Is Your Identity Built on the Foundation of a Relationship with Christ?
Good Morning Friends,
During fast growth modes, we sometimes forget the importance of Christ’s expression of service/worship in us. The very temple of worship is to be built on this secure platform for expressing God’ love in our lives. Is Your Identity Built on the Foundation of a Relationship with Christ?
Scripture: Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
Acts 6:1-7 (NRSV)
Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,” and “A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:4-9 (NRSV)
Message: We need to understand what unites us as the Body of Christ. We are to be unified because there is One Spirit…One hope…One Lord…One faith…One baptism…One God and Father of us all offering us citizenship in His Kingdom. When we start to desire the Word, the implication of the Christians’ relationship…our relationship to God becomes clearer. Here we discover that the center of the Christian life is being in Christ as a Body and a Temple and as Priests as well. In today’s scripture, we see truths about our identity in Christ. Here we realize that Jesus was rejected by men but He was chosen by God. Here we realize that we too might be rejected by men but have been chosen to be in union with God’s Son as part of a living Body. Here we are made alive and real in Christ. Here we are made heirs to every promise. Here we are freed as we become connected to the love of God in Christ. But in addition to being a Body we are also stones in God’s house and have value as part of something larger than ourselves. We are the Temple. And in that Temple, because we have special direct access to God, we are to serve as Priests and Deacons. In all this we gain a spiritual identity. In all this we remember our identity is to be built on the foundation of a relationship with Christ.
Pray we be as living stones built on the Cornerstone of Christ and become a temple for God’s Spirit and a priesthood in service to one another. Pray we be in continuous, abiding and intimate fellowship with Christ. Pray we honor God by living up to our family identity as people who are completed in Christ. Pray we offer our bodies as living sacrifices through our actions and resources as an act of worship. Pray we are brought into the fullness of God’s purpose in Christ. Pray we become unified. Pray we widen the circle to be part of something greater. Pray we are humble and gentle. Pray that we stop wanting to control everything. Pray we realize we are all in this together…that we all are aging day by day and all eventually going to die. Pray therefore that we put on love for unity. Pray we realize that unity is already here…we just need to keep it and in keeping it we become transformed. Pray we be worthy of our calling to keep the unity of the Spirit.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 