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  • Hard-Headed

    Posted on November 28th, 2012 rhonda No comments

    “But I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are.

    I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint.

    Do not be afraid of them, though they are a rebellious house.”

    Ezekiel 3:8-9

    My Bible study group marveled over how persistent Saul was in persecuting in the church before his conversion experience.  As we were discussing the lengths he would go to in order to pursue, torture and kill believers, we thought of The Lord of the Rings.  Do you remember the mounted horsemen who pursued Frodo?  They were scary.  They were powerful and murderous.  The scariest thing about them was just that they wouldn’t quit.  Frodo & Gandalf couldn’t reason with them and convince them to put down their weapons.  They just had to fight.

    One of my Bible study sisters worked in the criminal justice system and she often talks about how persistent evil people are.  She talked about working with domestic violence survivors who were stalked from state to state by their abusers.  My church has noticed an increase of gang violence right around our neighborhood; and we’ve heard that prostitution is flourishing to the east of us.  I’ve blogged about modern day slavery, which is connected to gangs, prostitution & drugs.  Two or three years ago, trafficking was the 3rd largest criminal enterprise in the world, behind weapons-trading & drugs.  Now we believe it’s moved into the #2 spot, displacing drug-dealing.  Dealers are realizing that they can make more money off the slave trade than they can from drugs.

    The people of God have to be as “hard-headed” as the wicked.  We have to be relentless and consistent.  We should also be working together and willing to learn from one another and willing to support one another in doing good.  I know I haven’t been as persistent as I could have been.  I pray that, in a good way, God would make my forehead like the hardest of stone, so that I could persist in doing His will.

     “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,

    let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles,

    and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

    Hebrews 12:1