How To Never Stumble

        When my wife and I visited Holland a few years ago, we learned that there are some 70,000 “stumbling stones” installed in the sidewalks of Europe. In fact, there are 350 in
the city of Maastricht alone. These stones are 4” concrete memorial cobbles each with a brass memorial plaque on top, set into the sidewalks at houses where someone was taken out and gassed or otherwise executed during the Nazi Holocaust. 

        Our daughter took us to the local library in Maastricht and showed us forty feet of wall, displaying photos and biographies— Jewish business men, a resistance worker, a 3-year old girl and her seven siblings, all gassed. These people were not soldiers but somehow they stumbled into the enemy’s clutches. 

        I walked away in quite an upset state. But take this to another level. The Apostle Peter wrote about stumbling in the spiritual life. And who knew more about stumbling than he—several slight missteps during his time with the Lord, then a huge blunder as he denied Him. 

        Peter, as no one else, knew what to do so that we would “never stumble”, and he lays it all out in 2 Peter 2:5-11:— 

Starting with FAITH,
add goodness
+ knowledge
+ self-control
+ perseverance
+ godliness
+ mutual affection
+ love.

        “If you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the Eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”