Kingdom Conscious Reality

Greeting to you, reader, young or not so young. It is an honor to have you visit the blog again. And to those reading for the first time, you are welcome! Before I get into the topic of this week’s post, I have a couple of announcements I’d like to share with you.

First, I have decided to commit to a weekly posting schedule. This is so I remember to honor this platform and all those God may be reaching through it. Even if that is one person. So if you plan on visiting the blog often, you can expect a brand new post on the Sunday of every week. If you’d like to be informed about new posts, be sure to subscribe to the blog at the end of this post.

Secondly, I was supposed to have posted a second part the the “Bible Reading” series. Unfortunately, I have not been as diligent in conducting the necessary research and investing the time into producing a clear body of work. I will continue working on this, and hope to be posting it soon.

Now to focus on the title of this post: Building on the cornerstone/foundation. This is a theme in the bible that I just find so fascinating and truly enlightening to the understanding of God. Let’s get into it!

There are a few scriptures I will work with to explain this theme but the main ones are; 1 Peter 2v4-12 and Ephesians 4v4-16. I encourage you to read them for yourself before hand, and also read the other scriptures in this post for a whole and clearer understanding.

I’m praying that the Holy Spirit will help me communicate this in a true and clear way. What fascinates me here is the duality of God’s working and building. By ‘duality of God’s working and building’ I mean how God is actively building a church as well as working on individual stones. The church being the global and eternal church, the body of Christ. The stones being you and me as individuals in respect to the body of Christ.

The cornerstone or the foundation?

Often times in the bible, Jesus is referred to as the cornerstone or the foundation(the living rock). At first glance there is no distiction between the two, but I have come to learn that there is such a cool difference!

The most clear distinction I’ve been able to understand is found in Ephesians 2v19-20. “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,…”

In a physical first century building or house, cornerstone was the first stone lain. The foundation and is subsequently put together in response to the cornerstone. In essence, the cornerstone in the foundation of the foundation.

Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. Putting our faith in Christ as well as His finished work, surrendering our lives to Christ and conforming to His image, becoming His disciples who will follow Him everyday.

This is the cornerstone of the life of a Christian and the work of God in the world.

The apostles and prophets are the foundation: the words of Christ delivered to us through the apostles and prophets, the Holy Scriptures. The apostles and prophets are obviously not equal to Jesus in foundational importance, but the words of Jesus came by the Holy Spirit through them. Building on this foundation means living in agreement with the teachings of Jesus, living out the word of God and submitting to the scriptures which are the foundation. Jesus in Matthew 7v24-27 speaks of everyone who when hearing the words and does them, will be a wise man who builds on the rock(foundation or living rock).

Our lives as well as the life of the global and eternal church should build on the foundations of the scriptures.

We are living stones?

In 1 Peter 2v5 speaks about the members of a church being living stones and Ephesians 4v7 of how grace has been given to ‘each one of us by the measure of Christ’s gift’.

Each believer is a living stone that God is building/assembling into a bigger building. God is concerned with each stone and works within each of us through the Holy Spirit and each other. None of the stones are a perfect fit for this building which is why we constantly yield to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Romans 12v1-2 says “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Meditating the love, grave and mercy of God in Christ Jesus will lead us to surrender and to pursue holiness. This is God’s will for each individual in the family of believers: sanctification.

And Ephesians 4v16 says that when each of these parts of the body are working properly it makes the whole body grow and build itself up in love. The functioning of the body of Christ as a whole, is affected by the work of God within each believer or living stone.

The spiritual house or a holy temple?

In 1 Peter 2:4-12 the Apostle explains that we are being ‘built up into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood’ and are ‘a chosen race,…, a holy nation, a people for His own possession.’ Ephesians 4v4-16 speaks of ‘one body’ and ‘unity’.

Here we see God’s hand at work in building a group of people who are His own people. Who will be set apart for Him. God is building a temple, using His people, that He can dwell in. He dwells in this temple by the Holy Spirit.

God desires that this people, this ‘holy nation’, be holy. Set apart. Different from the nations around it, living and operating to please God and to fulfill His purposes on earth. In fact, the Bible goes as far as to label the family of faith as foreigners and sojourners on this earth. Jesus commands us in John 15v12 to love one another as He has loved us. And with a deeper dive into the scriptures and teachings of Jesus, we realize that God has very clear expectations for the church. Whether it be in how we feel about one another, how we represent on another, how we treat one another or what we do when we are gathered together, God is concerned with the church.

I encourage us to read the Bible eager to see God’s purposes for the church, seeing how we can conform to His design, and not tweeking His design to fit our structures.

Conclusion

I’ve come to see that God is just so wise in everything He does.

I’ve fallen into a selfish way of living, even in Christ. Where I viewed my walk with God as something exclusively personal and as not involving anyone else apart from me. It is true that we all have to make a personal confession of faith and build a personal relationship with God as He works within us. However, it does not end there.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ says that God created a good and perfect creation, but sin entered and created a rift between man and God. Sin creates a chasm between man and the Creator of the universe. But God, being rich in love and mercy, sent Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus being fully God and fully human, lived a blameless life and knew no sin, but died as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. He died a criminals death on the cross and rose again 3 days later, defeating death and sin. Jesus is now the mediator between man and God, buying redemption and forgiveness for all those who believe in Him and turn to the Father in repentance. An undeserved gift of grace.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. From that point on God is at work within the believer, transformation into the new creation they are meant to be in Christ. This is where we build a personal relationship with God by walking with God. Getting to know God, and daily submitting ourselves to Him.

God is also continuously building His holy temple out of His people. So we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to God’s desire to create oneness within the the believers, just as the Father and the Son have oneness(John 17v20-21).

Matthew 22v34-40: And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Let us be obedient children of God yielding to God’s transformative work within us, and move away from individualism by conforming to God’s expectations of us within the global and eternal church.

Until next time, dear reader, continue to live a life conscious of the King of kings and what it means to be a part His kingdom. The old has passed, the new has come. This is your reality. May the love and peace of Christ be with you!