The Stone

Here in the Northwest is an amazing river called the Columbia River. It is the fourth largest river in the United States and draws its water from an area roughly the size of France. It is an amazingly beautiful river.

If you were to go down to the banks of this picturesque river it wouldn’t take much effort to find a small stone just past the water's edge. Leaning over, you could easily snatch that stone from the water to get a closer look. The rock would be wet and dripping with that cold Columbia River water, thoroughly drenched on all sides. But, if you took that rock and broke it open with a hammer, you would find that the inside would be dry. No wetness. No dripping. Just cold, hard rock.

That is a what a hard heart is like. The outside can be covered and immersed in the immense river of God’s love, but the penetration factor is absolute zero. When I can read the Bible or hear a pastor’s talk, and walk away from it without conviction or change, then my heart is becoming hard. I have gotten to the point where my hearts need to be softened once again.

Hosea, a prophet in the Old Testament of the Bible, said it well.

Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your (hard) ground, For it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12

O how God desires for our hearts to be soft before Him. You may find yourself in a place where you need God to do a work in you because your heart has grown hard. If that be the case, then you can do something that has the potential to soften the hard places of your heart. Pray. Pray like David prayed when he said,

Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Thy presence, And do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, And sustain me with a willing spirit. Psalm 51:10

A few Q's for you

What is would you say the condition of your heart is? Do you read the Bible and at times feel like there is room for change? Do you then change?

Has reading the Bible and going to church become a chore?

Are you willing to pray the prayer that David prayed? If so, then just read that verse from Psalm 51:10 out loud and ask God to make it so in your life.

Useful

Have you ever read the book called Philemon? It’s just a little book in the Bible of just 25 verses. You can read it in less 5 minutes. It is a letter from Paul the Apostle wrote to a guy by the name of Philemon, and the point of the letter was for Paul to ask for mercy for another man by the name of Onesimus.

Rome was a crazy place. That’s were Paul was writing from. It was one of the greatest empires to ever exist. And it was vastly, vastly wealthy. Much of that wealth was fueled by the bodies of slaves. Up to 30% of the Roman Empire was made up of slaves.

Though many of us complain that working our jobs is like being a slave, nothing could be further from the truth. Slaves were less than human. There is the story of a slave that was carrying a tray of cups into a courtyard. One cup fell and broke. Furious at the loss of the cup, the owner ordered the slave to be thrown into the courtyard pond. Instantly the lampreys of the pond swarmed around the unfortunate slave and ate him alive. Many slaves had it very rough during the days of Paul.

For a slave to run away was not good. There was a whole industry that grew in Rome in which people hunted down these runaway slaves. When caught the slave could be whipped, or burnt with hot irons, or killed. Those that survived the capture would be branded on their foreheads the letters FVG for fugitivus, or fugitive.

Onesimus was a runaway slave. He had taken flight in search of freedom. Who can blame him? But, as he running from his master Onesimus ran into Paul. Paul himself was in prison at the time for talking about Jesus. Somehow Onesimus ended up becoming a Christian and his life was radically changed. Check out how Paul describes Onesimus' character:

"Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me." Philemon 11

Onesimus was useless. Apparently Onesimus had been a poor excuse for a slave. Paul also mentions an issue with a debt, which could possibly mean that Onesimus stole from Philemon. In short, Onesimus was a useless thief.

But then Onesimus added Jesus to his life and his character totally changed. So much so that now Paul was asking for Philemon to grant Onesimus' freedom and to allow Onesimus to be sent to Paul. Onesimus had been radically changed by adding Jesus to his useless life.

Some of you know what it is like to be useless. You feel it in your bones. This sense of what's the point? Perhaps once you had been so full of love and now overwhelmed with loss. You may have made some bad choices, and the freedom that you thought you were running to ends up being more elusive than a rainbow. Suddenly you are enslaved to the consequences.

If truth be told, we've all run at times in our lives. And some of us have had the whippings and the scars from bad choices bring that caught up to us. And the scars are real. In know. I have a few of my own. The end result is a nagging knowledge that you are useless.

But then Jesus gets involved in our lives. “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Man, life is totally different! Onesimus was just like that. Remember what Paul said? "Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me." But now… things are radically different. Jesus god a hold of Onesimus and gave him the freedom he was looking for. In that freedom came a life that now useful. A life that could make a difference.

How about you. Are you a runaway. Have you experienced the beatings of bad choices. Have you found that your life seems empty and useless. Add Jesus to your life and it will make all the difference in the world. You can be used to make a difference, to help others, to love. You will be useful.