Hold That Cable!

Last night, I had the privilege of hanging out with some of my church family at a local concert. Now I will be the first to tell you that Southern Gospel is not my favorite genre of music but I do love the words and the memories it stirs up as I reflect on my years growing up in a preachers home where the only music allowed in our house was the Sunday Morning Sounds of SONshine on KCBI radio in Dallas. You might be asking why I remember that and it is just that I do!

Anyways, a large number of our church family went out to be part of a television studio audience so not only was the concert FREE but we also received $1000.00 to participate and that will help out with some ministries we have here at the church! The building quickly filled up to near capacity and as soon as the concert began, I started noticing these rather large poles with video cameras swinging back and forth across the audience as they moved to video different angles of the artists as they sang. I thought to myself how bad it would be if that thing got out of balance and came crashing on the heads of all these gray haired "Jesus Freaks"! Anyways, I also noticed as I sat there another guy running around with some big belt around his waste that had an extension arm with a camera on it as well. He would move up and down the isle trying to get the best shot and at the right time. What I also noticed was the man that shadowed him. When the camera man went right, he would go right. When the camera man went down the isle, he would go down the isle. I watched as every step the camera man took, he would soon follow. You might be asking why? Well what this guy was doing was keeping hold of the cable that was connected to the camera and keeping it from getting tangled to where the camera man would not get caught up in it and possibly fall and damage the camera or even himself. You see the camera man had one job, to keep his eyes on the artist, the person on the stage, the main event! The other guys job was to help him to do that by keeping the cable from causing him to stumble.

The Apostle Paul dealt with this issue. In 1 Corinthians 8 the issue came up about eating meat that was offered to false idols and if it was wrong. Paul goes on and basically says that there is nothing wrong with eating that meat except for the fact that if eating that meat causes someone to stumble, then it is wrong and a sin!

You see there are things in our lives that might not be listed in the Bible that many would say are wrong, maybe even labeling them as SIN! Some might question if they are right or not but if what you are doing would cause another to stumble, then it is wrong. What Christians need to do is to be like that man who was shadowing the other man at the concert last night and that is to do whatever he or she can to help the other keep their eyes on the main thing which is Jesus and not stumble over one of your cables or mistakes you've been carrying around!

See You @ The River...John