"Then he looked at them and said, 'What then is this that is written:
"The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone"?
Whomever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder."
Luke 20:17-18
Hello everyone! I haven't had a chance to post anything recently, although I've been inspired of the Lord to deliver this message. I've been thinking about what to post for quite some time, and actually this verse was the first verse to come into my mind. And I said to myself, "No.. This verse was difficult for me to understand, and it was difficult for me to grasp what it truly meant, how am I going to even post such a thing on a public blog to others?" And I thought of other things to write about. Ironically, as of late my laptop has failed me, and along with it's failure all of my documents, all of my writtings that I have written for myself in the past, and I could not find the other writing I had in my notebook. And I simply could not come up with anything else to speak of. This is something completely new, something I have not writen about in the past, although I believe the Lord had revealed it's meaning and a few things I can leave you all with.
These words were spoken by Jesus himself. You can find them in the verse I wrote of at the beginning. Anyways, in His preaching he quoted a Scripture that leads back to Psalms 118:22, a prophecy of what the Jews would do to the coming Messiah. "The stone the builders(the priest) rejected.." leading up to say that he would become the Chief Cornerstone. Why the chief cornerstone? What is it? So I went on Google and googled the term 'cornerstone' and came up with this on yourdictionary.com:a stone that forms the corner of the building; especially a foundation stone of this kind often inscribed, laid at a ceremony that marks the beginning of a building. Keep that in mind for later on =)
What struck me the most when I first read over this verse a long while ago was why are there two negatives when this cornerstone is supposed to be Christ? To be broken or ground to powder.. That's lovely! At first I didn't let it bother me, but later in my life I stumbled on the verse again. Still, didn't let it bother me, but by the third time it appeared I knew that I needed to learn something. So I sat down and I thought about it.
In my church they always mentioned the notion of being broken by Christ. Losing your pride, setting aside your goals and dreams in life, letting your desires become secondary... To me it seemed like such a gorgeous thing. Something I thought would be either too difficult for me to attain or something that was only meant for those crazy pentecostal people who found themselves in front of the alter collapsed before the Presence of the Lord. That wasn't me. And I knew that this verse was not speaking about a brokeness to utterly destroy a person, but simply to rebuild them.
In the hands of the Lord we are like clay. Jeremiah 18:6 "O, House of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? says the Lord. Look, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O House of Israel!" We are being formed and crafted into something precious. Something that the Lord can use to fill with His Spirit and pour out on the nations! Every day the Lord molds you, whether you know it or not. Every day the Lord rises early in the morning, looking at His creation, formless, unshaped, in essence, still useless. He takes you into His massive hands and sifts you, creating the mouth of the pot, the handles, the edges. Every time He sticks His finger into the clay to create and indentation, it hurts. And once He is finished molding the clay, He puts it through the Fire. He tests the clay in the heat, watches as the product firms into perfection. And in the end, if He is not satisfied with how the clay came to be, He breaks it, and he starts over.
Remember what I spoke about earlier in the post? About the cornerstone, which is Christ? These pots that he breaks, the clay He molds and fits to perfection.. He breaks them on the cornerstone. The shards of broken pottery, the pains and trials you suffer, the teachings you learn, the people you save for Christ.. They remain on the cornerstone. The beginning of a building. And you know what else? The Lord uses those pieces of broken pottery, and the finished product to build His church, on which it's foundation is Christ. Isn't that amazing?
And now.. I encourage every one of you to come with me. Let's build a church together in the Lord.
The cornerstone was rejected itself. We are those pots created for perfection out of the imperfection predestined from the world. That is why we go against all that was established. That is why this world cannot comprehend God and His magnificence.
ReplyDeleteRevelations 21:5-7
5He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
6He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.