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THY KINGDOM COME 2022
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Day 4
1 PETER 2: 5
5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
In a building, each and every brick is essential. Christ says that each and every one of us is a living stone of His church, dependent on one another and an essential part of the structure.
Every building begins with the foundation. No structure will ever hold if the foundations aren’t deep and sure. As Christians, as living stones in the construction of God, we have one foundation: Jesus Christ. The difference between being the living stones of the Church, and dead wood of our own construction, is the need to renew, deepen and celebrate our foundations in Christ every day. We crumble as soon as we build on any other foundation except Jesus.
In the places to which Peter is writing, buildings were a way for people to show off their power and status. Not unlike today, people would build elaborate monuments, physical structures which denoted success, strength, and social standing. But the Christians Peter addresses were powerless. They couldn’t compete with these displays of grandeur, or to celebrate their faith in the power of God through building impressive places of worship.
Taking these words to heart it would seem that for Peter it does not matter if you cannot build huge temples or erect great monuments to God. It is not about these outward displays. The stones He wants are ‘rejected by humans but chosen by God’ [1 Peter 2:4]. God wants the outcast, the unwanted, the unloved, the rejected. These are the people whose lives can be testament to the greatness or grace. Our lives, our bodies, our very being, bear witness to the transformative power of God who has a place for each one of us. And this happens as we are built together into a spiritual house for God.
To be a living stone is to glorify God with our lives, rather than build for own glory or power. It is to transform the way we understand power and status. It is to go exactly where God needs us to be. It is to transform and be transformed – from being ignored, neglected, and oppressed – to being a part of God’s divine plan. It is to inhabit the language of living as God’s people. And each person is essential in this. The five that you hold before God in prayer have an essential place to take in His building. Only the Holy Spirit can do this.
Today, we reflect on how our lives glorify God and testify to His grace, in a way that nothing we could ever build ourselves could. Let us pray for deeper and stronger foundations in Jesus that keep us steady, that the Holy Spirit might build us into a dwelling for His glory. salvation.
Copyright © 2022 by Thy Kingdom Come.
Thy Kingdom Come
Every building begins with the foundation. No structure will ever hold if the foundations aren’t deep and sure. As Christians, as living stones in the construction of God, we have one foundation: Jesus Christ. The difference between being the living stones of the Church, and dead wood of our own construction, is the need to renew, deepen and celebrate our foundations in Christ every day. We crumble as soon as we build on any other foundation except Jesus.
In the places to which Peter is writing, buildings were a way for people to show off their power and status. Not unlike today, people would build elaborate monuments, physical structures which denoted success, strength, and social standing. But the Christians Peter addresses were powerless. They couldn’t compete with these displays of grandeur, or to celebrate their faith in the power of God through building impressive places of worship.
Taking these words to heart it would seem that for Peter it does not matter if you cannot build huge temples or erect great monuments to God. It is not about these outward displays. The stones He wants are ‘rejected by humans but chosen by God’ [1 Peter 2:4]. God wants the outcast, the unwanted, the unloved, the rejected. These are the people whose lives can be testament to the greatness or grace. Our lives, our bodies, our very being, bear witness to the transformative power of God who has a place for each one of us. And this happens as we are built together into a spiritual house for God.
To be a living stone is to glorify God with our lives, rather than build for own glory or power. It is to transform the way we understand power and status. It is to go exactly where God needs us to be. It is to transform and be transformed – from being ignored, neglected, and oppressed – to being a part of God’s divine plan. It is to inhabit the language of living as God’s people. And each person is essential in this. The five that you hold before God in prayer have an essential place to take in His building. Only the Holy Spirit can do this.
Today, we reflect on how our lives glorify God and testify to His grace, in a way that nothing we could ever build ourselves could. Let us pray for deeper and stronger foundations in Jesus that keep us steady, that the Holy Spirit might build us into a dwelling for His glory. salvation.
Copyright © 2022 by Thy Kingdom Come.
Thy Kingdom Come
