As I got to thinking about faith today, I was reminded of an incredible story I heard about 8 years ago. 27-year-old Aron Ralston, was on a solo hike through a narrow canyon in South Eastern Utah, when an 800-pound boulder dislodged, pinning his right hand against the canyon wall. Trapped in the canyon he stayed there without any sign of rescue for five days and five nights.
Aron started out with a will to live, but it wasn’t until the sixth day that he made a life-changing decision that put his will to live into action. If there was any hope of survival he would have to leave without his arm. And so, alone in the canyon with nothing but a cheap pocket knife he left his arm behind and embarked on a grueling 7-mile hike back to safety.
There’s a parallel here between a physical struggle and a spiritual one, in which the flesh is at war with the soul,
And if thy right hand offend thee,cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. (Matthew 5:30, KJV)
Of course Jesus isn’t talking about marring our body in the physical sense here, but there’s a spiritual lesson to be learned: we need to put away anything that hinders us from walking in faith. We need to change our attitude if we’re letting sin slide. We need to deal with destructive behaviour whether it be the places we frequent, the crowd we’re immersed in, or bad habits we’ve formed. And, sometimes it means painfully cutting away these things from our life.
This is the one thing many are unwilling to do, and that is why they remain trapped in sin, or never come to Jesus. They never get beyond a vague wish to be better. – David Guzik, EnduringWord.com
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And if thy right hand offend thee,cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. (Matthew 5:30, KJV)
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Darlene Schacht and her husband Michael live in Manitoba Canada where the summers are beautiful and the winters are cold. Together they’ve come to learn that relationships aren’t always easy, but that marriage, the way God intended it to be, is a treasure worth fighting for.
She began her publishing journey about twelve years ago when she pioneered one of the first online magazines for Christian women, known at the time as “Christian Women Online Magazine.” After three years, Darlene left CWO to blog as a solo author at Time-Warp Wife Ministries.
It was also during this transition that she worked alongside actress Candace Cameron Bure to write the NYT Best-Selling book, Reshaping it All: Motivation for Spiritual and Physical Fitness. Reshaping it All was the winner of both the 2011 USA Best Book Awards and the 2012 Christian Reading Retailers Choice Awards.
Author of more than 15 books, Darlene continues to write and to minister to her readers through her blog at TimeWarpWife.com.
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You are loved by an almighty God,
Darlene Schacht
The Time-Warp Wife