Why the bright light picture? Our vision must be Christ, high and lifted up, every day together. As God builds us up as His people, we have to remember Who we live for together, or else we become focused on earthly pride and status. May we come together and watch as God works on us and through us to see growth in our community, all oriented around Christ and following Him as our Head of Household. He leads us and loves us and cares for us as His people. Behold Christ and watch human pride melt away.

1 Peter 2

What does it mean this weekend and this week for us to be God’s living stones, God’s servants?

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”

As we labor together as believers in various ways, we will find ourselves needing to be honest with one another in order to move forward together. How can churches work together both internally and between churches and among non-believers in the community without honesty. However, if this honesty is not gentle, it doesn’t produce lasting unity. Gentle honesty has become a theme in our marriage over the last year or so. We’d grown to be more and more honest with one another through various difficulties and really needing to be on the same page, but we also began realizing that we weren’t being as gentle as we could be in the midst of showing this honesty. This is the biblical timeless truth that speaking the truth should be done in love. We are both motivated to speak the truth to one another because we love each other, and when we speak the truth we grow year by year to do so in a loving way.

Hang in there with each other, I have to keep reminding myself, because we are meant to be built together as believers, not just in our marriages but in our churches and in our broader community of friends and neighbors who believe in Christ for salvation and who worship Him as our God.

Love and gentleness works wonders when seeking to cooperate with each other for common aims. May love and gentleness demonstrate that we are LIVING stones and not just stones – *grin*

Enjoy celebrating Christ and His atoning work on the cross and His glory together with fellow believers today, friends.

In His grip,

– Torrey