Living Stones

Builders are finishing a construction project near my neighborhood. For months we watched it develop: site prepped, footers dug, foundation poured, walls built and roof laid. It’s taken several months to complete but the new office building almost ready to be occupied.

I think it’s interesting that both Paul and Peter refer to the Church as a “building.” Of course there is a tie-in to the Temple and we know that we’re individual temples where the Holy Spirit dwells, but all of us together also make a spiritual building.

Paul taught that the foundation of the Church had been laid by the prophets and apostles with Jesus being the Cornerstone (Eph 2). Imagine a flat area of ground that’s been surveyed and marked off, picture the cornerstone being positioned in the right place, then the foundation stones laid around it.

Peter continued that word picture adding that we are living stones (1 Peter 2). Now imagine a mason with a pallet of stones, except instead of being static and constant, the stones are constantly moving and changing shape! How impossible would it be to build with THAT? Except…

We have a Master Builder Who has a plan for His Building and is breathing life into each of those stones. Each one should be growing and being shaped by the Builder as He moves and positions and fits them in to just the right place to serve just the right purpose.

I wonder what kind of stone I am. I hope I’m strong in the right places and malleable in the weak ones. It’s encouraging to look back at the changes in my life and see where I’ve grown and matured; it’s not-so-encouraging to look back and see some of the same old weaknesses and struggles. But each day brings me one step further in my journey with Christ Jesus and hopefully one step closer to being more like Him.

I think it’s curious that He’s morphed my spiritual gifts over the years. In our study of Ephesians, we see a list of spiritual gifts in chapter 4 and in preparation for my lesson last Sunday I emailed our class and encouraged them to take an online analysis. I remember doing this years ago when I was young and newly married, and I remember how relieved I was that I scored really low on teaching! Twenty-three years of marriage and many life lessons later, guess what my highest score was? Yep, TEACHING. (Never let it be said that God doesn’t have a sense of humor!)

The Master Builder has moved my stone around the building several times, and He may move it around several more times before I breathe my last breath. It’s never easy to be pulled up from a position we’ve been in for a while and it usually takes some smoothing and chipping to fit into the new spot, but if it makes the building stronger and pleases the Builder, I’ll gladly do it.

Do you know your spiritual gifts? Click HERE to find out!
This is a good survey and also gives an analysis you can have for future reference. God hasn't called us to warm the pew on Sunday, He's called us to a faith that actually does something! 
Check it out: James 2