Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Smooth and Jagged Stones

It amazes me to see how the work of Christ is so evident in the entirety of the scriptures. In this portion of scripture we see this evidence as the Israelites are crossing the Jordan. The Jordan represents death and the stones, us. When the Israelites removed the stones from the Jordan to set up the memorial it symbolized resurrection through the death and resurrection of Jesus. When they replaced the stones with ones from the land, it reminds and challenges me in this:

"Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life... Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." - Romans 6:4;6

The stones from the land were jagged and crusted with dirt, but those from the Jordan were smooth and clean. They didn't look like those from the land. People who saw the twelve stacked stones would know that they were from the river and that somehow they were taken out. Are you a living and breathing testimony of Christ's work on the cross, a smooth stone from the river, or are you still walking as a jagged crusty old rock? What are some memorials/monuments you've made because of the Lord's work in your life?

May God's Word challenge and direct you today,

Robby

6 comments:

Jamesgrigg said...

I agree with Joe! That is soo cool how the lord exalted joshua what a great moment that must of been for him! 40,000 people vs god...god wins! We are powerful with him! :)

Joe said...

Nice post Robby and a great reminder of our death. Who would ever think that dying is truly living!

Jamesgrigg said...

I revise my comment i agree with robby! That was a sweet imput!

Gabe said...

Well done Robby! Here's the vision I get in my head when it comes to the idea of smooth and jagged rocks. We have to always remember, going by Robby's example, that we are smooth rocks. We can't say that sometimes we are and sometimes we aren't. It doesn't work that way. When Christ died He changed us from jagged rocks to smooth rocks. The problem I believe we have is we know that we all sin and fall short of the Glory of God. And because of this we believe that we are no longer these smooth rocks,that we instantly become jagged again. I look at this as smooth rocks getting dirty, maybe having some things growing on it, or maybe even the smooth rocked being dropped from time to time and getting a few scratches on it. But underneath that dirt and scratches the rock is still smooth and will remain smooth. In order to restore that rock to it's nice smooth self there needs to be cleaning. The cleaning might be a simple wipe or it might take some hard scrubbing. So do you feel like you're jagged? Well like I said before, you were made smooth by Jesus, maybe all you need to do is wipe the dirt off. I know for me a hard scrubbing happens often. So I guess to sum up this thought is just like these people used these rocks as a remembrance, use the cross as a remembrance that once you were a crappy old jagged rock but because of what Jesus did you are now smooth.

Nathan said...

"...that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever." - 4:24


I want this to be our answer when people ask us why we live our lives the way we do.

But that means that we have to live our lives worthy of this answer.

Nice post, Rob. Love you guys

--nate dogg

Jay said...

I ask the Lord that when i come into contact with random people and coworkers that they notice something different about me, that I am a rock taken out of the river. A rock that has been shaped and sculpted by the river.