A CORNERSTONE
A common practice in past centuries when constructing a public building like a city hall or library was to have a special stone carved from a permanent type of stone like marble or granite, to build in at the most prominent corner of the building. It was meant to be seen by all who visited that building. There was always a special celebration for the "cornerstone laying ceremony", involving city and political officials. There was always a special metal box containing items of interest of the day that they wanted preserved as a memorial that was built in the wall behind the cornerstone. In Paul's second letter to Timothy in (2 Tim 2:19) we read in the NLT "But God's truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription 'the Lord knows those who are His', and 'All who belong to the Lord must turn away from evil'". As you know a cornerstone has two sides exposed so it can be seen from both directions as long as the building stands! I consider that this simple statement by Paul should be given close attention by all followers of Jesus in our 21st century. We know that "God's Truth" is a person, His only begotten Son Jesus, made clear by the apostle John in
(John 14:6), a scripture that we should all be aware of.
The critical question for us as followers of Jesus is simply 'how well are we showing forth to the world these two qualities that Paul mentions here? This is probably more important for men to consider, because they are often more exposed to the world in their daily activities than their wives. But these two things mentioned by Paul are equally critical for all to consider. So we must search our hearts continually, to make sure that every little closet or drawer that we all seem to have, where we place little odds and ends that we keep because we might find a use for them in the future, is not concealing articles that are not "pleasing to the Father"! I trust I am not the only guy who has these places, that he doesn't want his wife to clean up, because then he can never find things when he needs them! Right? Well it just might be that some things stored there that you are guarding from your wife's tendency to want to keep everything "in order", just might be items the Father is not pleased with either! We were all given the gift of the Holy Spirit when we received Jesus as Savior, He will help us in these areas if we ask Him to!!
Sincerely submitted.
Dave Jamer 23/01/12
No comments:
Post a Comment