At 22, he lost his job as a store clerk.
He wanted to go to law school, but his education
wasn’t good enough.
At 23, he went into debt to become a partner in a
small store.
At 26, his business partner died,
leaving him a huge debt that took years to repay.
At 28, after courting a girl for four years,
he asked her to marry him.
She said no.
At 37, on his third try he was elected to Congress,
but two years later, he failed to be reelected.
At 41, his four-year-old son died.
At 45, he ran for the Senate and lost.
At 47, he failed as the vice-presidential candidate.
At 49, he ran for the Senate again, and lost.
At 51, he was elected president of the United
States.
His name was Abraham Lincoln, a man many consider
the greatest leader the country ever had.
Some people get all the breaks? -- Unknown --
What is success and failure?
Salary?
Increase?
Fame?
How do I measure success?
I have never found it!
But I ponder success...
I think life has taught me success is much more than position, square footage in the house, or the type of car that you drive.
We long for a life of great ease, and the ability to order others to meet our demands.
God’s system varies much from what we expect and think ---
Mark 9:35 And He sat down, and called the twelve,
and saith unto them: IF ANY MAN DESIRE TO BE FIRST,
THE SAME SHALL BE LAST OF ALL, AND A SERVANT OF ALL.
WHAT?
"HE WHO WOULD BE GREAT NEEDS TO BE A SERVANT OF
ALL."
Now come on... ???
Failure comes when we quit overcoming obstacles.
Why can we not see obstacles are opportunities?
Real success is learned by approaching every
problem as a chance to lose God,
by patient waiting and persistence we overcome.
Most of us seek paths left by big crowds,
not realizing the path so popular to the crowd
might not be God’s plan for us.
Success is simply overcoming obstacles big and small.
Perhaps God leads you to cut a new path and leave
a trail to the hurting and the dying.
How can we discover great areas of ministry sitting on a padded pew, as the minister quietly rubs our belly until we have a satisfactory burp?
We can take ordinary talents, and bury them ---
or we can take extraordinary perseverance teamed
with our ordinary talents,
and reach new levels,
and minister to hurting and lost neighbors.
If not you --- then who?
If not now --- then when?
If not here --- then where?
Job 23:10 But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job had many questions of God,
his body had suffered beyond the means of acceptable
lines,
his coworkers had inflicted serious mental pain,
his wife said, "Curse God and die!"
Job continued his questioning,
saying that his suffering would be more bearable
if only he knew why it was happening.
If there was sin for which he could repent,
he would!
He knew about the wicked and the fact that they
would be punished;
he knew God could vindicate him if he so chose.
In all his examples of the wicked in the world,
his overriding desire was for God to clear his name,
prove his righteousness, and explain why he was
chosen to receive all this calamity.
Job tried to make his friends see that questions
about God, life, and justice are not as simple as
they assumed.
Job had failed, but he was not a failure.
In Job 22, Eliphaz had tried to condemn Job by
identifying some secret sin which he may have
committed.
Here Job declares his confidence in his integrity
and God’s justice.
We are always likely to have hidden sin in our
lives, sin we don’t even know about because
God’s standards are so high and our performance
is so imperfect.
If we are true believers, however, all our sins are forgiven, we are justified, because of what Christ did on the cross in our behalf
(Romans 5:1; Romans 8:1).
The Bible also teaches that even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts (1 John 3:20).
His forgiveness and cleansing are sufficient; they overrule our failures and nagging doubts.
The Holy Spirit in us is our proof that we are forgiven in God’s eyes even though we may feel guilty.
If we, like Job, are truly seeking God, we can stand up to others’ accusations as well as our own nagging doubts.
If God has forgiven and accepted us,
we are forgiven indeed.
Job learned you can fail and not be a failure.
Job suddenly seemed to be arguing on his friends’
side.
For this reason, some commentators think one of
Job’s friends said these words.
But we shouldn’t expect Job to present a unified
argument.
He was confused.
He was not arguing that, in every case,
God rewards the wicked and punishes the righteous;
he was simply asserting that in his case, a
righteous man was suffering.
God loves people that fail,
God has a plan to include all.
Isaiah 48:10 Behold, I have refined you,
but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace
of affliction.
There was nothing in Israel’s actions, attitudes, or accomplishments to compel God to love and to save them.
But for His Own Sake,
to show who He is and what He can do,
He saved them.
God does not save us because we are good but because He loves us and because of His forgiving nature.
God calls you to get up and try again!
Hear Him?
Do you find it easy to complain when your life becomes complicated or difficult?
Why would a loving God allow all kinds of
unpleasant experiences to come to his children?
This verse shows us plainly that God tests us in the “furnace of affliction.”
Rather than complain, our response should be
to turn to God in faith for the strength to endure,
and rejoice in our sufferings
(see Romans 5:3; James 1:2-4).
For without the testing, we would never know what we are capable of doing, nor would we grow.
And without the refining, we will not become more pure and more like Christ.
What kinds of adversity are you currently facing?
Forgiveness is the hinge that the move of God swings upon ---
Forgiveness is the fragrance that a rose sheds on
the foot that crushed it.
Thorns inflect more pain.
We are imperfect people in an imperfect world,
we must invest love ---
that reaches beyond the 99, (the comfort zone),
to reach to failures, and give them a hand up ...
We have too many older brothers angrily asking the
servant, (Luke15),
Why is the celebration going on for a wasted life?
If you judge people you have little time to love them! If you love people, you have no time to judge them.
Don’t learn to fear storms, --- learn to prepare for them.
Learn how to keep your little ship,
learn how to drop anchor,
learn how to guide your ship,
learn where the Haven of Rest is.
For you must see... SOME TIMES GOD MOVES THE MOUNTAINS ONE PEBBLE AT A TIME.
If the spring is polluted the river has no chance...
God help me move this mountain, one pebble at a time, and as I pick up momentum help me to advance at a faster pace.
Please, don’t quit! so you failed? Get up and GO AGAIN!
Never give up your dreams!
Press on, when we fall,
we must learn to get up and try again.
We can fail and not be a failure.
His servant,
Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
Please enlarge my small hands and pass this to others?
