Scripture
And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.
~I Peter 2:5, NLT
Quote
Every believer in Christ is a living stone designed to fit into God’s Spiritual House [Temple] in a way that uniquely contributes to the spiritual growth of others which in turn glorifies God.
~Chuck Swindoll
Have you had the feeling that you did not fit in. Maybe its my inferiority complex or that I’m just inferior but I have had this feeling more than once. I moved from the county system to Athens High School in the 10th grade. Most of these kids had been going to school together since first grade and I was one of the new kids on the block. I tried hard but I never quite fit in. I went back after 20 years to a reunion and I still didn’t fit in. I told June as we leaving the reunion: “I can’t believe it, twenty years ago I felt inferior to these folks and now I feel superior.” I waited 30 more years and tried it again, same result: I don’t fit in. We are never going to fit in to the world system, we were not designed to do so. Jesus said in John 15:19, The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don’t–because I chose you to come out of this world, and so it hates you. In Chapter 17:14 of John, Jesus said to the Father concerning His disciples…The world hates them because they don’t fit in with it, just as I don’t. The good news is that we can find our place of belonging in Christ and in His church; there is where I fit in, it is where I belong.
The stone mason has to be creative. It is easy to lay brick, they are all the same but stones are different because no two are alike. The stone mason [and in the case of God’s house, it is Jesus] looks over the available stones and picks just the right one for a particular place in the wall. This means that every stone is precious and has special place in God’s spiritual house. Think about it folks, Jesus didn’t fit in and He had no complex of any kind. Jesus suffered rejection in the worse kind of way. The Jewish leaders rejected Him, the people as a whole rejected Him. He was despised and mistreated by His own relatives and race. So Jesus our Savior knows exactly how we feel; this is what makes HIM a sympathetic High Priest.
I was talking to a man last Sunday night. He wanted to show me his tractor and workshop. As we stood there in his shed looking out at the gentle rain, he shared a story of a man who had been rejected by his wife. After several years of marriage, she just left and never returned. He was telling me that the man never recovered. We were facing his pickup and on the front bumper was a tag that read JESUS. I pointed to the tag and said, “That is why everyone needs HIM. He was rejected but He will never reject us and ultimately He is the only one we can count on.” When your trust is in Jesus, you have someone to love you when this world rejects you and eventually, it will in one way or another. Don’t pass over this statement lightly: if you never pay any attention to anything I say, get this. It will do more for your mental health and happiness than any truth I know. You can always count on Jesus.
- I am anxious to get into our garden but it is not going to happen for a while. While we were at church last night, we got another gully washer. I am afraid our corn patch is not going to recover.
Our internet went out last night so this is old news but ROSANNE BARR’s TV show was canceled by ABC because Rosanne made fun of a liberal, a female cabinet member of the OBAMA administration. God forbid that we offend the Liberals Messiah. Surely we don’t need anymore evidence that the [1] liberals are overly sensitive [2] the media is horribly bias and [3] the race card is being over played. That have me so ticked, I don’t care what they call me as long as it is not friend or ally. “Liberals are weak-minded dupes.” If that statement makes me a racist, so be it. For the record, I was not a Rosanne fan. She is a little too obscene for my taste but she has my support on this issue. If I were her, I wouldn’t be too concerned about the Hollywood crowd; most of them are flakes.- We have a new reader from Grace Point…we are excited. Welcome aboard Christy; this gives us a total of four. Just kidding, I know there is more and we thank you for reading the blog which proves you are a better person than myself.
