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Have You Ever Been Stoned?
by Jeff Todd And said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" - John 8: 4,5 (NIV) First, I want to apologize for the misleading title. I'm sure many of you thought this was going to lead into me talking about drugs or getting wasted on whatever people get wasted on these days. You may have even thought I had done flipped my lid and turned my back on God and started a new lifestyle of getting high. Nope. Sorry - ain't happening. Actually this is about judging others and how some of us treat people when they don't meet up to what we expect from them. The scripture above is part of an interesting setting you'll find by reading John 8:1-12. It's neat because these religious leaders were about to kill a woman because of something bad she had done. She committed adultery, which broke the rules in the Laws of Moses. This was a serious sin. They brought her to Jesus to see what He thought about all of it. You see, this woman didn't know Jesus. You could tell because she called him 'sir'. Jesus' response was different because He showed love and compassion for the woman by not stoning her Himself and giving her a remedy and at the same time revealed the sin in the religious leader's lives. It had a pretty cool outcome. You should check it out. This is how it is in the world today. People are quick to judge people. Some people look at the outside of a person and point fingers at the things they think they are doing wrong. It's like throwing stones at them. Yes, they may be doing some serious sinning, but the question we should be asking is 'do they know Jesus?' People can throw stones all day, but it won't change people. It only pushes them farther away. People change when they come face to face with Jesus and are confronted with their own sin. Only He can change them. We should be leading them to Him instead. The Bible also says 'for all have sinned'. That means we all have junk in our spiritual trunk. That includes everybody - you, me, them. So why in the world would we want to point fingers at people when we are just as guilty? Chew on that for a minute. I met a lady that was going to make some drastic changes in her lifestyle. Her friends and family were going to disown her if she followed through with her decision. They pointed fingers at her and told her how wrong it was, said mean and hateful things, and treated her like a piece of crap. I'll admit I even told her how Biblically wrong her choice would be, but I discovered a missing ingredient in her life. Jesus wasn't in there. And because of all of the negativity she received from her Christian friends and family, it confirmed for her why she never had Jesus in it to begin with. She didn't want any part of it. It pushed her farther away. Getting stoned had a negative result. Here's the lesson: As Christians, we have a job to do of leading people to Jesus. We do this by showing Him through the way we live our life and how we treat others. When someone asks us about this life we live, we tell them and point them in the direction of the cross. We have to understand that only through Jesus' grace and mercy that we are saved and also know that we are sinners, too. And be thankful that we are forgiven. All we got to do is share the memo. Hate the sin - love the sinner. That's how Jesus did it. Sharing the love of Jesus affects people in a positive way. Throwing a stone hurts, destroys and pushes people from the life that Jesus wants everyone to live. "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." - John 8:12 (NIV) Let's put our stones away! God bless you! Jeff Harbor Of Light Ministries Jeff Todd was born in Newnan, GA forty years ago. He is currently a minister and teacher of the Word through his ministry, Harbor Of Light Ministries. You can visit them on MySpace (add url plus harboroflightministries) Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |