Make a difference – Day 22

As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him – 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. 1 Peter 2:4-5

Imagine the most beautiful, most breath-taking stone that you have ever seen. It is awe-inspiring in every way: it is a living stone. It is the most exceptional stone in a house built of stones, which increases in splendour as you look at it and it has the most remarkable quality of holding every other stone in that building together, in place. Not only that, but each of the other stones are alive too and as you look, each one is slowly being transformed by the beauty radiating from the most beautiful one – the cornerstone – into something outstanding, approaching its beauty.

Don’t you get a sense of awe and elation when you realise that this could be about Jesus and us?

Peter shows, through his analogy, a marvellous illustration of the realisation of the spiritual potential within us when we come to Jesus, the living Stone. We don’t only become like him, but we become an integral part of his work, as he builds us up into people who are set apart to him and who live sacrificially to fulfil his purposes on earth (Romans 12:1).

This a fascinating thought: we have to die to live. Although we are living beings, we are dead in our sins until we come to Jesus and he makes us alive. However, we have to die to self to be able to live to serve him; but, when we die here on earth, we will continue to live in heaven with him, eternally. Once we’re dead, we cannot make a difference on earth. The time to come alive is now, to make a difference wherever we’re called to serve him and for however long our time on earth is. Serving God is the privilege that belongs to the living, not to the living dead.

Jesus called the Pharisees “whitewashed tombs”, which “look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean … on the outside (they) appear to people as righteous but on the inside (they) are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matthew 23:27-28). He scolded them with: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” How tragic to know God’s law, yet fail to keep the spirit of it and not make a difference.

We see the difference in the faithful servant of Jesus’ parable, whose master, upon returning from a journey, responded to his diligence in making a difference in his absence, with the words: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21)

Which would you hope to hear from the Lord one day?