Living Stones

Living Stones

Come to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by the people, but he is precious to God who chose him. And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are God’s holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ. –1 Peter 2:4-5

On the front page of a newspaper from January 2005 is a photograph of hundreds of Buddhist monks in Thailand, surrounded by candles. The scene is a memorial service for victims of the tsunami that took the lives of thousands upon thousands of people. “The ceremony was primarily Buddhist, but included prayers from Christian and Muslim clerics,” the story reads. “In the merit ceremony, people dedicate their own good deeds to those who have died suddenly to ensure them a good afterlife.”

But if it is God they are offering their good deeds to, this kind of spiritual sacrifice is not what pleases him. What makes worship acceptable to God is not style or sincerity or sentimentality. The truth is, people all around the world worship God. But while God desires their worship, he rejects much of it, because it is not built on the foundation he chose for his spiritual house—the precious stone of Jesus. Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. For worship to be acceptable to God, it must come through Jesus.

But even while the world rejects Jesus, God is at work building his temple, not with rocks or mortar, religion or ritual, but with living stones—you and me and all those who love Jesus. We are being fit together with other believers into something that is more than a collection of individuals working toward God. As a living stone, you are part of something God is doing that is bigger than you are, more important than your petty concerns, more purposeful than your personal preferences. You are a living stone that God is using to build his spiritual house. So begin to see yourself that way. Willingly offer yourself to God so he can use you to build a place and a people in whom God would choose to dwell.

Master Builder, while the world may reject your Cornerstone, I will not. I become a living stone only as I am in Christ and united with Christ. He is the sure foundation of my life and the one who makes it possible for me to please you.

DIGGING DEEPER