Kidney Stones and How They Can Move!

Just recently, I had several friends that oddly were experiencing the same health issue. These individuals (as far as I am aware) were not acquainted with one another. They all live in different towns and outside of my respective separated friendships with them, they know not one another.

Each one faced the obstacle of Kidney Stones, an issue that can be a truly formidable foe at times, especially when they are hard to reach and there is more than one. Typically, a doctor can use a simple procedure to crush these stones. Not these cases, no, they all required hospital stays and invasive surgery. Apparently, if a kidney stone(s) is deeply hidden, a surgeon must go deeply into the infected area and remove the obstruction. I am thankful to say that each of these problems were remedied and are now becoming a memory.

I began to think...

· Sin can be festering deep within me, where Christ needs to reign.

· I wonder if there is a pet practice or thought process hiding in me that God wants to blast away.

· Am I facing a possible diagnosis-unfavorable in my walk with Christ?

· These problems could be just below the surface or deep, dangerously deep within my soul.

On both sides of the cross, before and after the death of Jesus, Peter answered a call. Jesus invited Him (Mk. 1:16-18; Jn. 21:19) both times saying "follow me". The Scriptures tell us that Peter betrayed (Mk. 14:71) Jesus the night prior to the crucifixion. In these passages I see a man that truly would have rendered himself disqualified if he served among the religious of 2009. To walk with Christ, God incarnate and then deny Him? After seeing the waves beneath his own feet? The healings, the visions, the transfiguration, and so on…?

If a man has a failed marriage in his past today (no matter the circumstances), the religious majority say that he is unfit to oversee the spiritual lives of others. Maybe he has a tattoo from his days in Vietnam (while defending your freedom and mine at age 18), ten years prior to receiving Christ as Lord and Savior? One particular man was branded... "Out Of God's Will" due to his excessive consumption of h2o while in the pulpit. I find it equally astounding that this same man was asked to vacate his role as overseer due to the fact that he removed his blazer (while preaching) one time too many for the comfort of the tithers.

Peter had sin in His life the first time he answered Jesus' call, as well as the second. What's amazing is that Jesus is still calling ragamuffins today. God is still using the least of these to do His great Kingdom work in 2009. We all need to repent; we need to ask God to surgically remove the sin that only He can locate at times. The Holy Ghost will always assist us and intercede for us as we pray for cleansing. Just as kidney stones are a painful problem, sin is also an infectious disease. You and I have failed God and we will certainly fail Him again as we go. However, through repentance before God and faith in the cleansing and powerful blood of Jesus Christ, we all have a bridge by way of the cross.

Ask God to reveal the sin, whether it is just at the surface or it is years of painful cover-up. He can remove this bondage and He is waiting on you to reach out in repentance and take His forgiving hand.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:9 NIV