Stumbling Block.

I was reading in 1 Corinthians 8 this morning about food sacrificed to idols. Yeah…it was one of those kind of readings. But I’ve learned that there’s always some sort of application in texts like this, even if it’s something that provides more insight to biblical culture rather than my personal life.

I got down to verse 9 and found the familiar term in Christian circles of “stumbling block”. Here’s the passage:

⁹ Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰ For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? ¹¹ So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. ¹²When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³ Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.

I love this passage. He talks about how a guy can go and eat food sacrificed to idols. This would’ve been a bad thing to do because it was “defiled”. However, Paul says earlier in this passage that food doesn’t necessarily bring us closer to God or further from him. So this guy can technically eat food sacrificed to idols and in the new covenant, it’s not really that big of a deal. UNLESS, someone sees you eating that food and has a weaker conscience (which isn’t a problem). This weaker conscience guy is now led to believe it’s ok to do, but his conscience betrays him and consequently, he has stumbled. Paul says that when we cause them to stumble and sin against other believers in this way, we’ve sinned against Christ. If what we eat causes a brother (or sister) to stumble, don’t eat it so he won’t fall!

I think this applies to so much more too. We can put a couple of blanks in that last sentence and apply it to just about anything in the Christian walk.

If what I _____________ causes a believer to stumble, don’t ____________ it so he won’t fall!

This has been a big passage for me and I hope you can find some practical application for it as well!

Invest.

I just want to simply say thank you to the following men:

• Stephen Kendrick
• Will Goodwin
• Todd Graham

These are three guys who majorly invested in my life throughout middle school and high school on a consistent basis. I could name many others who really poured into me over the years as well, but these three stood out and stuck with me, even when situations didn’t always keep us around or in the same town.

My guess is none of those guys will read this, and it’s not even really about them. Without those guys, I could’ve made it fine in life, but I’m better because of them and what I learned through them. Because of them, I want to invest in the lives of students today. What a great opportunity we have in life to do this!

Who are you investing in? It doesn’t always take a lot of time and will change a life. So who’s life are you changing my stepping in and pushing them to grow? Make a difference.

I believe it needs to get colder soon or Christmas shouldn’t really come…

2011 Top 5 Christmas Albums

It’s finally here! The Christmas season always means I’m rocking some Christmas music. Here are my favorite albums this year:

• Songs for Christmas - Sufjan Stevens 
• A Very She & Him Christmas - She & Him 
• A Charlie Brown Christmas - Vince Guaraldi Trio 
• Songs for Christmas - Phil Wickham 
• A Very Merry Christmas - Dave Barnes

What would you add to this list?