The Chief Cornerstone

As I was reading Matt. 21, I came upon the parable that Jesus told about the landowner and the vinedressers. The landowner prepared a business for himself, he hired others to run it, and he went into a far country. He sent servants to go to the vineyard and collect the fruit. But the workers beat them, killed them, and stoned them. Again he sent more servants, and again they were beaten and killed. Then he decided to send his son, thinking that the workers would respect his son. But when the workers saw the son, they decided to kill the son, thinking that the inheritance would be theirs. Then Jesus, quoting these famous words from Ps. 118:22-24, said to the chief priests and elders, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." The parable is the story of God's love and mercy to His people, in sending over and over again His servants and prophets to Israel, that there would be fruit in Israel for God. But again and again, Israel refused the prophets, and misused and abused them, and sometimes killed them. And finally, God sent His own Son, that His people would respect and hear Him. But again, Israel refused to hear the word, even though it was delivered by His own Son. They took the Son out of the city, and there at Golgotha they crucified Him. This is the stone which the builders rejected. As a cornerstone that is not perfect is rejected, so they found fault with Jesus, and rejected Him. But that same Stone has now been made the Chief Cornerstone. It is from Him that all the building is built and framed. When He comes into our lives, it is from Him that all the rest of our lives is to be measured and directed. When the Chief Cornerstone is laid in our hearts, He lays out the plan for all the rest of our lives. This is the story of the crucifixion and resurrection all wrapped up in these two statements; "The stone which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone"! This wonderful message is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

The Ways Of God

God said of Israel that they were a people that always went astray in their hearts, and they did not know God's ways, Ps. 95. Though they saw the miracles, they did not follow God faithfully. Ps. 103:7 says, "He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel." Moses knew the ways of God, and God desires that we would know His ways also. Many of the writers of the Bible cried out to God that they might know His ways. "Show me Your ways O Lord; Teach me Your paths." Ps. 25:4. We need to ask God to show us His ways, because our ways are not His ways. His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So here are 7 thoughts on the ways of God that all begin with the letter W:

1. Ways - Show me Your way, O Lord; Ps. 27:11. The way of man is not in himself; Jer. 10:23.
2. Word - God's Word is His way. 2 Sam. 22:31 "As for God, His way is perfect. The word of the Lord is proven..." "Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Ps. 119:105. When we find God's Word, we find God's way.
3. Worship - "Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool - His is holy." Ps. 99:5. Everything we learn about God should cause us to worship Him more. Knowledge can puff a person up in arrogance, but worship humbles us before God. It is worshippers that God is seeking - John 4:23,24.
4. Walk - Knowing God's ways changes the way we walk. "...I will walk within my house with a perfect heart." Ps. 101:2. "Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it,' whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left." Isa. 30:21.
5. Work - God is at work in us to do His good pleasure. "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." Phil. 1:6. His work in us is to make us more like Christ. "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." Phil. 2:13
6. Wait - There is always a time of waiting between the sowing of the seed and the harvest, Gal. 6:7,8. Learning to wait on God is an essential part of the ways of God. "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." Ps. 27:14
7. Wisdom - There is wisdom from God that leads us in the ways of God. There are 2 kinds of wisdom mentioned in Jam. 3:15-18. The wisdom of this world is earthly, sensual, and demonic. The wisdom that God gives is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, merciful, impartial, and genuine. Walking in God's wisdom is the way of God.

Likeness

God created man in His own image, and in His own likeness. God created everything to reproduce after its own kind, in its own likeness. So when Adam and Eve had a son in Gen. 5:1-3, it is not surprising that the son had the image and likeness of Adam. Everything follows the seed sowing principle, which says that whatever is planted brings forth a harvest after its own kind. Paul expands this principle into our everyday lives in Gal. 6:7,8, where he says that whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. He applies this to sowing to our flesh nature which reaps destruction, and sowing to the Spirit, reaping life everlasting. Every thought and every action becomes a seed sown. Rom. 12:2 tells us that we need to renew our minds so we may find out the will of God. Renewing the mind is replacing the old mindset with the new thoughts of God. Jesus said that we should "Take no anxious thought, saying, 'What shall we eat?', or 'What shall we drink?', or 'What shall we wear?' " We are not to take those thoughts, and we are not to say them. We are to renew our minds to the Scripture, and say those promises. This is the transformation of the mind to live by faith, and not by doubt. The words we say are so powerful they have the power of life and death in them, Pro. 18:21. We must let God change our hearts and minds by receiving His thoughts and attitudes. Consider the beatitudes, how they display the attitudes that Christ had, and how each beatitude is also a principle of sowing and reaping. Paul said that he was confident that the good thing that God started in us, God would continue to complete until the day of His coming. What is it that God is wanting to do in us? What will we look like when He has completed His work? His work in us is to bring is into the image of His Son. He wants us to become like Jesus in every way. He wants our lives to bear the likeness of His Son.

