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you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house 1 Peter 2:5 NASB
Built up – The verb here is oikodomeisthe. Do you see the word “domestic” in this word? It literally means, “to build a house.” The word for “house” is the first part (oikian or oiko). Notice that this house is made of rock. It will not fall. Furthermore, it has a very special cornerstone. Now we need to look at the verb tense and voice. Here it is present tense – that means the activity is occurring right now – but it is passive voice. Passive voice means that something is being done to us. We are not the ones building this house. Someone else is building us into a spiritual house. The Master Builder is doing the work.
You are part of God’s major construction project. He is building something spectacular. But in order to build with living stones, he has to chip away here, break there, cut and polish, use some mortar. We arrive at the construction site right from the quarry of life. We are not very useful for building, so God has to take the wet saw and the cold chisel and the grinding wheel to our lives in order to get the shape He needs for the next row of block. We need to be domesticated, especially if we are going to be cemented right next to each other.
So many times we start acting like the builder. We run off trying to shape other stones to fit into our design for His house. Under normal circumstances, builders don’t have to chase stones around the site in order to use them, but we are “living” stones. The best way for a living stone to be used by the Builder is to say to the Builder, “Here I am. Put me where you want me to fit.” He’ll do the rest. Stones that try to shape themselves usually end up alone.
What kind of stone are you today? Are you a rock with feet or are you telling the Builder, “Just use me anywhere you like”? If you have no personal requirement, then God will use you where He designed you to fit and you will discover that the fit is just right. But you need to be a building block, not a construction engineer.
Maybe today it’s time to say to the Lord, “I am a rock. Chip away.”
Topical Index: stone, build up, oikodomeisthe, purpose, 1 Peter 2:5
The Carpenter’s Tools
~ As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another ~ (Proverbs 27.17)
~ That our sons [may be] as plants grown up in their youth; [that] our daughters [may be] as corner stones, polished [after] the similitude of a palace.. ~ (Psalm 144.12
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Everybody is somebody in His body.
“He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into Him, who is the head, Christ; from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.”
We are the body of Christ.
One Body with Many Members
~ For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves[d] or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
~ For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
We are the body of Christ.
~ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together ~
We are the body of Christ.
~ Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts ~
~ And I will show you a still more excellent way ~
The Way of Love
~ If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing ~
Time To Grow Up
~ But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ ~
(Today) ~ May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength, and my Redeemer ~
ON PURPOSE!
Skip and Carl, you both spoke from God’s own heart.
Thank you. For we are “those who are called according
to His purpose.”
Have Your way, Lord.
Thanks. “Here I am Lord, just use me wherever you desire.”
Ouch.
” The best way for a living stone to be used by the Builder is to say to the Builder, “Here I am. Put me where you want me to fit.” He’ll do the rest. Stones that try to shape themselves usually end up alone.”
This has been proved all to true in my life.
I have heard that the temple Solomon built upon Mount Moriah was constructed from stone cut from that mountain. The resulting valley separated the Temple Mount from Golgotha, which, back in the time of Abraham and Isaac, was part of the original mountain.
We are the temple of the Holy Ghost; living stones cut from the Rock upon which we are built; cut from between the place where Yahweh is to be worshipped and the place His Son was sacrificed for us.
So that’s what I have been feeling all these years, the wet saw, the cold chisel, and the grinding wheel. I agree with Suzanne, “OUCH”. But I also know “And I am sure of this: that the One who began a good work among you will keep it growing until it is completed on the Day of the Messiah Yeshua.” Philippians 1:6 (CJB)