Tag Archives: Easter

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What will it be like when we get there?

When we get there

The meditations of a pilgrim anticipate the destination. The pilgrim’s mind is filled with ideas of what it will be like when he “gets there.” We do the same thing; on long road trips to vacation sites, our thoughts are filled with anticipation and excitement.

The goal of a Israelite pilgrim was Jerusalem. For there God’s presence manifested itself in a special way within the Holy of Holies, in the temple of God. The temple was known as God’s house. Oh, it did not contain Him, but the temple was the footstool of the Heavenly King whose throne was in heaven. At Jerusalem, man could approach the very throne of God.

The Meditations of a Pilgrim

Psalm 122

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

122:1 I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
2 Our feet have been standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem!

3 Jerusalem—built as a city
that is bound firmly together,
4 to which the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5 There thrones for judgment were set,
the thrones of the house of David.

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
“May they be secure who love you!
7 Peace be within your walls
and security within your towers!”
8 For my brothers and companions’ sake
I will say, “Peace be within you!”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your good.

Jerusalem was the place where all the tribes of Israel would go to offer praise to their king, the Lord. It was the place where justice reigned (v.5). It was a place of security. Jerusalem was a place which was safe and peaceful.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that “here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). Old Jerusalem in all its glory is a mere shadow of the great glory of the heavenly Jerusalem. We are citizens of that heavenly city. As pilgrims to that city, we should meditate on what it will be like when we “get there.” In one sense, we are already there; for even now, the temple of God is the people of God. We are at the footstool of His throne every time we assemble for worship. Now we can offer Him praise at His feet and petition Him for peace and security. Yet we are on a long road trip to the New Jerusalem. There, we will see God’s face. There, righteousness dwells and justice reigns. The glory of God will be seen in its fullness.

Prayer:
Heavenly King, your Kingdom must be a glorious place filled with great joy and love. Heaven will be great, Oh Lord, for you will be there. I cannot wait to be with you and see you face to face.

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How important is community to a relationship with God?

The Stone and The Stones

The Apostle Peter wrote a letter to all the churches in Asia Minor where he told their members,“You are precious stones!” Hear that! Peter called the people of God “precious stones”.

Here is the full quote:

As you come to Him, the living stone, who was rejected by mankind but chosen by God and precious to him, so you also are like living stones that are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5)

The cornerstone proverb is shaping up to be at the heart of the resurrection vision of the New Testament. The proverb is quoted six times in the New Testament, always in reference to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The cornerstone is just the beginning. The larger vision is of stones on top of the stone. The people of God take their bearings and their marker from Jesus, first and foremost with Him as the central foundation stone.  However, the proper alignment of ones life is not merely to the person and work of Jesus. Our lives are to be incorporated first into Christ and second into the people of God. Our bearings start with centering our individual lives on the Chief Cornerstone, but then we are to be incorporated into a larger structure called the Temple of God.

Body and Temple

There two primary archetypes that the New Testament uses for the Resurrected Life: the Temple of the Lord and the Body of Christ. An archetype is a recurrent symbol or motif. For the New Testament, these two are intertwined, the body is a temple and the temple is a body.

Under the Old Covenant through Moses and David, the Temple of God is made with physical stones. Under the New Covenant, the stones are alive!

The “living stones” were prophesied in the Old Testament. During the days of the prophet Isaiah, The Lord promised to build with a living cornerstone,

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

Isaiah never knew the name of whom the is prophecy was anticipating because he lived several hundred years before Jesus was born! However, we know the precious cornerstone is Jesus Christ. Jesus is a living stone of a much larger structure. What Peter is arguing is that the larger structure being constructed is a holy Temple in the Lord. We are being built into a “spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5)

By trusting in him as the beginning reference point, a community is built based solely and squarely on him, a people who are in alignment with him–a holy priesthood and spiritual sacrifices. The living temple is also a living body of believers. In Jesus, God is building a community of people. In this way we cannot say that we are aligned to Jesus, without also being in relationship with the people of Jesus, the Church. Is it possible to have a proper alignment to Jesus Christ as the Cornerstone, without having connection to all of the “living stones” that make up the larger Temple structure?

For discussion in the comments here: Is it possible to have a solidly aligned relationship with Jesus but have a completely disconnected relationship with His people? What is the value of community to your personal relationship with God?

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What am I doing with my life?

Here is a Personal Question

“What am I doing with my life?”

The question strikes close to home. As you consider your family and your personal life ask, “what I am building?” Personally, as an individual, have you accepted Jesus Christ as the Chief Cornerstone of your life? Are you constructing your life around His Name? Or, are you simply making a name for yourself?

If you have said “Yes” to Jesus then what you have said is, “That stone right there is the number one marker, and from that place I will lay every other brick in my life. Every little piece of the edifice, I will center and align upon him, because he is the plumb. He is the Chief Cornerstone.”

Have you done that in your life as you have built your career and financial life; as you have built your marriage; as you have built your home; as you have raised your children? Have you aligned every aspect of your life, your vocation, everything, with Jesus Christ as your Chief Cornerstone? Now that’s a tough question.

It is not a hard question to ask, but it is a hard question to answer honestly. Why? Because more often than not, the answer is “No.”

As I argued in the last post, we live in a nation that, in these last days, has built according to the human blueprint rather than God’s blueprint (even contrary to its own pioneers and founders). The pressure is on every one of us to conform to the pattern of this world and give up core values aligned on Jesus Christ. The culture may be OK with Jesus being a “decorative fixture” in your life. But, make Jesus the center of all you are and all you do, and you will find yourself at odds with the prevailing winds and tide.

