” To everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven; A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together; and to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;”.
The disciple knows that there is a time to gather stones together. and a time to cast away stones. What exactly do we know about casting away stones? Stones can be an obstruction, particularly in a garden where they are very many. They hinder the effort to bring forth a lot of fruits. In that case. you will need to remove all the stones in the garden so that they will not obstruct the growth of the plants.
According to Isaiah 5:1-2, the Bible says when you want to plant a vineyard, you must remove the stones. So anything in the life of the Disciple that would not allow him to bear fruits, the kind of fruits that Jesus Christ expects, anything in the life of a disciple that will not allow him to win souls or that will not allow him to be forth fruits unto repentance have to be removed.
Hearts of stones must also be removed. (Ez. 36:26). The Bible tells us that after God must have washed us in His blood after we have been saved from all our sins, He made a promise that He will remove the stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh. This heart of stone is what everyone possesses from birth, ot is desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). That is, it is sinful and there is no way anybody can improve on it. It must therefore be replaced by God with the heart of flesh. For a Christian to be able to live the life of Christ, the kind of life that will bring glory to God, after salvation, after he has been cleaned in the blood of the lamb. that heart which is desperately wicked has to be replaced. He will remove the heart of stone and replace it with the heart of flesh, a heart that will be like that of Jesus Christ.
Brethren as stones of obstruction
When you go through the scriptures as in 2 Thess. 4:6-7; 1 Cor. 5:1-5, the Bible regards some brethren as stones of obstruction and they must be removed from the church or else the church will not be able to move forward.
There are some brethren that have been regarded as stones that must be cast away; some of them are agents of the devil. Some of them are false brethren. They are in church purposely to weaken the church; they must be uprooted and thrown out.
There are some stones that must be gathered together also, for example, all disciples that are living the life of God are called by the Bible, living stones. They will be gathered together to build a house of God- a spiritual house for God. If you look at 1 Peter 2:5: “Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”
There is a house that is called a spiritual house, where the Almighty God dwells and JESUS Christ is the Chief Cornerstone and we the disciples of Jesus Christ are the living stones; living stones that God will now use to array his house. The disciple knows that such brethren must be gathered together so that they were combined, they can use their voices in praises, to the Almighty God so that when God wants to dwell with his people he would find a habitation.
TIME TO EMBRACE
Eccl. 3:5.
“A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing”.
There is a time for embracing. For example, there is a time when a husband embraces his wife. The Bible says they must do so whenever the need arises so that either party will not go into sin. In fact, the Bible says unless they are fasting, neither the husband nor the wife ought to deny each other.
However, the Bible says there are occasions in the life of the disciple that even those who are married must be as if they are not. In other words, there must be a time when the two of them want to concentrate on the service of God and even though they are married, they will run away from embracing.
Look at 1 Cor. 7:5, the Bible says:
“Defraud ye not the other, except it is with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempts you not for your inconsistency”.
In other words, there is a time when the two of you will stay apart because you want to fast, you want to pray, but then when there is no fasting and praying, in order to give room for the enemy to come in between husband and wife, they should come together again”- 1 Cor. 7:27-29 says:
“Art thou bound unto a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife. But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you. But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none”.
There are some people who would not even marry at all, people who would say “No, I want to concentrate the rest of my life on the service of God”. However, if you want to marry, you can go ahead and marry. But just take note that part of your attention has to be given to your partner. But the one that remains single is going to concentrate all his love unto Lord Jesus Christ. “But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none”(1 Cor. 7:29).
In other words, there is so much to be done and there is little time to do it. And those who are wise will now spend more of their time doing the will of God, and not fooling around. According to Matthew 19:11-12, it is not everybody that will say because I was to serve God, I will remain single forever. But then there are some people who are born as eunuchs and there are some people who make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of God’s sake.
In other words, it is a matter of concentration. There are some people who would say, “I decide, I will not marry so that I can do the work of God to the maximum”.
So there is a time for embracing, there is a time for not embracing. There are some people who would say “I will not even embrace any other person other than any heavenly husband. Jesus”. Those who can take it, can take it. One thing I know is this, if you decide to consecrate to God that way, His grace will be more than sufficient. I can guarantee you, your reward in heaven will be fabulous.
TIME TO GET AND TIME TO LOSE
“There is a time to get and there is a time to lose. A time to keep and there is a time to cast away” (Eccl. 3:6).
There is a time to get and a time to lose. This is very important because it is the core of the whole matter we’ve been discussing.
The disciple knows that no one can get anything of eternal value unless he is willing to lose those things that are not of eternal value. Anyone who wants to get things that money cannot buy must be willing to let go of all material things. We would remember Paul speaking; he said “All those things that were gains to me, I lost them and I don’t even bother. In fact, I count them as dung because I want to win Christ. I want something special, I want something that could be of eternal value”. The Lord himself said in Matthew 10:39, “He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it”.
In other words, in order to live forever, you mist be willing to die to the wield. Paul said ” I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, but its not me living , its Christ that is living in me”.
According to Psalms 23:1 , anyone who is going to say , the Lord is my Shepherd , must also be willing to become a sheep, not a goat, because the Lord is a Shepherd of the Sheep not a Shepherd of goats. Anyone who is going to be able to say, “The Lord is my Shepherd” is somebody who will forever say, ” Yes Lord”, He must be someone will say, “Thy will be done. Thy will. not mine , be done. Whatever you want, let that he done”.
In other words, the fellow who will want to say the “Lord is my Shepherd” who will get the attention of the Almighty God that is the All Sufficient , must be willing to surrender everything, lose everything that could be called my own and that exactly is the core of the matter. The true disciple has nothing he can call his won but he has everything that is of God.
If you want to be that kind of disciple, why not bow down your head now, talk to the Lord . “Once again Lord , I surrender all, absolutely. You just take control. Anything You want, that’s what I will do. And it will be done.”
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I know you might agree with some of the points raised in this article. You might disagree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you can drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
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