Rumble Strips
Rumble strips are placed along the outer edges of most highway and interstate roads across America. These strips are placed just outside the white or yellow solid lines. Should one venture across the solid lines you would experience a loud rumbling noise as well as a vibration within the steering wheel. If you were to ignore this warning and proceed in your wayward course then mayhem and destruction will soon become a part of your traveling experience. I have never met or heard of any driver ever saying “Those rumble strips infringe upon my rights to go where I please. It’s just the government trying to control me. I can run off the road anytime I please.” Most, if not all, drivers understand these strips are there for your protection. No one is protesting to remove the strips because they hurt someone’s feelings. No one has formed an online petition and started a GoFundMe accountant to take legal action against these noise polluting devices. We all know these strips are boundaries which protect us from danger and harm. So why is it we are trying to take away “God’s rumble strips?”
God has provided guidelines as how to navigate the road ways of this fallen and dangerous world. Those guidelines are in his written word, directed through the counsel of his Holy Spirit and taught from churches throughout the land. These God provided rumble strips are there to protect us and not to control or manipulate us. They do, however, hurt our feelings on occasion. God’s rumble strip that confronts my unforgiveness and bitterness hurts my feelings. Not to mention the ones which rumble against gossip and slander. Then there are the ones about loving your neighbor and your wife as Christ loves the church. You can pick your own offensive God rumble strip guideline and maybe protest their existence through bypassing these verses. God loves us and wants what is best for us. He doesn’t want us to run off into the ditches of our own sin. He wants to protect and guide us through this foreign and dangerous land, even when it hurts our feelings. My fear is we as individuals and a body of believers tend to avoid Biblical verses which might offend us.
Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
We don’t need to avoid or remove God’s rumble strip guidelines but instead embrace them. We don’t need churches that pick, choose and avoid chastening scripture verses. We don’t need to treat His word as a buffet where we only select the morsels which give us delight.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
If we only select scripture which makes us feel good then we are destined to run off the road of life into the ditches of our own destruction.
Are you struggling with your sexual sin? Are you are tired of falling repeatedly by leaning upon your own strength? Let us help you to lean upon the Lord for His Strength is perfected in our weakness. Check out our The Blessing of the Thorn Course to begin your journey of healing today.
Jonathan Jones, President and Founder of Perfect Hope Ministry
