Who's Building Your House

July 2007
All the construction going on at our new campus has me thinking about how God would want His house to be built. In fact, Psalm 127:1-2 says,
“Unless the LORD builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. Unless the LORD protects a city guarding it with sentries will do no good. It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.” (NLT)
In fact, Solomon, the wisest man in the world and builder of the most elaborate house of God in history, was the writer of this Psalm. It kind of makes me wonder if he might have come home from watching the beehive of activity going on during construction of the temple and written these words.
As I see that same type of activity going on at 7501 Standifer Gap Road (our new address), I think about the New Testament church and Jesus telling Peter He would build His church upon “this rock.” Years later that old church builder, Peter wrote these words: “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. What’s more, you are His holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. As the Scriptures say, ‘I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in Him will never be disgraced.” Yes, you who trust Him recognize the honor God has given Him. But for those who reject Him, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ And, ‘He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.’ They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them. But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. ‘Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.’” (I Peter 2:4-11, NLT)
As we do the physical work of building God’s house, we must allow Him to do the spiritual work on each of us as well. I have been blessed the last two years to be able to go to Jerusalem and see the Temple mount. One of the things we have done both years is to take what is called the “tunnel tour.” You are probably familiar with the image of the Wailing Wall, which is a portion of the western wall of the Temple mount. This wall continues on to the north and is now under ground. The tunnel tour takes you far below ground level along the rest of the western wall, and one of the features of the tour is looking at the size and perfection of the massive stones that make up the wall. Not only are they huge, but after they were quarried they were smoothed and had ornate details carved into them. No doubt Peter would have had some of these very stones in mind, as well as the ones in the Temple itself, when he wrote this passage. He would have been thinking of the process of making those stones acceptable to be part of God’s house. It didn’t end with the stones being quarried; there was then a lengthy process whereby a stone carver would have perfected each stone. We, as individuals, and as a corporate body have been going through this process. We, just like those massive stones, have had rough edges knocked off of us. Sometimes it may have even been painful as God cut away things, as well as people in our lives. The Temple was a breathtakingly beautiful structure that dominated the Jerusalem skyline when it was finished, and I’m sure everyone involved in building it would have said it was worth the effort, fatigue, and pain. Peter was seeing the modern day church, and knowing after the process was finished, it, too would be breathtakingly beautiful. I encourage you: submit to the process… stay the course. I can’t wait to see how beautiful we will be.

Danny