by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
Let’s imagine we were one of the twelve (not Judas!). Jesus has been in conflict with the religious leaders for almost the whole duration of your association with Him. Jesus has been telling you repeatedly that He will die <\/strong>– as a rejected Messiah. Yet, you have heard the wisdom of his teaching. You have witnessed the miraculous signs He has done. You have even participated in both the preaching of His messiahship and having miracles worked through you. Yet, the tension keeps building!<\/p>\n Now, what will become of this on the eve of His betrayal and crucifixion? He talks with you.<\/p>\n Bluntly.<\/p>\n “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling<\/em>” (John 16:1).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Though these chosen apostles would get off to a shaky start that night, forsaking Him in His hour of crisis, still they would radically change and stand firm in their faith. Reading Acts shows us a whole different disposition and character of these men.<\/p>\n What can account for this change? Their answer: The resurrection of Jesus. They hung their very lives on this. Indeed, most of them became martyrs. With the truth of Jesus’ resurrection and what it implied, they faced death and won<\/strong>. Yes, they died. They died the death of believers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n How many times did they remember these words of Jesus? When faced with the choice of renouncing Him or die, they did not ‘stumble’.<\/p>\n ‘Stumble’ comes from the Greek word \u03c3\u03ba\u03b1\u03bd\u03b4\u03b1\u03bb\u03af\u03b6\u03c9 [skandalizo \/skan\u00b7dal\u00b7id\u00b7zo\/]. One of the meanings of this is “to cause a person to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey.”<\/p>\n Most of us will never face such an ultimate test as did these apostles of Jesus, but throughout our lives we will be tested. Will we stumble? Will we?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Hugh DeLong Let’s imagine we were one of the twelve (not Judas!). Jesus has been in conflict with the religious leaders for almost the whole duration of your association with Him. Jesus has been telling you repeatedly that He will die – as a rejected Messiah. Yet, you have heard the wisdom of his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1308,61,1947],"class_list":["post-99108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-falling-away","tag-falling-from-grace","tag-stumble"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35752,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-stop-saying-bad-words\/","url_meta":{"origin":99108,"position":0},"title":"How do you stop saying bad words?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Okay, I read\u00a0Careful What You Say, and I have to ask: what do we say when we can't say any of those words? What if I'm trying to stop, but it's such a habit it slips out sometimes, out loud and even in my head? I say it even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30866,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-have-to-keep-a-foolish-promise-that-i-made\/","url_meta":{"origin":99108,"position":1},"title":"Do I have to keep a foolish promise that I made?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to talk about something that has troubled me for a couple of years. My hobby was to make websites, and I had a couple online. One night, I felt compelled by something to utter a promise to Jesus. A promise to remove my web sites. Feeling compelled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8180,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-spirit-of-offense\/","url_meta":{"origin":99108,"position":2},"title":"What is the spirit of offense?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is the spirit of offense? How do you know if you have it? Why do so many churches use this phrase against people to control them? Answer: The phrase \"spirit of offense\" is not found in the Bible. People can cause offenses by their behavior, but using the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16603,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-paul-say-take-heed-lest-you-fall-and-peter-says-you-shall-never-fall\/","url_meta":{"origin":99108,"position":3},"title":"Why does Paul say, “take heed lest you fall” and Peter says “you shall never fall?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In I Corinthians 10:12 Paul states: \"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.\" Then in II Peter 1:10 \"Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.\" Can you explain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24800,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-sermon-on-modesty-was-just-what-i-was-looking-for\/","url_meta":{"origin":99108,"position":4},"title":"Your sermon on modesty was just what I was looking for","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been asked to do a split session with our teen girls on modesty. In my internet searching for illustrations, I stumble across your sermon. I have books, printouts, and many other sources, and needed help consolidating. What you have put together is exactly what I was looking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50927,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-having-trouble-resisting-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":99108,"position":5},"title":"I’m having trouble resisting fornication","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I have been involved in sexual immorality and fornication in the past, but it is coming back to me. I would like to repent, but it's tough. I have been messing around with escorts at massage parlors all my life. I really would like to repent. Answer: Resisting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99108"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99111,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99108\/revisions\/99111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}