Living Stones
First Peter 2:4-6
… The Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
Jesus, on the last day before his crucifixion, met one last time with his disciples in the upper room. This is recorded in John Chapter 13. He said that he would send his Holy Spirit after he had departed and the Holy Spirit would teach them and lead them to the all truth.
They thought that Jesus was talking about an earthly kingdom. They argued among themselves who would be greatest in the new kingdom. Jesus taught them by washing their feet, as the lowliest servant of the household, that the chiefest among them must be servant of all.
Community is when true servants of Jesus Christ gather together to love and minister to others in his stead. When you love others, their understanding of God is enlightened. God did not call us to be “rugged individualists.” Rather, he called us as servants to live in community as able ministers of the New Testament.
Many are insecure in this calling. However, Insecurity is not of God. God called us as able ministers of the New Testament, not only to deliver the message, but also, to be the message. As we act upon this calling, God will empower us. He will energize the work as we believe according to his calling… for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure. We’re closest to God when we give it away, as we live out our own lives in service to God by serving others.
The cornerstone is the most basic foundation of the ancient building. It was the most precisely cut. It was the strongest structurally and the most valuable since it took the longest time to quarry and cut. We’re living stones of God’s building, of which Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. We are his fittings within God’s building, fitly framed together to the edifying of the body in love.
As living stones, we must be oriented and aligned according to the chief cornerstone. Only he aligns our lives in his precise order, so that we can serve the living and the true God… aligned according to his divine purpose.
God’s character is such that he cannot disappoint. When we’re disappointed, it is the result of leakage of our own carnal natures. When we are aligned according to His purpose, there is no disappointment. Dis-appointment is the result of missing and “dissing” (disrespecting) God’s appointment. Each moment of this life we have a divine appointment to align ourselves according to the chief cornerstone. .. as living stones aligned to the cornerstone as an holy habitation acceptable to The Lord.
Christianity starts with an invasion of God into our lives. The harder we run, the greater he pursues us. Life’s cataclysmic moments, when we are broken by running to escape God’s hot pursuit, are our “come to Jesus moments.” Come to Jesus… and live.
Victor Hugo’s great work, Les Miserables, is about redemption. Jean Valjean, desperate and destitute after being released from prison, stole costly silver vessels from the church. After having been forgiven by the priest, he was told to sell the vessels and give his life over to a pursuit of righteousness. This is the story of the grace of God and the redemption from sin we have through our high priest, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He paid the price of our redemption by his own precious blood as the chosen vessel of God.
When we realize the grace in which we stand, only then can We love him because he first loved us.
David was anointed to be king long before he became king. When he finally became king, the Philistines rose against Israel and divided the land into North and South, and attacked the northern city of Bethlehem in Judea. David’s mighty men gathered around him to protect and serve him. According to 2 Samuel 23: 16ff, David sighed in a prayer that the kingdom would be reunited and that he could again drink from the well at the gate of his hometown in Bethlehem. His mighty men overheard his prayer and braved the ranks of the enemy to fetch water from the well of Bethlehem. They brought the water to David as an answer to his whispered prayer. David was so moved by this gesture that he declared that “I’m not worthy to drink of the water for which these mighty men have risked their lives.” He poured it out to God in praise and as a gesture of his own humility and unworthiness.
David, when he was walking with God, was a man after God’s own heart. In his unworthiness, David understood that whatever is most precious should be poured out as an offering and a sacrifice dedicated to God.
The water from the well at Bethlehem is a picture of Jesus Christ, the fountain of living waters. Jesus said that whosoever drinks from the living water shall never thirst… He said blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
We have been appointed as a royal priesthood to approach our Father directly according our calling in Christ… for there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
As lively stones within God’s habitation aligned to Jesus Christ, the chief corner stone, we have been called to deliver God’s message on Christ’s behalf. As God’s emissaries, as his ambassadors for Christ our charge is not only to delver the message but also to be the message.
2 Cor 5:20-21
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Your brother in Christ,
Michael