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Posted on 07/22/2026 2:55:51 PM PDT by PetroniusMaximus
“When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.” Deuteronomy 22:8 (NIV)
At first, this sounds like a small command.
Put a railing around your roof.
But it tells us something beautiful about God.
God knows people fall. So he tells his people to do more than warn one another. He tells them to build mercy into the house. Do not wait until someone is broken on the ground. Put something between them and the edge.
******************
The New Testament shows us the same heart.
Jesus once told his disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12).
Jesus did not tell them everything at once. Not because truth did not matter. Because they mattered too.
Paul gave new believers milk before solid food. Jude told Christians to have mercy on those who doubt.
Apollos was a gifted preacher, but part of his teaching was incomplete. Priscilla and Aquila did not shame him in public. They took him aside and explained the way of God more clearly.
God may be even kinder than we have imagined.
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Sometimes we hear another person say something wrong about God, and we want to tear it apart at once.
We may be right. But being right does not always mean we are being careful.
I have been wrong about God before. God did not tear me apart to prove it. He stayed with me and taught me.
I have not always shown others that same patience. Sometimes I have been more eager to correct a person than to ask what would happen to them after I won.
A person’s beliefs may be partly wrong, yet still contain enough truth to help hold that person upright. Those beliefs may be working like training wheels while the person learns to trust Christ.
That does not make error true. God does not lie or teach falsehood. Some errors are not training wheels. They are cliffs, and love must warn people about them.
But even sharp correction should seek rescue - not victory.
If we rip away someone’s old beliefs without giving them something stronger, we may not set them free.
We may simply knock them down.
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A wise father does not kick the training wheels off his child’s bicycle and shout, “Now you know the truth about balance.”
He runs beside the bicycle.
He holds it steady. He lets go when the child is ready. And he stays close enough to catch the child if they fall.
That is how God has treated me. Perhaps it is how he has treated you too.
He has corrected us without crushing us. Sometimes he has allowed us to walk with a small understanding because it was all we could carry. Then, when we were ready, he gently showed us more.
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How many beliefs have we outgrown without noticing how patient God was while leading us?
How many falls never happened because he placed a railing between us and the edge?
God cares about truth. But he also cares about the person learning it.
He does not break a bruised reed. He does not put out a faintly burning flame. He does not shame us when we wobble.
He guards us while we grow.
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Moses told Israel to build railings so people would not fall.
Jude praised the God “who is able to keep you from stumbling” (Jude 24).
The God who told his people to put railings around their roofs is still keeping people from falling.
Sometimes with a guardrail.
Sometimes with a baby gate.
Sometimes with training wheels.
And sometimes with his own hand.
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Have at it....
Congratulations.
Thank you, sir!
Use spikes, it saves them from the fall.
most excellent
thank you
Thank you!!!!
I had one issue with this post and it was the first time I read “wrong”. It seemed to be out of place. Otherwise I enjoyed it.
Thanks! I’ll look at replacing that!
Do you understand why? A human based description on a level of God is very judgmental.
In my view, lets leave that to God and more assign that to those things we believe he does not approve.
When it it gets real is understanding what God hates.
“Do you understand why?”
Why what, friend?
“When it it gets real is understanding what God hates.”
I just made a list like that:
1. When we reject His love (Luke 19:41-42)
Jesus wept over Jerusalem: “Would that you had known... the things that make for peace!”
2. When we refuse to forgive (Matthew 18:32-35)
“Should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?”
3. When we oppress the vulnerable (Zechariah 7:10)
“Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor”
4. When we are hard-hearted toward Him (Ephesians 4:30)
“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God”
5. When we turn away after knowing Him (Hebrews 6:4-6)
Those who “fall away” crucify the Son of God afresh
6. When we love the world more than Him (1 John 2:15)
“If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him”
7. When we hurt His children (Matthew 18:6)
“Whoever causes one of these little ones... to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck”
8. When we are lukewarm (Revelation 3:15-16)
“Because you are lukewarm... I will spit you out of my mouth”
9. When we refuse to repent (2 Peter 3:9)
“The Lord is patient... not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance”
10. When we doubt His goodness (Hebrews 3:12)
“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart”
HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some excellent thoughts. I once asked a pastor why God “allowed” them to have so many wives back in the day. “Well, He didn’t allow it, but a bigger problem was them worshipping other gods, so He dealt with that first.”
Much like us.
Another pastor pointed out that all of the stories with multiple wives in the Bible don’t turn out well.
I think that it is also important that when things aren’t clear in the Bible, we need to leave them as a “mystery” to some extent, and be open-minded to what others think, and have it spur us onto more study of the Bible.
“Another pastor pointed out that all of the stories with multiple wives in the Bible don’t turn out well.”
I can barely keep up with one!
“I think that it is also important that when things aren’t clear in the Bible, we need to leave them as a “mystery” to some extent,”
Yes!!! Much misery has come from people “filling in the blanks” with confidence.
Humility sees through a glass darkly.
Beautiful and appropriate.
We conservatives sometimes find ourselves on defensive with random lefties, and argue among ourselves about both major and minor points. Flame wars on FR, for example, can be epic.
This essay is a good reminder how to act around other Christians. Each of us has to walk (or climb) our own path, strewn with our own particular pitfalls and obstacles. It’s often a nerve-wracking journey. Nothing can ultimately be gained by pushing others off the cliff.
I thought that first “wrong” was right. FWIW
Thank you for that encouragement.
I am one of the most guilty - arguing just to feel “right’.
The sermon was sponsored in part by the consumer product safety commission.
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If it's about politics, hey, no problem. Religion needs a softer touch, perhaps. It's hard when the other debater takes a to-the-wall self-righteous position on the internet. Start with face-to-face, and work outward from there, I say!! :-)
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