Stumbling Blocks Series

Power

Another good one is power.

People are so obsessed with power that they will do almost anything to attain it.

They will walk over people, cheat people, steal and lie just so that they could be in a position of attaining that longed for power.

That can cause you more pain and suffering in the long run, but even more important is the everlasting torment that awaits you if youdo not stop your power hungry antics.

Friends

To have friends is usually a good thing.

However, when your friends become a stumbling block to your eternal salvation, then it is no longer a good thing.

I have firsthand experience in this.

When I got saved I had many friends.

In the past we would get together often to have a couple of drinks and to go out to the pubs and enjoy ourselves.

But God was never the centre of our lives.

Our enjoyment came first.

But when I met Jesus everything changed and slowly but surely I lost most of my friends.

They no longer wanted to hang out with me as I was no longer interested in just enjoying myself.

And I presumed they were tired of being told that they were going to go to hell if they did not accept Jesus in their lives.

You see people don’t want to hear about the wrong things they are doing when they are enjoying it.

They believe that if they ignore it, if they are ignorant of it, then they are safe.

Then they have a valid excuse.

So when you tell them that what they are doing is wrong and will only let them end up in everlasting torment, they are actually cross with you, because you have just eliminated their one excuse – I Did Not Know.

Well now you know…

Family

Family can be a very difficult stumbling block to overcome.

Family is a very similar to friends, but is a bit trickier.

Is there a family member that you have an issue with?

Make it right because that issue stands between you and God.

You hating that family member or despising that family member is on you.

It causes you to stumble and it ensnares you.

You need to make the effort and change this.

If something is causing you to trip, if something comes between you and God, you need to identify it.

You need to get rid of it or rectify it.

CAST ASIDE THE STUMBLING BLOCKS

Jesus says that “if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee”

Cast it from thee.

What does that mean?

The idea is that Jesus is talking about something that stands in the way between you and God.

If something stands in the way between you and God, what do you do?

If an engineer is tasked to build a road and he gets to a place where there are huge rocks in front of him, what does he do?

Does he abandon everything and stop building the road?

No, he blows through it.

He casts it away.

And he continues with the road.

He does not allow anything to come between him finishing the building of the road.

Why do we as Christian allow stumbling blocks to hinder our progress?

We need to cast anything away that stands between us and God.

The original translation means: to throw or let go of a thing without caring where it falls