Reason For Hope Read List
Words of Encouragement
Please use these short
practical lessons to get regular shots of
Christian encouragement.
You Are Not Forgotten
Things Overheard
A "First Love" Frame of Mind
Alive, Powerful and Small
Trustworthy Wounds
Read-Only Documents
A Concrete Lesson
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A Concrete Lesson
8-May-2007 from Don Patterson
Do you know
why concrete trucks have that huge barrel constantly churning as they
drive down the road? It's because if they don't keep the concrete
moving, it will set up and harden. To be useful, the concrete
needs constant agitation until it's ready to be poured.
People can be
a lot like concrete. If they are not stirred up, they gradually become
hardened in their ways, inflexible. That's one reason why God puts his
people into a fellowship with one another. The discussions, the
conflicts and the emotional 'rubs' we have with other Christians (which
are often seen as negative) are actually used by God to stir us up
and keep us useful. By skipping out on that type of God-intended
agitation, we are actually making ourselves less useful to Him.
In the book of
Hebrews, the writer specifically tells us to agitate each other so that
we will not become hardened:
See to it, brothers, that
none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the
living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called
Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.
Hebrews 3:12-13
I hope this
helps you to welcome the 'rubs' you have with other
Christians and I hope you are encouraged to engage your brothers and
sisters in constructive spiritual conversation. God doesn't want our
hearts to harden. Stay in God's flock and let them stir you as we share
the Word of God and the life of Christ.
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