Casting Stones Story

Casting Stones

Once upon a time a man returned to his childhood village from which he had been absent for some time. The man had just been released from prison. While he was in prison, the man read the Bible each day. The Bible seemed to bring him peace and protection at the same time. Whenever he was reading no one bothered him while other inmates were beaten or beating someone, stealing from other inmates or being stolen from while other inmates were raped. The guards knew what was going on but didn’t want to become involved or were afraid to. The man noticed that some of the inmates seemed frightened just at the sight of the Bible. Were they afraid of an unknown God?  Did just the sight of a Bible put such fear in them that they left the man alone?  The man never found an answer to that. When the man left the prison he still hadn’t accepted Jesus as his savior but was determined to learn more about this Jesus.  The people in the village knew the man and what he had done. One Sunday morning the man decided to go to church so he went to the church where he had been taken to as a child.  The man walked into the church and sat down and he had only been there a short time when someone asked him, “Just what do YOU think you are doing here?”  The man could hear the hate in the person’s voice and he knew he shouldn’t be there. He was despised. The man was uncomfortable but stayed for the sermon but when he left he vowed never to return. It did not appear to the man that God looked at convicts favorably and he knew that after all the time he had read the Bible it was no more than a lie, a fantasy story. God was not real, Jesus was not real. In the Bible though didn’t it say that a woman was caught in adultery and she was going to be stoned to death and Jesus was asked what should be done and He had replied, “let the one who has never sinned cast the first stone” and all of the woman’s accusers left and Jesus forgave the woman? (John Chapter 8) No, that had to be just another story, something someone had made up to put in the Bible. After all if God was real and the Bible wasn’t just a fantasy story why would the person say to him what she did? Is this what followers of God and Jesus did, hurt people with their words and not caring how scarred it left a person?  It took the man many years to get the answer to that question but not until he had accepted Jesus as his savior did he fully understand it. People who are saved and are God’s children are going to sin. It’s human nature. Some may jokingly say “the devil made me do it” and they may have a good point. How often do we cast stones just like the woman caught in adultery?  I’m not talking about throwing real stones but throwing careless words of hate and bitterness?  How many times do we as Christians talk about someone to cause them to hurt or spread rumors about a person?  I can not say everyone is guilty of this but the vast majority of people are guilty. Even a great evangelist like Billy Graham is probably guilty. We as Christians should quit being so quick to throw out hateful words at people because we can not see how much damage we can cause a person. We need to think before we speak.  What would you do if a convict entered your church seeking God?  Would you turn the person away or welcome him, never mentioning what the person had done? Or would you be like the Pharisee’s and want to stone the person, not with rocks but your words?  So the question is what would you do, condemn the person or show compassion to the person?