For some years now I have been carrying in my travel bible a small white stone. This is something that I have chosen to do as a reminder.
The longer in the tooth you get the more you need to have things to keep you on track in your life. You think you know stuff but sometimes you have known it so long that you wonder if you do really know it at all.
When I unzip this travel bible sometimes the stone falls out in front of me. It is very flat, I picked it up on a beach so it has been smoothed by the sea, so at other times it can be found as a place holder.`
So the significance is that it reminds me that by Jesus death and resurrection the price has been paid for me. I am acquitted before God. It reminds me that I am redeemed of the Lord. And that daily I should remember to live like a redeemed person. In the New Testament at Revelation 2.17 there is a reference to a white stone. It is thought that the writer of that book had in mind that when you stood before a judge for sentencing he would signal his verdict by picking out either a white or black stone. If he picked a white stone it meant that you were acquitted and free to go on your way. If the judge of your life has shown you the white stone you are a new creation, as it says in Isaiah 'redeemed of the Lord. '
I am the kind of person who enjoys and needs the visual and this seemingly small thing helps to keep me on track. It is many years since I was brought to the decision point about God. Years since I said 'yes, Jesus I believe and want to make you Lord of my life.' but that decision has been the single most important thing I have done in my life. It has opened me to inner healing that I didn't think was possible.
Now I have this freedom I need to use it wisely and keep hold of it. As St Paul reminds us in the book of Galatians "Christ has set us free! Stand then as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again" (GNB Galatians 5:1)
Of course in many ways it is just a stone. But it is a reminder.
... I pray for you this day that the Lord will bless you and lead you into a greater understanding his great love for you
The longer in the tooth you get the more you need to have things to keep you on track in your life. You think you know stuff but sometimes you have known it so long that you wonder if you do really know it at all.
When I unzip this travel bible sometimes the stone falls out in front of me. It is very flat, I picked it up on a beach so it has been smoothed by the sea, so at other times it can be found as a place holder.`
So the significance is that it reminds me that by Jesus death and resurrection the price has been paid for me. I am acquitted before God. It reminds me that I am redeemed of the Lord. And that daily I should remember to live like a redeemed person. In the New Testament at Revelation 2.17 there is a reference to a white stone. It is thought that the writer of that book had in mind that when you stood before a judge for sentencing he would signal his verdict by picking out either a white or black stone. If he picked a white stone it meant that you were acquitted and free to go on your way. If the judge of your life has shown you the white stone you are a new creation, as it says in Isaiah 'redeemed of the Lord. '
I am the kind of person who enjoys and needs the visual and this seemingly small thing helps to keep me on track. It is many years since I was brought to the decision point about God. Years since I said 'yes, Jesus I believe and want to make you Lord of my life.' but that decision has been the single most important thing I have done in my life. It has opened me to inner healing that I didn't think was possible.
Now I have this freedom I need to use it wisely and keep hold of it. As St Paul reminds us in the book of Galatians "Christ has set us free! Stand then as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again" (GNB Galatians 5:1)
Of course in many ways it is just a stone. But it is a reminder.
... I pray for you this day that the Lord will bless you and lead you into a greater understanding his great love for you
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