I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean…..Romans 14:14 ESV….(as we roll towards the end of our 3 week long verse by verse look or Romans 14).

These past few weeks have been State Fair time across America. We have been eating food items at these Fairs (usually in State capitols) that should not only question our collective sanity but are heart attacks waiting to happen! Some of the food (and I use that word loosely) has gone plain weird!

Why do we need the latest for 2011 – fried stick of butter? It was bad enough someone came up with fried snickers bar a few years ago! The stick of butter, dipped in pancake batter and then covered in powered sugar after deep frying is just as “unique” as the friend Kool-Aid balls I witnessed before me own eyes!

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Then let us no more criticize and blame and pass judgment on one another, but rather decide and endeavor never to put a stumbling block or an obstacle or a hindrance in the way of a brother….Romans 14:13 AMP

Can you really turn a stumbling block into a stepping stone?

This next verse in our series mentions BOTH A Stumbling Block and A Hindrance. We all know what a stumbling block is – well, it’s something we trip over and sometimes, in embarassment, almost fall over! The next word, Hindrance, is particularly important as the ORIGINAL word for it is “Scandalon”. If this looks familiar – it is!

The word Scandal comes from it! What the Apostle sent by Christ is relaying is, in this life, people are going to try to trip us up! Literally, morally, spiritually and otherwise, they are going to try to bring us down! An immature believer is just that – immature. At some point in our Journey with Jesus, we were all immature.

(Image courtesy: Google images)

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