Modern Christian - A Cub Of The Lion Of Judah

My hands are full

One of my last posts explored some difficult topics, division, vaccine passports, and as always my posts stay relevant to both realisations throughout my journey and revelations about the world we live in. This one is based off a slightly more lighthearted topic but nevertheless it is still important.
The topic of this post is !...

"I cant do that - My hands are already full..."

How many times as children have we made that excuse?

Well recently I found a rock on the beach and it led to a post about the author of timelines. The post spoke about the journey of the rock, and the value that would be revealed through suffering and refinement.

What I didn't expect was that I would soon be led to make another post on this journey once again including the very same stone.
I didnt expect that the physical qualities of a rock would make clearer the symbolic nature of Christ when He called Himself a rock.
I definitely didnt expect that God would create a weapon from this rock that I could fall upon in the war against my own flesh.

God Himself is referenced to be an everlasting rock throughout scripture, in Isaiah (26:4) we are told to "trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock."

In Psalm 18:31 we are asked "for who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?

Psalm 62:2 states that "He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken."

Time and time again, Our everlasting God time is referred to as the rock, the cornerstone, the solid foundation.

A few weeks before my post on this rock I also made a post about the excuse of emotion, how as humans we are led to make excuses time and time and time again. Usually these excuses would lead to our own graves which would (if given over to God ) would actually become gardens.

Well... these past few days I have not stopped being tempted, temptations have came from every direction and whilst this next part sounds bad, (and its not)..   each time ive faced a temptation, ive reacted completely childishly and made excuses..

How can that be good?

Well ! As a child when I was asked to do things, I would have  likely grabbed something close to me "sorry but I cant do this because im too busy doing this,"
"I cant pick that rubbish up because my hands are already full."
"I can't eat that... because my stomach is just too full"
"I cant carry my school-bag, because my hands are already carrying my jumper"

These excuses would always be a refusal to do something and the justification would be found in the reason that i was already doing something.

In the same way, the last few days I just kept making excuses not to sin, when tempted to do a sin which required my hands, I would put that rock in my hands and say "sorry... cant do that sin because my hand is already full with this stone"

If i had been tempted to lie ? I would have likely put that stone in my mouth 🤣

My response was childish, my attitude to sin was not me trying to deal with it in a mature way "I shouldn't do this because it is wrong." My attitude to sin was nothing more than a childish excuse of "sorry...cant do it ! I havent got enough hands.."

But the result of my excuses was nothing short of outstanding,  straight away my excuses led to a realisation that my ability to overcome sin was nothing to do with my own strength, I was deflecting the responsibility of choosing whether to sin or not into the very thing that I was holding on to,

The act of filling my hands with a rock was the physical result of first filling my heart with the spirit. In order to commit those sins I would  have first needed to physically let go of the rock in my hands as well as the Rock in my spirit.
Like a child, I was not willing to let go.

Likewise,  In the bible there are many times it explains that to beat sin is nothing we can achieve by our own strength. To beat sin was only possible by filling ourselves with spirit.

Ephesians 5:18
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit..

Galatians 5:16-18
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 
For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want. 
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

To fill ourselves with the spirit and to walk in the spirit is what allows us to overcome sin because when we are already full with something, we are left in a position where we are unable to take hold of something else without first letting go of what is already in our hands.

Likewise we cannot come to Jesus and faithfully serve Him without first letting go of the things of this world because we need both hands to hold on to Him.
For no man can faithfully serve two masters, we are just not capable.

One verse which I am surprisingly led to talk about also is the time when the pharisees tried to trick Jesus by bringing to Him a woman who had been found commiting adultery, the full crowd had stones in thier hands ready to kill her and Jesus said...
 “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Each person in that crowd had a stone in thier hand, ready to cast it against that woman, now Jesus' words not only was a statement to the pharisees that all have sinned, that the stones they hold are stones of self righteousness and condemnation.
The stones they hold on to are not the correct stones.

Something I did not realise about that verse is that by His words, He had been shown to have the authority to throw a stone at her Himself because He was the one without sin.

By His own words He would be the first to throw a stone... And He did! Just not in the way we expected, as always, His ways and our ways are rarely the same.
Jesus, as the living rock, came to her and asked her, “Woman, where are your accusers?  Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, Lord,” she answered.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Now go and sin no more.”

The stone He threw at her was not one of condemnation, the rock he threw was one of mercy, of forgiveness.
He threw upon her the rock on which the foundations of Gods love was built upon.

Jesus is the rock that we can choose to pick up and hold onto, He placed Himself in her hand so that as long as she held onto Him and onto His word. She would go and sin no more. Condemnation was not for her but forgiveness. Death was not hers to suffer but life was freely given.
He reached out His hand and in it she recieved a stone that would allow her the oppurtunity to sin no more, as her hands would now be full with something that she would not ever want to let go of. Himself.

As Christians, we are called to hold onto the everlasting rock, we will not sin when we hold onto Him because our spirits, our hands, our hearts are full. Our strength to overcome sin is only through what we are holding onto.
And when we are called to throw stones at others, we are not called to throw stones of condemnation, we are called to first recognise the sin, but then cast stones of mercy, to spread the gospel so that they can find the very same stone that the foundations of everything was built upon.

Today when sin comes knocking at the door - be that child!  fill your hands and fill your spirit and say "Sorry! Cant do it this time! My hands are already full!!"

And to finish lightheartedly, whoever puts a literal stone in thier mouth in order to prevent a lie ! Message me to tell me about it  because that would actually make me laugh so much 🤣, it would make my day !