Some people do say, “Yes to Jesus.” But then merely make him a fixture and an add on to a self-focused and self-constructed life. As if to say to the Lord:  “I’m going to put you up here as a decorative stone; as something that is attractive that I like to look at occasionally.” But that is not the way God has ordained things, is it? Jesus is not to be the decoration on an existing structure but rather the foundation and starting point. He is the Chief Cornerstone! While the builders of our day may reject that, and while we may even be some of those builders, God has ordained his plan for our lives. His plan is ultimately for our good.

Wise and Foolish Builders

Jesus taught that there are really only two types of builders in this world, wise and foolish. He illustrated his comparison of the two with a parable known as “The Wise and Foolish Builders”:

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. –Matthew 7:24-27

Looking on from the outside, the two buildings which these two builders constructed could have appeared quite similar. However, one was built like a house of cards and the other built to last. The difference in the two structures lay not in what was seen above the surface, but what was unseen and hidden. The difference lay in the deep foundation. Notice that Jesus identifies the wise builder as the one who “hears these words of mine and puts them into practice”.

GK Chesterton once opined, “It is not as if Christianity has been tried and found wanting, it is that it has not been tried.” Actually, Christianity has born tremendous fruit for life and blessing in the life of everyone who has tried it. Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone, he has been set in place for our guidance to offer a life of blessing and goodness.

What am I doing with my life?

Without him as our foundation stone, we have no direction and are endanger of being washed out. Our society promotes a philosophy called “secular relativism”. Its only and highest value is tolerance. The result of this philosophy is a society where people do whatever they want in their own eyes. The Lord would have the peace of Christ rule and govern our hearts. Instead, the spirit of the age promotes self-rule. The pressure is on for you to construct a life according to the pattern of this secular world according to your own self-constructed plans. Ask yourself: What am I doing with my life?

As Jesus warned, it is just a matter of time before a structure constructed without a proper foundation will be tested. The storms of life will come. The home of a foolish builder will fail the structural challenge–and it will fall with “a great crash”!  Sadly that has been the tragic story for so many individuals, marriages and families in our day.  The trial of faith will come to all of us personally…the strength of a structure will be proven by the deep foundation of a personal life built on the Rock. Again, Jesus identifies the wise builder as the one who “hears these words of mine and puts them into practice”. In Jesus’ parable the storm came to both houses, but the house built on the rock–it did not fall!

For discussion: In the comments, offer an encouragement or some ideas to someone who may be wondering what personally needs to be done in order to rebuild a life on the rock…post your thoughts here!

 

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Royal Stone: How is your life constructed?

Power Proverbs

Some of the most profound truths in life are contained in simple power-proverbs. One such truth is quoted 7 times in the Bible. First, in the Old Testament Psalms and then 6 other times in the New Testament. When something is repeated that many times in God’s word, we should take notice and listen.

Here is the power-proverb:

The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. –Psalm 118:8

Homes built in the ancient Israel would often use cut stone for the foundation. Public buildings such as palaces, synagogues and temples, would also use stone to lay a foundation and build all the superstructure. The grandest stone building in all of ancient Israel was the Temple of the LORD in Jerusalem. The Temple was originally the vision and dream of King David. He desired to build a House for the Lord. Only the Lord revealed that it was not for David to do so, but his son Solomon.

Solomon’s Temple was considered one of the 7 wonders of the Ancient World. Sadly, the temple constructed by Solomon was destroyed in 587 when the Babylonian Empire sacked Jerusalem. It would be rebuilt. In Jesus day, King Herod the Great had build a Temple complex to rival King Solomon’s in grandeur. In fact, many of the Jewish people of that day considered it more of a structure built to the glory of Herod, than God. Nevertheless, the foundation and walls of both Solomon’s and Herod the Great’s temples would have been made entirely out of stone.

There were several different professions of people that were involved in the constructing such an edifice: quarrymen, stone masons, builders and the master architect.

First, there were the quarrymen. These are the men who would labor to mine the rock out of the hills. They would mine huge pieces of uncut stone out of the ground. The largest quarry in Jerusalem is a five mile cavern that is located under what is now the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem. The first century Jewish historian Josephus called it the “Royal Cavern”. The stone when it was freshly removed was pure white in color and soft enough to cut with a knife, when exposed to air it becomes extremely hard.

Once the quarrymen extricated the stones from the ground, the stone masons would take over the work of shaping and dressing the stone. These men would cut and shape the stones to be used as building material in accord with the needs and specifications of the architect and builders.

The Royal Stone

The stonemasons highly valued the stone removed from the Royal Caverns. This material was excellent for shaping into massive blocks because of its superior strength, its ability to be carved without flaking and its resistance to erosion. Consider that the “Wailing Wall” in Jerusalem which is made out of this very stone has been standing for over 2000 years! It was a perfect material for shaping the massive building blocks fit to be used for all of Israel’s royal buildings. For this reason, the stonemasons called it “Meleke Stone” which comes from the Hebrew root for “kingly” or “royal”.

When the Psalmist writes that Jesus has become the Chief Cornerstone, he has in mind the Royal Stones that were used to build the Temple of the Lord. The implication being that Jesus ought to be at the foundation and center of the structure of our lives. That a builder would reject such a worthy stone is the height of foolishness!  He alone is the worthy and strong foundation stone and building block. The Psalmist sees the Messiah as the primary and principle building block of a life well lived. The resurrection of Jesus establishes him as the Messiah and therefore the Chief Cornerstone.

If you were to consider your life as a stone building, like a temple, ask yourself: “Is Jesus the primary foundation stone in the construction of my life?” He is far superior to any other building material that could be used. Is the Royal Stone the central foundation stone for you? Or is he a mere decorative add on? Perhaps he has not been incorporated in your life at all! Today, Consider the Royal Stone and where he fits in your life–or even better–consider where your life fits into his! God is the architect of your life, but you are the builder. The blueprint includes the Royal Stone as first importance!