Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5*
I ran across this quote from Charles Spurgeon, and it made me stop to consider”
“Each individual believer is being prepared, and polished, and made ready for his place in the temple; but Christ’s own hand performs the preparation-work. Afflictions cannot sanctify, excepting as they are used by Him to this end. Our prayers and efforts cannot make us ready for heaven, apart from the hand of Jesus, who fashioneth our hearts aright.” Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening
When we feel like we are being cut, chiseled, sanded, and ground by the trials in our lives, we must remember that we are actually being formed into the shape and image of our Lord. It makes us fit to be inserted into place in His building. Every gouge, crack and disfigurement is allowed by the foreknowledge and care of our loving Father so we will exactly mesh with those around us in His living spiritual house.
The stones in the temple complex at Puma Punku in Bolivia give us an picture of how this spiritual house can be fit together. From Wikipedia:
In assembling the walls of Pumapunku, each stone was finely cut to interlock with the surrounding stones. The blocks were fit together like a puzzle, forming load-bearing joints without the use of mortar.
Solomon built David’s temple with similar precision, in fact, the stones for the temple were cut with such precision that when they were installed in the building, no tools were used.
And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. 1 Kings 6:7
Referring back to Puma Punku, the article continues to describe the work of the stone masons:
(The stones) …were initially pounded by stone hammers… creating depressions, and then slowly ground and polished with flat stones and sand.
Think about the work of Christ in your life, carving you from the rock quarry by grace and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, pounding the hard stone of your life into shape with biblical teaching and the counsel of wise friends, then refining the shape by grinding and polishing with hard times and abrasive people.
Imagine the hands of a stone mason, bent and swollen from the repetitive pounding and pushing, the hammering and sanding. Imagine the malformed fingernails on the tips of fingers that have learned by suffering such strength, precision, and passion.
Now imagine that those hands have nail prints…
Why would Christ Jesus go through so much trouble, pain, and potential disappointment? It is for you to be cut, shaped, and polished to fit exactly where you were created to fit. Remember, it’s not just you in this building project, your brothers and sisters in Christ are also designed and shaped to fit with you. So when His project is revealed, the glory and honor of the nations can be brought into the city He builds. (Revelation 21:24-26)
…for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Hebrews 11:10
*All Scripture quotations for this article are from the New King James Version (NKJV).
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