Living Stones – Part 1

1 Peter 2:1-6 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

Another great message from our dear brother in Christ, Michael. Jesus, on the last day before his crucifixion, met one last time with his disciples in the upper room. This account 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 greatest 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 – Phil. 2:13.  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.  Disappointment 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.

Michael finishes this inspirational message tomorrow. Blessings!