Stepping on Lego (1 Peter 1:23- 2:10)

Peter tells us that as we obey God and the Truth, we will love one another truly and deeply. This is a result of being born again.

Grass doesn't live very long – especially during water restrictions in the summer or when it is covered by snow in some parts of this country. (That is good because it means we don't have to cut it, then.) Grass is fragile and dies. This is us. We – people – don't live very long, maybe 100 or so years. And maybe much less. But Peter says that the Word of the Lord endures forever and that those of us who have been born again will be imperishable through the seed of that enduring Word. We will live forever.

We were like grass. Now we are like stones. As we come to Jesus, the living stone, we get built into his spiritual house. Peter says that Jesus is the stone that is rejected; he caused people to fall, but we will be built into a house around him that will stand forever.

Did you ever play with Lego when you were young? Picture this: you build a building. There is one piece that is just too big, too small, too wide, or the wrong shape – it just doesn't fit; so when all the pieces are assembled there is one brick still lying on the floor. That brick is Jesus. Then, in comes your mom and she steps on it; or, more accurately, you step on it! You are the one who didn't use it and you step on it – screaming, crying, holding your foot, hopping up and down, using colourful language. Jesus is that brick that is rejected and the one who rejects him stumbles (or hops). But that isn't the end of the story.

Imagine now that there is a stone block that someone has rejected and others have fallen over it. Someone (God) finds that stone block and builds it into this wonderful eternal home that will never topple. In this scenario, the builder adds you and I and all those born again, as stones, into the house built around the living stone. We are solid.

Those who disobey Jesus will stumble over the stone; those of us who obey him, we will be built into his house and we will be a part of his people, declaring his praises forever.

Once we were grass that would perish. Now we are stones built into a spiritual house – and that house, as much as anyone may huff and puff and try to blow it down, will never perish but will endure forever and you and I will be a part of it because we have received God's mercy

What does it look like in your life when you have received God's mercy and are built into His house?

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Salvogesis

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