While in spiritual meditation God reminded me that we are not bricks, but that God makes Stones.
Each one of us is special and unique where bricks are all the same - clones. There were several versus in the bible eluding to this fact and one that came especially to mind is:
I PETER 2:5
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.
How can you build a church with stones and not bricks. First you put down the corner stones usually these are large stones.The church needs the unique abilities of each member and we come in all shapes or sizes- God who makes stones knows just where to put them. It is a fact that a church built of stones will far out last one made of bricks and in the end more beautiful.
Bricks crumble after awhile especially when faced with a disaster or dilemma. Praise God! I would not want to be a clone of someone else or follow in mans footsteps. He does make teachers and we can learn things from others but always must maintain our uniqueness, never look upon man. When the only footsteps we are to follow is Jesus Christ , we will see there is no perfection in man. A lot of churches will go through failure , mega churches , even the catholic belonging to the largest christian body should realize all men have flaws. I remember when all the scandal broke out in Boston and spread throughout the globe about priests. God was teaching us a lesson not to look upon man. The catholic church suffered as the carnal mind loves gossip and a mob. They had lost parish priests not wanting to be associated with the scandal. Young men were reluctant to enter priesthood and some turned to other christian denominations.
There is a lot of power in large denominations and such unity can deliver a large punch to hunger to the common good of humanity. I will tell you my wife is catholic and often we will attend the services and take communion together, many of the sermons are inspirational and the practice of the holy communion and the Lords prayer are part of my culture also. We have never argued about religion in 30 years or enforced our minor difference upon each other. I consider her a christian as much as some will prefer to point out differences.
Everyone even within a small community parish is unique in their person. Does this fit in with theology , certainly - if God wanted a race of androids with certain features cloned , he would have done so. That is the wonder of humanity and the wonder of you that he created us in his image but yet with diversity. I often think what makes a person attractive in the human sense- it varies , on the islands of the Pacific Micronesian and Hawaii their culture leaned toward larger the better. You can see in our society petite , or skinny, muscular model of human is the pitch. All of this is vanity as long as a person lives a healthy life and eats sensibly cultural difference will not effect your spirituality , God makes stones. If we spent all of our time admiring ourselves or not in front of a mirror, how would that seem. I say accept who you are and live healthy if your life style is destructive to your health then consider a change.
My mother is almost 79 years old , and my father 82 years old they both live healthy and often work outside getting fresh air. It was not always that way they made life changes as they became wiser and older. I have relatives of the same age that can not get out of bed or barely walk to a car without being out of breath, they smoked packs of cigarettes every day and now paying the toll. They may have been imitating the people they saw on the earlier commercials that it was sexy to smoke, trying to be bricks. God's love extends to our inner and outer and certainly about every aspect of our health. Mental and physical - he will not push us beyond our capability.
We often see scripture that He keeps us in the palm of his hand. Funny, but sometimes I picture God holding a stone, clutching onto it feeling the texture then gently placing it in a garden, admiring it among the rest of his creation. He actually did this on the first days of creation and of mankind also meaning womankind , saying that it was good. he separated the light from the darkness and called them night and day saying this was good , every thing he created was good. Then something changed man thought he knew better than God , he discovered knowledge but used it for evil not good. He distorted the truth and eventually fell from grace. Eventually wanting to restore grace , He sent living stones among us. He also sent his Son to restore us to grace, then gave us a choice to accept or reject the stone.-Peace to you.
Psalms 118:22
The stone which the builders rejected has become the head stone of the corner.
http://poemhunter.com/poem/god-makes-stones/
Each one of us is special and unique where bricks are all the same - clones. There were several versus in the bible eluding to this fact and one that came especially to mind is:
I PETER 2:5
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.
How can you build a church with stones and not bricks. First you put down the corner stones usually these are large stones.The church needs the unique abilities of each member and we come in all shapes or sizes- God who makes stones knows just where to put them. It is a fact that a church built of stones will far out last one made of bricks and in the end more beautiful.
Bricks crumble after awhile especially when faced with a disaster or dilemma. Praise God! I would not want to be a clone of someone else or follow in mans footsteps. He does make teachers and we can learn things from others but always must maintain our uniqueness, never look upon man. When the only footsteps we are to follow is Jesus Christ , we will see there is no perfection in man. A lot of churches will go through failure , mega churches , even the catholic belonging to the largest christian body should realize all men have flaws. I remember when all the scandal broke out in Boston and spread throughout the globe about priests. God was teaching us a lesson not to look upon man. The catholic church suffered as the carnal mind loves gossip and a mob. They had lost parish priests not wanting to be associated with the scandal. Young men were reluctant to enter priesthood and some turned to other christian denominations.
There is a lot of power in large denominations and such unity can deliver a large punch to hunger to the common good of humanity. I will tell you my wife is catholic and often we will attend the services and take communion together, many of the sermons are inspirational and the practice of the holy communion and the Lords prayer are part of my culture also. We have never argued about religion in 30 years or enforced our minor difference upon each other. I consider her a christian as much as some will prefer to point out differences.
Everyone even within a small community parish is unique in their person. Does this fit in with theology , certainly - if God wanted a race of androids with certain features cloned , he would have done so. That is the wonder of humanity and the wonder of you that he created us in his image but yet with diversity. I often think what makes a person attractive in the human sense- it varies , on the islands of the Pacific Micronesian and Hawaii their culture leaned toward larger the better. You can see in our society petite , or skinny, muscular model of human is the pitch. All of this is vanity as long as a person lives a healthy life and eats sensibly cultural difference will not effect your spirituality , God makes stones. If we spent all of our time admiring ourselves or not in front of a mirror, how would that seem. I say accept who you are and live healthy if your life style is destructive to your health then consider a change.
My mother is almost 79 years old , and my father 82 years old they both live healthy and often work outside getting fresh air. It was not always that way they made life changes as they became wiser and older. I have relatives of the same age that can not get out of bed or barely walk to a car without being out of breath, they smoked packs of cigarettes every day and now paying the toll. They may have been imitating the people they saw on the earlier commercials that it was sexy to smoke, trying to be bricks. God's love extends to our inner and outer and certainly about every aspect of our health. Mental and physical - he will not push us beyond our capability.
We often see scripture that He keeps us in the palm of his hand. Funny, but sometimes I picture God holding a stone, clutching onto it feeling the texture then gently placing it in a garden, admiring it among the rest of his creation. He actually did this on the first days of creation and of mankind also meaning womankind , saying that it was good. he separated the light from the darkness and called them night and day saying this was good , every thing he created was good. Then something changed man thought he knew better than God , he discovered knowledge but used it for evil not good. He distorted the truth and eventually fell from grace. Eventually wanting to restore grace , He sent living stones among us. He also sent his Son to restore us to grace, then gave us a choice to accept or reject the stone.-Peace to you.
Psalms 118:22
The stone which the builders rejected has become the head stone of the corner.
http://poemhunter.com/poem/god-makes-stones/
I apologize for not visiting my favorite blogs lately, and i promise to do some catching-up with everyone in the next few days. We are experiencing cooler weather starting today (Thursday) and as for myself I'm looking forward to falls return to the Lancaster Pennsylvania area. And are the color of the leaves changing your your way folks as they are mine. Hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoy the beautiful fall season that has now begun. Richard from Amish Stories
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