Who Are You?

Chuckle: A woman came home, screeched her car into the driveway, ran into the house and shouted at the top of her lungs: "Fred, pack your bags, I won the lottery!" Fred said, "That's great. What should I pack -- beach stuff or mountain stuff? The wife yelled back, "It doesn't matter . . . just get out!"

Today's Quote: "Faith helps us to walk fearlessly, to run confidently, and to live victoriously." --William Arthur Ward

"As you come to him, the living Stone...you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ . . . You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Peter 2:4-5, 9 NIV).

I think we sometimes forget the relationship we have with God through Christ and the fact that our very identity is derived from this relationship. In our passage, we see that we are related to Christ in the same way building stones are related to one another in a completed house. The only difference is that our relationship with the living stone is a spiritual one in Christ's spiritual house.

“you are fellow citizens with with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:19-20 NIV). As members of this spiritual house, we are also the priests who serve God as a part of His household. When we think of priests, we often attach some special qualifications and responsibilities only given to a special few who are uniquely called by God. No doubt God places His hand on certain individuals for unique positions of responsibility like pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc. But every Christian is a priest as defined here -- a member of God's holy priesthood.

In this relationship, each of us may freely approach God on behalf of others and is called to serve God. Because God has called us out of spiritual darkness and into His wonderful light, we are identified with Him and given the responsibility of praising Him for His love, mercy, and grace so that others will experience His love.

When the final second had ticked away, and the thrilling football game had ended, an exhausted fan in the bleachers turned to his friend and exclaimed, "Boy, we really played well today!" The fact was that he hadn't played well at all. He wasn't wearing the pads. He wasn't on the field. Yet he identified himself with the eleven men on the team. So should it be for believers. Christ was the One who died on the cross, Christ was buried, and Christ rose again. Yet we are identified with Him in His victory over sin and death.

Love, Jerry & Dotse