A Thought for Today

    “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23.

A couple of weeks ago, my lovely wife and I went to a spiritual retreat given by our church. That Saturday, I walked into the prayer room and saw a basket full of nails. I picked one of the nails up, and as I was staring at it, I was reminded of a story I heard on a podcast a couple of months earlier. 

    Tim Tebow was telling a story of when he was a teenager. He went on a mission trip to the Philippines with his sister and brother-in-law. He went with his brother-in-law to a prison to do some ministering. As you could expect, Tim said that he was scared to death. Here he is in a one-room cell with his brother-in-law and a small room crammed with prisoners. Tim said that he sat down in a chair and prayed to God that he would get out alive.  His brother-in-law got right in the middle of the prisoners and said, I nailed Jesus to the cross! Tim said that it got so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. It got the attention of those prisoners, and his brother-in-law went on to bring the gospel to those prisoners.

     Just as that one sentence got the attention of those prisoners, it also got my attention. I was reminded of that story again as I stared at that nail. Romans 3:23 came flooding back into my mind as I heard these words. I nailed Jesus to the cross! Every time I sin, I hear the ringing of the hammer as it hits the nails going into the hands and feet of my savior Jesus Christ! I call myself a Christian, yet at times, I feel no better than the Roman soldiers that beat and crucified Jesus. I don’t deserve his love and mercy, but he says, I do.

     God has given me the ability to build things with my hands. I know a thing or two about hammering nails into wood, but I realize that when sin and temptations come my way, I pull that nail out of my pocket and it reminds me I can hammer nails into wood all I want to but isn’t it time that I stop hammering nails into the hands and feet of Jesus, and isn’t it time that followers of Jesus put those hammers down. God Bless.

Correll