God's Rocks

 

God’s Rocks

Exodus 20:25 “And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.”

1 Peter 1:5 “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

1 Peter 1:8 “And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.”

     God likes rocks.  In fact, God made a lot of them.  All are precious in His sight, yet He makes a distinction between the common rocks and those in His collection.  Blues, blacks, striped and spotted, He collects an assortment.

     I remember walking the western shore of Lake Superior looking for agates.  They were special in their appearance.  Little swirls of yellow and red characterized them as sunlight shown through brightening their interior maze of colors.  Cold water splashed about my ankles, warm summer sun upon my head, and my family together in another Minnesotan vacation.  Life was good then being about eight years old. Those were memories.

     Does God collect the same?  Lively stones He said.  Ones worth saving.  We are being built up together into a temple greater than ourselves separately.  Not a human tool upon us that we be not spoiled.  What God has formed for His pleasure, let no hand pollute.

     Also we are sacrifices upon an altar not made with human hands.  Another picture as God sketches an understanding.  Human hands corrupt.  Only He could build an Altar so able to support all of Man’s offerings to Him.  This construction was to lift Man’s sacrifices off the common earth.  Only Jesus could lift us to the holy, sanctified for His service.  

     God set a Stone in Zion.  It was a pretty gem almost like a geode.  The builders rejected it.  On the outside, it had nothing to be desired of.  Geodes are dull round rocks bearing the resemblance of formed mud balls.  When broken apart with a hammer, brilliant crystals line the inside.  Isn’t this Jesus?  Death struck Him and His inner beauty shown forth.  To our surprise, this Man of nothing was the chosen One whom God decided to build His church upon.  What we rejected, God lifted up to glory.

     Ever pick up a stone from the backyard and think, “I hold something in my hand as old as the earth itself?”  They tell a story as they imprint history with fossils.  Preserved birds and leaves between the layers show an earth of another time.  Records are kept within these silent witnesses waiting to be uncovered and interpreted.  So, God likes rocks.

      Does not God like us?  His affection is upon us akin to a diamond under the bright lights of a showcase. His church He holds up and shines the light of revelation upon Her.  It is this multifaceted rock which He set in His Son never to be separated.

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