To Encourage You

1 Peter 2:4-5 “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Do you have a mentor, i.e., someone with whom you’ve spent time over the years because you wanted to become more like him or her? Apprenticeships are like that. Often, to become skilled in one of the trades, a person will walk beside another person who IS skilled with the hope that their knowledge and abilities will sooner or later be transferred to them.  Parents are mentors, and whether they realize it or not, their ways are having effects, for good or bad, on those little ones who are watching them and interacting with them day after day.  

It is this idea that is being intimated in the passage above from 1 Peter 2.  It talks about “coming to him, a living stone.”  It’s talking about Jesus, a man that we are told that we can “come to.” This means we can approach Him, spend time with Him, talk to Him, and listen to Him.  It’s such an awesome privilege that is afforded to anyone who wants to do so, yet for many, it’s the last thing that ever enters their mind. In fact, we are told that many have actually rejected Him, the greatest Teacher that has ever lived. Talk about an opportunity squandered?  It’s one of the greatest mistakes a human being will ever make.  But for those who do come to Him, the awesome result is that they are being made more and more like Him day by day.  

Jesus is described in this passage, first, as a “living stone.” He’s the foundation on which all of life can be built, for He’s the very “author of life” (Acts 3:15).  And then He IS life (John 14:6).  And for those who would come to Him, the reward is to have “life and to have it abundantly” (John 10:10). There is no better one from Whom to learn how to live than from this One Who created all life in the beginning and Who has sustained all life ever since.  It is by this metaphor of a “living stone” that is in God’s “spiritual house” that we are told that we can be like Him if we will just come to Him.  

You see, although God directed Moses to build a tabernacle and David and Solomon to build a temple as a type of the dwelling place of God on earth, it was all just a shadow of reality for “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man” (Acts 17:24). Rather, He lives in those who come to Him. He resides deep within the hearts of those who love Him, and He places each and every one of His children as a precious stone built together on the foundation of His Son to become one glorious structure here on earth while we all “look forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).  It’s in this “spiritual house” that we become fellow servants and priests as we look to our Great High Priest (Hebrews 4:16) offering “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.”  It’s all about living a life that has meaning for all eternity as we follow the One Who gave His life for the world. 

So, who is it that you most want to be like? To whom are you looking as your mentor in this world? May it be the One Who has promised us that we can become more and more like Him if we will but come to Him day by day and moment by moment. And that’s exactly what He wants for us, as wonderfully, He is always there to guide us and offer “mercy and . . . grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).