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1 Corinthians 10:11: Signs

We had the opportunity this summer to visit the old Ramsay castle in Scotland. It is great. It has secret passages, stairs hidden in floors and even a secret doorway in a bookcase. One thing I found particularly interesting was while we were exploring a back staircase at the castle: there was a sign that said, ‘turn left for the Spa, turn right for the dungeon’. I would hate to make that wrong turn.

Warning us not to make wrong turns is one thing our pericope today is about. We would hate to walk the staircase of our life hoping for the eternal spa and turn into the eternal dungeon. Now, of course, God is not going to let us wander into an eternal dungeon by accident: He does a lot to point us to the safety that comes from Christ alone. He posts many signs like the dungeon/spa sign on the walls of our lives. 1 Corinthians 10:11 tells us that one such sign pointing us away from the dungeon, towards the eternal spa is the experience of those who have gone before us.

Another sign is the encouragement about how we can trust and follow God to the eternal spa even as we go through very difficult passages. Paul draws our attention to the sign of the fiery cloud leading the Hebrews out of Egypt, the parting of the sea, the manna they ate and the water from the rock they drank in the desert (1 Cor. 10:1-4). These are all signs pointing us to the spa, the grace of God we can experience now and forever as we walk with Him through the stairwell of our life.

God knows that sometimes the staircases we navigate in our life can be dark and scary and sometimes we need the encouragement of 1 Corinthians 10:12, to watch our step so we do not fall. Sometimes there is barely any room to move; sometimes these staircases can get pretty dark and sometimes some have wondered if they can even still see the light of God at all through the troubles, trials, and tribulations that can sometimes line the walls of our lives.

Jack Layton, in his farewell letter to Canadians, wrote “My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.” The Apostle Paul offers us this same encouragement. And I promise that as difficult as the staircase of our lives may be at times that there is no testing that has overtaken us that God has not already escorted someone safely through before.

So as dark as our lives may seem at times, we can ‘keep on keeping on’ because God is faithful and He will see us through even the most difficult circumstances. As we serve Him in the midst of our very real struggles I know that He will comfort and sustain us and I know that as dark as our lives may get, he will post signs pointing us away from the dungeon of our trials and towards the eternal spa that is grace of God in our lives.

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