Title: How to Be a Living Stone (3 of 9)
Series: Finding Your Way
Author: Tony Thomas
Text: 1 Peter 2:4-10
In 1978 I organized a short-term mission trip to Gonaives, Haiti. The purpose of the trip was to build a church building and orphanage dormitory to house ninety children. Three congregations banded together for the trip: The Church of Christ in Harrison, OH (where I was the Youth Minister), my wife's home church (Bachelor Creek Church of Christ in Wabash, IN), and my Uncle Ed's church in Baxter Springs, KS.
I had been a part of dozens of revivals in overseas settings because I traveled each summer with my missionary father, but I was clueless about construction. However, three professional bricklayers from my Uncle Ed's church were put in charge of the construction, and they had their patience tested for eleven of the longest days of their lives by twenty-five teenagers.
They started by measuring the dimensions of the first building, the teenagers dug footers, the foundation was poured and the bricklayers laid the cornerstone. At that point, the bricklayers announced that the hardest part was over.
It all seemed hard to me, but like I said, I had no clue about anything dealing with construction. Eleven days later we left - and our task was done! In the forty-five years since, twenty hurricanes have passed through the area, the roof has been replaced a dozen times, the Haitian government seized the property about ten years ago - but that building still stands to this very day!
Peter writes this in 1 Peter 2: "You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God's temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor. And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. As the Scripture says, 'I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced'" (vvs. 4-6, Living Bible).
We are fortunate to belong to a loving ...
Series: Finding Your Way
Author: Tony Thomas
Text: 1 Peter 2:4-10
In 1978 I organized a short-term mission trip to Gonaives, Haiti. The purpose of the trip was to build a church building and orphanage dormitory to house ninety children. Three congregations banded together for the trip: The Church of Christ in Harrison, OH (where I was the Youth Minister), my wife's home church (Bachelor Creek Church of Christ in Wabash, IN), and my Uncle Ed's church in Baxter Springs, KS.
I had been a part of dozens of revivals in overseas settings because I traveled each summer with my missionary father, but I was clueless about construction. However, three professional bricklayers from my Uncle Ed's church were put in charge of the construction, and they had their patience tested for eleven of the longest days of their lives by twenty-five teenagers.
They started by measuring the dimensions of the first building, the teenagers dug footers, the foundation was poured and the bricklayers laid the cornerstone. At that point, the bricklayers announced that the hardest part was over.
It all seemed hard to me, but like I said, I had no clue about anything dealing with construction. Eleven days later we left - and our task was done! In the forty-five years since, twenty hurricanes have passed through the area, the roof has been replaced a dozen times, the Haitian government seized the property about ten years ago - but that building still stands to this very day!
Peter writes this in 1 Peter 2: "You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God's temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor. And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. As the Scripture says, 'I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced'" (vvs. 4-6, Living Bible).
We are fortunate to belong to a loving ...
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