Thoughts on 1 Peter - Day 7

                                 1 Peter 2:4,5

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— ⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ


        Coming from Milwaukee, we did a lot of grilling out in the summer. Some of it was at sporting events where you would pack up your charcoal, lighter fluid, matches, and Webber grill and bratwurst. It almost seems that grilling anymore is mostly done with gas grills, but in those days, you would light the charcoal in one big mound and then when it was flaming, you would spread them out to get maximum coverage and start grilling. After a while the charcoal would glow less and less and if you wanted them to get hot again you would take tongs and pile them in a mound again and without relighting but a little fanning and blowing, soon a fire would erupt, they would be flaming and ready to spread out again.

     This passage, to me, always makes me think how Church should be. It talks about a spiritual house which certainly could refer to individual Christians who house the Holy Spirit. God's presence no longer abides in the temple as in the Old Testament, but now dwells in individual believers. We are God's house if we are born again. But Peter here is speaking plurally and says, "You (plural) are being built into a (singular) spiritual house." He doesn't say that we are being built into spiritual houses (plural). So the picture I get is that each believer is a spiritual stone - a "chip off the old block" so to speak with Christ, the Living Stone, being the one we are "chipped off" from. We look like Him. If they were to take us to a metallurgist, he would analyze us and say, "Yep, that's Living Stone, alright." We, as living stones, ignited by the Holy Spirit are glowing, radiating, emenating light as we glorify God. We come together as a body, independent of the day(s), and we ignite as we touch each other, as we fellowship, as we spend meaningful time together as the Holy Spirit "blows on us". The flames of worship offer up spiritual sacrifices of praise, honor, and glory to God and it is a sweet smelling sacrifice to Him. When our time together is through, since we aren't meant to stay in a Holy Huddle, we spread out into the world in our own areas, glorifying Christ. Unfortunately, we start, towards the end of the week, starting to dim a little, so we come together again to get re-energized, re-ignited, to repeat the cycle next week.

      I believe that so many people have a wrong understanding of Church. First of all they think, "What do I need church for? I can listen to the messages and give money on-line, listen to the same songs done better on Spotify and even sing along to them with my family in the comfort of my home." The problem with that is that we were made for fellowship. The Holy Spirit moves supernaturally when we come together. Plus the Father is glorified exponentially when we come together as a body. Not only that but our fire for the Lord is going to be less and less as we pull away from fellow believers. The second misconception of the church is that we come for the message and the music is warming us up for it. We can arrive late because the songs are the introduction or warning to us that the show is about to begin. I believe that the message is the blowing on the coals to ignite us to praise the Lord. In fact, I wish the message would come first and then we would sing and worship the Lord with the Holy Spirit blowing through the room until our voices would give out. Lastly, I think people have the misconception that Church is about them. We aren't supposed to come together to be entertained. We aren't the audience, God is. The ones on - stage should not be performing nor should they be drawing attention to themselves. They should be skillfully leading us into giving God glory with songs about Him and  prayers directed to Him.

        Lord, I am looking forward to Church tomorrow! May the words the pastor speaks be truth and may they ignite my heart to worship You. May the songs we sing be truth and directed to You and may You be honored and glorified through them. May they be a sweet smelling sacrifice of worship to You. Help the band to remember that it isn't about them but about You, and prepare and practice as if the very King of the universe is going to attend our service tomorrow - because He is! And lastly, restore my fire and zeal for You, tomorrow that has gradually dimmed throughout the week as I've been glorifying You in such a dark and cold world of which I am an alien here. Amen