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Engraved
In Stone
A
story is told of two friends who were traveling
together through the desert. During some point of the
journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped
the other one in the face.
The
one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying
anything, wrote in the SAND: TODAY MY BEST
FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.
They
kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they
decided to take a bath.
The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and
started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he
recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a STONE:
TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.
The
friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked
him, "When I hurt you, you wrote in the SAND and
now, you write on a STONE, why?"
The
other friend replied, "When someone hurts us we
should write it down in SAND where winds of
forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does
something good for us, we must engrave it in STONE
where no wind can ever erase it."
The
moral of the story is: Learn to write your
hurts in the SAND and to carve your blessings in
STONE.
Consider
another application of the story…
By
committing sin, WE are just like the ones who tortured
and mocked the Son of God when "they
spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him
with the palms of their hands” (Matthew 26:67).
Yet,
because of His great love for us, Jesus is willing to
"write these offenses in the sand" and
forgive us. In
fact, He was hung on a cross for that very reason.
He "bore OUR sins in His own body
on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live
for righteousness; by whose stripes YOU were
healed" (1 Peter 2:24).
"In Him we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the
riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7).
His
forgiveness is available to those who: will accept
through an obedient faith:
placing their trust in Christ (Acts 16:31), repenting
of sin (2 Corinthians 7:9-10), confessing
Christ (Romans 10:9-10), and being baptized
(immersed) in the name of Christ for the forgiveness
of sins (Acts 2:38).
Christ continues to forgive those who continue
to follow Him (1 John 1:7).
Even
when we didn’t deserve it, Christ died on the cross
so that we might have forgiveness for our sins (cf.
Romans 5:6-8).
THAT'S
a blessing we need to accept and "engrave it
in stone!"
God
bless you!
David A. Sargent,
Minister
Church of Christ at Creekwood
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
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