Steps and Stones

Walking in His Steps

Three Words

Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake … Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.  For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully .. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.  - I Peter 2:13, 18-19, 21

In a recent study of I Peter I underlined three words in the text over and over:

Submit, Servants, and Suffering.

As we examine ourselves today and consider walking in the steps of Jesus, Peter is trying to help us do so in the through the lens of these qualities. They will transform how we give, live, and walk in faith. If we understand submission in the light of our call to present ourselves to God and honor His Name, we will find dignity in subservience.

If service is a quality of our lives based upon Jesus’ example, we will never be degraded by it, but will embrace our opportunities joyfully and with great anticipation. Finally, if undeserved suffering is connected to our Lord and His sufferings, we will be blessed beyond our imagination. The bottom-line issue for us is that we belong to Jesus Christ, lock, stock, and barrel. Everything that we are and all that we have is His.

He lived that way among us in relation to His Father, and we are given the honor of walking in His steps.

In your life, there will be times when you must submit to someone or something you may be tempted to resent it. There will be times when the service asked of you in disproportional and out of balance in your view. And you may be called upon to make sacrifices that are uncomfortable and painful. In these situations, first examine your own heart and come to the place of proper relationship with the Master.  

Submit to Him, let your service be to Him, and see your own sacrifice in terms of His great sacrifice for you. Walk in His steps.  If you can arrange your thinking in such a manner, you will live with joy and freedom.

Take the Challenge - Being the Temple

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being builtinto a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
    a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
    will never be put to shame.”

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,”

and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

- 1 Peter 2:4-12 (NIV)

Ancient temples were made of stones fitted together with care and purpose. They were often magnificent and elegant because they were intended to house deities. Christian houses of worship are not temples. They are not places where God lives. God lives within and among the people. However, there are some parallels in house we view simple houses dedicated to worship and, ore importantly, how we live and present ourselves to the world. As new covenant believers, we are the temple of God both individually and collectively.  Our church  is not a building, but a living organism, a lively house of God that assembles in a specific place but is not confined to that place.

Our challenge is not to build God a better physical house, but to present all that we do and say as testimony to His power, love, grace, and beauty.

If we meet in a building, we should care for that building. As He lives in our bodies, we should present our lives as an offering to Him that brings Him honor in the world. As we gather as His people, we should seek His magnificence and elegance in all of our relations, ministries, and worship. Our challenge is the same today as always: to acknowledge Jesus Christ, the Chief Cornerstone, in all things. And it is to live in the worlds as both priests and stones of the temple so that the world will take note and glorify God. We were not always so noble. Where lost people were in relation to God, we once were. There is no effort too demanding and no challenge too great. We must declare His praise and draw others to Him.