–– Tim Cantrell

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Potholes have been a way of life on roads in Africa for a long time; with South Africa now attributing 25% of all road accidents in the country to poor road conditions.  Fail to spot a pothole and you’ll pay for it in lost time and replacing that tyre!  How much more crucial then in our spiritual lives that we learn to spot potholes and pitfalls, where eternal souls are at stake and everlasting consequences await us?

Jesus warned His disciples often about stumbling blocks to be avoided in the minefield of this enemy-occupied territory, a Satanic system of darkness and deception.  Jesus said, “Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks!  For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!” (Matt. 18:7).  Believers toy with temptation and stumble into sin because they don’t see the stumbling blocks.  Our Lord plainly shows that Heaven and Hell are at stake, as He urgently pleads with us about this life-or-death struggle against sin (Matt. 18:8-10).