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Salt or stumbling block?  Which one is it?  Ideally, the Christian is the salt of the earth, the light of the world.   He is one who has an Influence for good to save souls, to lead them from darkness into the light of Christ. Unfortunately, some who profess to be a Christian are not that salt, light, influence for good and salvation. Some are stumbling blocks, obstacles in the paths of others. Paul admonished “that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way” (Rom. 14:13).   There were those in the church at Pergamos who, like Balaam of old, were stumbling blocks to the children of God (Rev. 2:14). The Christian is created “unto good works, which God hath before ordained.” Certainly, God did not create him for the destructive work of causing others to be lost or making their salvation more difficult!

As salt or as a stumbling stone you, by now, have caused someone to become a Christian -- or become lost. The power of influence cannot be minimized. Good influence radiates into far places and affects many people.  Bad influence does the same. No living soul is without influence.  He influences someone somewhere.

Many Christians refuse to face the reality of their own lives as the effects it has on the lives of others. Some women wonder why their husbands do not become Christians. The answer, in too m any instances, is that the wife is a stumbling stone before her husband. This is also true of the husband toward his wife. Many children, as they mature, see the hypocrisy of their parents, yes parents who profess to be Christians, and later turn away from Christianity to the perplexity and confusion of their parents. Why so? Because the parents were stumbling stones rather than salt and light

Many souls have been won to Christ by Christians who were not gifted teachers, who never preached a sermon or taught a class, but who showed the way to Christ to those who observed their life. Edgar Guest put it this way:

“I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day;

I’d rather one walk with me than merely tell the way.”

There is more to Christianity than merely telling the way. There is the showing of the way. Are there those in the world today who are not faithful to Christ -- because you aren’t? Are you a stumbling block to someone who would follow Christ -- but for you?

Today -- someone is saved because of you...or someone is lost because of you. What will it be tomorrow?