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The weight of the stone (Matthew 21:42-44) May 19, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Job 39-40

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 21:42-44
Jesus: I wonder if any of you has ever opened your own psalter:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very stone that holds together the entire foundation.
This is the work of the Eternal One,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Therefore, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people who will tend its sweet fruit and who will give the Creator His due. He who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, and he on whom the stone falls will be crushed.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

If there was ever any question in the chief priests and elders’ minds about who Jesus was talking to when He talked about the landowner of the vineyards and the tenant workers who killed the landowner’s son, this statement cleared it up for them. Jesus took a passage out of the Psalms and aimed it square in their faces. He announced they would lose the kingdom of God and it would be given to people who would tend to it the way God intended.

You think that might have smarted a little when Jesus told them those words? You think they might have been a little embarrassed to get chastised by this man in front of the very crowds who followed Him. These were the same people they had taken offerings from for years. They had told these people how to live their lives, how to obey the laws God handed to Moses on the tablets of stone, how to practice the rituals set up through the centuries. These same people now heard this uneducated preacher from Nazareth dare to tell them they would lose the kingdom of God and it would be handed over to others who would care for it better than they could. How dare He make such statements, and especially in public places.

Jesus kind of stepped on their toes, well, he kind of stomped all over them. He let them know God’s kingdom is more than rules and regulations and rituals. God’s kingdom is about relationship with the Father and relationships with each other. It’s about grace and mercy and love. But that message went to the heart of the chief priests and elders in Jesus’ day, right?

Well, maybe. Do we act any different? Do we get so caught up in our programs and schedules and rituals and church rules that we forget what we’re really doing and why we do them? Do we put our processes above the reason for doing them in the first place? Do we get so set in the routine of our services and our ministries that we leave God out altogether?

Sometimes I wonder if God would be pleased with the focus we have in our churches and our ministries. Oh, we do some good things. But do we do them in the name of Jesus or to get our brand elevated in the eyes of the market? Do we feed the homeless making sure nothing has our church name on it or do we put a banner up and advertise who is helping? There’s a good question for you.

Why do we do the things we do in ministry? Is it really to serve others or to serve ourselves? Do we want to do good and help others or are we trying to buy that ticket into heaven? James tells us faith without works is dead and I agree with Him. And quite frankly, no one looking in from the outside can tell the difference between someone doing good works because of their faith or someone who is doing good works to try to attain favor. The outcome for the person receiving the help is the same. It looks alike to the person being fed or clothed or taught or housed. It’s just good works to them.

But God sees our heart. He knows what’s on the inside. He knows why we do what we do. Do we act out of love or duty? Do we feel the necessity to help others because God prompts us or because we have this inner ego that wants others to see how good we are to others? Only we and God know the answer to that question. We can fool everyone else for a long time, but there will be a day of reckoning and Jesus words will still be true.

If we don’t give the Creator His due, Jesus warning will happen to us just as it did to those religious leaders who worked so hard to push Him out of the way 2,000 years ago. “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people who will tend its sweet fruit and who will give the Creator His due. He who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, and he on whom the stone falls will be crushed.”

You don’t want to find yourself under the weight of that stone. It’s much more than you can bear.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Be part of the house (1 Peter 2:1-12) December 16. 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – 1 Peter 2:1-12

Set – 1 Peter 2-3

Go! – 1 Peter 1-5

1 Peter 2:1-12
1 So get rid of hatefulness and deception, of insincerity and jealousy and slander. 2 Be like newborn babies, crying out for spiritual milk that will help you grow into salvation 3 if you have tasted and found the Lord to be good.
4 Come to Him—the living stone—who was rejected by people but accepted by God as chosen and precious. 5 Like living stones, let yourselves be assembled into a spiritual house, a holy order of priests who offer up spiritual sacrifices that will be acceptable to God through Jesus the Anointed. 6 For it says in the words of the prophet Isaiah,
See here—I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone, chosen and precious;
Whoever depends upon Him will never be disgraced.
7 To you who believe and depend on Him, He is precious; but to you who don’t, remember the words of the psalmist:
The stone that the builders rejected
has been laid as the cornerstone—the very stone that holds together the entire foundation,
8 and of Isaiah:
A stone that blocks their way,
a rock that trips them.
They stumble because they don’t follow the word of God, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen people, set aside to be a royal order of priests, a holy nation, God’s own; so that you may proclaim the wondrous acts of the One who called you out of inky darkness into shimmering light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received it.
11 Beloved, remember you don’t belong in this world. You are resident aliens living in exile, so resist those desires of the flesh that battle against the soul. 12 Live honorably among the outsiders so that, even when some may be inclined to call you criminals, when they see your good works, they might give glory to God when He returns in judgment.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Peter addresses his modern world. Many of his day assumed they would not like this new Christian religion because of its freedom from the rules established by Moses centuries before. So they fought against Peter and his compatriots. They assumed faith in Me as the living God-Man, born of woman and of God could not be who I showed them I was and could not do the things I did even when they saw it with their own eyes or heard it from the lips of eyewitnesses.

Many were afraid of what others might think of them if they abandoned the religion they pledged their allegiance to as children or young adults feared the isolation from their old religious order more than they feared the living God, as My Spirit spoke to them convicting and convincing them of sin. I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Unfortunately, the same conditions exist today.

You fear what others think far more than you fear Me. You listen to the voice of religious leaders than you listen to My voice. You follow the fancies of men instead of following the precepts of My word. I look around and even in My church, I find hatefulness, deceiption, insincerity, jealousy, and slander. These characteristics might be expected from those outside the walls the cathedrals built for My worship, but from those who gather to worship Me? From those who call themselves Christian? How can I tolerate such behavior?

The answer is, I can’t and I won’t. The title by which you call yourself makes no difference to Me. It is your behavior and your heart that I watch and see. I know when you love Me and worship Me. I know when your prayers are sincere or just for the hearing of those around you. I know you better than you know yourself. And there will be a test at the end of time. I will judge your heart.

So what should you do? Peter tells you. Come to Me like babies crying out for spiritual milk if you have tasted Me and found I am good. And you will. Then like growing children, be curious about Me. Learn My language of love for others. Engross yourself in My word and you will find more than ample demonstrations of My grace and mercy and love to mimic as you reach out into the world around you to minister to My creation, the people lost in their sins and blinded by the veil Satan puts over their eyes.

Become one of the spiritual stones that make up the spiritual house in which I dwell. Each of you plays a significant role, no one more important than another, but I am the cornerstone and on My foundation, you together for the spiritual edifice for true worship. But how can you fill that role if you are unwilling to allow the Master Builder to place you in the perfect spot to erect the walls and floors and windows and doors of the edifice. The Master Builder knows just what to do with each stone.

He knows where to place you in His plan. You were called out of darkness into the light of His glory to fill that perfect spot in His perfect plan for your life. Don’t give up. Don’t ease off. Don’t retire from your task. Fulfill your place in the spiritual house I am building for us for all eternity.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.