How's Your Stand, Dear?
Romans 5:1-2
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div.
© 2008 Harold Dinsmore

When the 2008 deer season was getting ready to open, many folks had been readying themselves for their try at bagging a deer.  Recently, a couple of guys drove to one’s father-in-law’s farm.  In and around it in a few sections of timber, they found that someone had built deer stands.  These stands are about twenty to thirty feet up in the trees, which gives a hunter a good view of the surrounding area.  Made of wood, they are similar to the tree house your dad or grandfather might have helped you build out in a tree in your yard when you were a kid.  Some are very elaborate, while others are simply a platform, a railing and a bucket to sit on.

However, as they continued their survey of the property, they found two other stands in the northern section of the farm that appeared very old.  One had a ladder nailed to the tree and the wood that made up the stand was very weathered.  The other stand was much deteriorated and had several pieces actually missing.  Boards were rotted, rails broken, the floor uncertain.

In a neighboring section of timber, they found two well-kept stands that had been repaired and were ready for opening day.  New boards stood in places where old rotten boards had once stood.  A new cover with roofing material had been added to one to ward off that miserable rain or snow during those lonely vigils in the woods.  Each one had been kept up and groomed.  Sturdy wood was actually screwed into place with lag screws, for they hold better than nails – a good safety measure when you’re so far up in a tree.

Now I ask you, which one would you trust as you climb a tree with a gun?  In which would you hope to find safety in its structure?  How’s your deer stand?  Might be a good question to ask if someone offered to let you use theirs for the season, wouldn’t it?  It should also be a question the deer hunter asks each year as he or she prepares for the new season.  Now let me alter the question this morning and ask you this, “How’s your stand, dear?”  What?  How’s my stand?  What do you mean preacher?

In Romans 5:1-2, this week, we come across this phrase, “grace in which we stand.”  It pricked my memory, so I went home and prepared this sermon especially for this morning.  How is your stand?  Where do you stand?  And what stand is the best?  Look at Romans 5 with me for a moment, and we will then look elsewhere in the Bible for other related passages concerning our stand.