Personal Attacks

There will be times in our growth that we receive personal attacks. These often come from unexpected sources. When an attack comes out of the blue, it is very important how we respond. David had an experience we can all learn from. He refers to it in Ps. 41:9, "Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me." David was talking about Ahithophel, his counselor who is mentioned in 2 Sam. 15:12. Ahithophel joined Absalom, David's son, in a revolt against David. Ahithophel was a close personal friend to David, and gave David counsel, so he knew David very well, and they had shared many meals together. David said, "O Lord, I pray, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness." David did survive the treasonous act of Absalom, though it broke David's heart. As David and his men were on the move to stay away from Absalom, a man named Shimei came out to curse David in 2 Sam. 16:5-14. This man threw rocks at David, cursed continuously, and lied about David, accusing David of wrong motives. He said David was a bloodthirsty man, and that the Lord was bringing upon David all the blood of the house of Saul. He accused David of taking the reign away from Saul, and that the Lord was now giving the kingdom into the hand of Absalom because David was caught in his own evil. None of this was true! None of these things happened because David had wrong motives. This was the Lord's doing, but Shimei didn't see it that way. It is very hard to be accused of having wrong motives, and to be cursed by people that you thought would support you. But notice David's response in verse 12, "It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day." Wow, if we will respond with that kind of attitude, the Lord will repay us with good even though we've been cursed and accused. David kept his eyes on the Lord, his trust in the Lord, and his hope in the Lord, and was not detoured by the cursing of Shimei. Goodness and mercy did follow David all the days of his life. The blessing of the Lord came because of how he responded when cursed and falsely accused. Don't let accusations from others stop you or break you. Keep your eyes on Jesus, bless those who curse you, and you will walk as a true child of your Father in heaven.

The Secret Place

"He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty," Ps. 91:1 There is a secret place in God where we are invited to dwell. Abiding in that secret place assures us of the provision of El Shaddai, the All-Sufficient One. The secret place is that place where we build personal intimate relationship with the Lord. It is the personal conversation and time spent together that builds a relationship. Marriage relationship is built when husband and wife are alone together. That is the time where intimacy of thoughts and emotions are shared and where the strength of relationship is built. The strength of the relationship will be seen in public, but it was built in private. Jesus told us that when we pray, we should enter into our private room, and shut the door, and there pray in secret to our Father, and our Father who sees in secret will reward us openly. It is the secret place that David longed for in Ps. 27:4,5. "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His taberacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock." The secret place is the place where Jesus promised that He and the Father would come and make their home, John 14:21-23. It is the place of fellowship where Jesus said He would enter in, when we open the door, and He comes in to dine with us, Rev. 3:20. It is the cleft in the rock, where Moses waited for God's presence to pass by. God was saying to Moses that he could have as much of God's glory as he wanted, and as much as he could stand. When we pray, "Show me Your glory", we are praying to be brought into the secret place. Show me your glory Lord. I want to be in the secret place with You.

Follow, Seek, Set

When Jesus comes on the scene, His presence requires a response. When He met the fishermen, and He called them saying, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men," it required a response from them. Would they follow Him or stay where they were? The same call is extended to you and I today. Will we follow Him? Once we have decided to follow, the next step is to seek Him. Paul says in Col. 3:1, "If you then were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God." The Christian life is one of seeking God. We are to seek Him diligently, Heb. 11:6. If you have lost your wallet, or your keys, you are on a diligent search to find the missing valuables. We are on a seeking mission to find all the valuable blessings of God provided for us through Christ. We must seek first this kingdom, before all the other things we need, Matt. 6:33. We are assured that when we seek, we will find, Matt. 7:7,8. Our seeking must be with all our heart, and then we will find God, Jer. 29:13. As we seek, Paul says in Col. 3:2, "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." What we do with our mind is of great importance in our walk with God. We have specific instructions about what to do with our minds. Phil. 4:8 says that whatever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy, these are the things to think and meditate on. We can choose our thoughts, and we can set our minds on what we choose. We must choose to fill our minds with these things in order to experience the peace of God in our lives. Isa. 26:3 says, "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." When we trust the Lord, and we keep our minds set on Him and His Word, the result is that we will have peace, perfect peace, in our lives. I understand that this in Hebrew is a double "Shalom, Shalom." What a provision God has given us for walking in peace, for knowing Him in our walk. Follow, Seek, Set!

5 Smooth Stones

1 Sam. 17:40 says, "Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine." Saul had given his own armor to David to wear to go against the giant, but David refused them, saying that he could not walk with them, for he had not tested them. David could not wear someone else's armor, and we cannot walk with someone else's revelation. When we go out against a giant, we must know in our own hearts what God has told us, and what He wants us to do. David had to go out against Goliath with what he knew for himself. He put Saul's armor aside, and he chose for himself 5 smooth stones. Learning to throw stones and use a slingshot is a personal thing you must experiment with yourself. I remember learning how to skip stones on the creek. I had to experiment with different kinds of stones to find out which were the stones that worked the best for me. David chose for himself 5 smooth stones. He knew what he was looking for. He knew what stones worked for him the best. He chose 5 stones. Why did he choose 5? Firstly, I believe this is a lesson in being over prepared. David was ready, not just for Goliath, but for any other giant that would dare to face David that day. It is good for us to be over prepared in our battles. Know more Scripture than you have time to share. Pray longer than you need to. Show more love than you have to. Be over prepared, and you'll never be unprepared! It is also worth noting that Goliath did have 4 brothers. The details about them are in 2 Sam. 21:15-22. The first two mentioned are named as Ishbi-Benob and Saph. The next two are referred to as the brother of Goliath and a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. These were Goliath's brothers, and David was prepared for them too should they present themselves in the battle. The Scripture admonishes us to always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks us a reason for the hope that is within us. Be ready. Let us take a lesson from David. Be over prepared!