The Stone The Builders Rejected

As I read the Passion Narrative this year, the word “stone” kept leaping off the page at me. It was not a word that I thought much about yet from Palm Sunday to Easter morning, “stone” is used a number of times.

· Luke 19:40-Palm Sunday-The Pharisees wanted Jesus to silence the crowds. Instead, Jesus responded, “If the crowds keep quiet, the stones will cry out!”
· Luke 20:17-18-Holy Week-Jesus taught in the Temple that the stone the builders rejected has become the chief capstone. A number of years ago, an architect friend told me that the capstone is the last stone and the center stone laid when creating an arch. It is the one that when in place, puts the correct amount of pressure on the other bricks or stones in the arch so that they do not collapse.
· Luke 21:5-16-Holy Week-The disciples were commenting on how impressive Herod’s Temple was, adorned with such beautiful stones. Jesus, however, prophetically declared that a day is coming when not one stone will be left on another.
· Luke 22:41-Gethsemane-Jesus withdrew from the disciples about a stone’s throw beyond them. Jesus was always a stone’s throw beyond what the disciples could grasp and here on the night He was betrayed it was that distance that kept them from seeing Him sweat blood as well as be ministered to by an Angel.
· Luke 24:2-Easter Morning-The Stone was rolled back.

I Corinthians 10:3-4 states that Jesus was the “Spiritual Rock” that followed Israel in the wilderness. Israel drank from that rock that followed them and that rock was Christ!

No wonder David was able to kill Goliath. He used a stone. Could that stone have been Christ?


Jesus named his leading disciple after Himself (the Rock that followed Israel) when He changed Simon’s name to Peter. Rock. Large Stone. Later, when Jesus reinstated Peter after Peter had denied Jesus three times, Jesus calls him by his former name, Simon, not Petros. Jesus was telling Peter between the lines that he had not behaved like his master, who had turned his face like “flint” (a type of stone) to the road of suffering ahead of him.

Isn’t it fascinating that in the first temptation of Jesus, Satan tempts Jesus to turn “stones” into bread. The response is that man does not live by bread alone but by The Word. Then on Maundy Thursday night when Jesus, the stone the builders rejected, takes bread and declares, “This bread is Me (the stone) in substitution for you, do this in remembrance of Me! Satan had been close, but the timing was all wrong.

Another time in Jesus’ ministry, He told the crowd who had brought a woman caught in adultery, “He who is without sin cast the first stone.” Again, we see the Rock that followed Israel was Christ. He and He alone was the only one who could have cast the first stone.

I do not think that it is by accident that Jesus was placed in a rock hewed tomb with a stone that served as the doorway to the death place. Since Jesus is the stone that the builders rejected….since Jesus is the rock that followed Israel in the wilderness...since Jesus was the stone that killed the Giant, isn’t Jesus also, by His once and for all sacrificial death, the one who opens the passage from death into life? God moved that stone. The stone no longer shut the door on death. Instead, the stone was moved in order to allow life to escape. There was no body. The stone was rolled away!

The Power of "Lack"

James 1:2-3 says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, whenever you face trails of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."



Not lacking anything. How often the Lord uses stress caused by our "lacking" something to untimately bring us to a position where we lack nothing!



To get to where we lack nothing, we must go through seasons where we lack something in order to change our life's water into wine. Fermentation is a death process. For there to be wine there must first be death before there can be a deeper meaning to life.



God's ultimate purpose is for us to be mature and complete, not lacking anything. To get there, the journey must be through seasons of lack. When the fermentation process is complete, however, we lack nothing. The wine is mature.

Sorrow lasts for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Every hardship is designed to mature us not destroy us. So count it all joy!

Power of Joy and Gladness

My history with trial has been both successful and unsuccessful. Successful in that I am here to tell the tale! Unsuccessful in that I have tried to wiggle my way out of every possible one. At the end of a trial, when the Lord miraculously comes through as He always does, I can be found groaning and mumbling under my breath the I NEVER want to go through that again!!! In one breath I am saying, "Praise God, He did ... we made it" and with the next breath, " I almost died! It was horrible! Why did God have to take so long?"

It seems it is at this time when the Lord wants to grow a new muscle in us. He is teaching us the importance of how to persevere and yet maintain joy and peace. James 1:2-3 says that it is not only possible but absolutely essential that we face tests with an attitude of pure joy because of what is going to be produced in us in the end. "Consider it PURE JOY whenever you face trials of MANY kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be MATURE and COMPLETE, not lacking anything."

James uses the word "perseverance." Its root is "severe." The prefix, "per" means through." Out faith is tested and developed through the severe experiences in our lives and we must have an attitude of joy. The Lord always looks at the big picture. He knows that we desire to be mature and complete. The only way this can happen is through the testing of our faith that then develops strength "through severity." Once we have made it through the severity, we become mature, lacking nothing! Joy, rather than dread, becomes the attitude we are to adopt when we see a new trial coming our way. Joy and gladness are not suggestions, rather, they are essentials in the life of a follower of Jesus.

• "I was glad when they said unto me, 'Let us go into the house of the Lord.'"
• "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice (joy over and over again) and be glad in it!"
• "Rejoice (joy over and over), pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all things, for this is the WILL OF GOD in Christ Jesus."
• "Count it pure joy whenever you face trials..."
  

The Lord enjoys joyful, glad sons and daughters just like you and I do. It is depressing when one of our family members or friends is in constant doom and gloom. They are so much more enjoyable when they are happy and excited. God doesn't want a single hour of a single day wasted with the depression that would try to steal His gift of life from us. As you plan your day, look for those gifts that God has hidden throughout each 24 hours of your life. Some days are just difficult. However, the Lord has planted oases (plural for oasis!) throughout even our most difficult times. An oasis could be as simple as a good meal in the midst of a bad day or a phone call from a friend, that half hour at the end of a day with a favorite novel, soaking in a hot bathtub or enjoying clean sheets. These are things that make us GLAD. The Lord desires that we enjoy pleasures in life the He has so abundantly littered across our paths.

Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. God grows it in us as we choose to allow Him to plant it in the fields of our hearts. Joy also is a choice -- as are most of the important aspects of our faith. Joy grows out of the choice to renew our minds. I choose to "rejoice always." I choose to be a blessed man on a Thursday and to declare it publicly and privately. 1Thessalonians 5 tells us that this is the very will of God. there is no getting around it.

God does not desire joy and gladness for us out of selfishness on His part. He desires it for us as a blessing. We just feel better when we have joy and are glad. Scripture tells us that the JOY of the Lord is our strength. He wants us to be strong in the midst of trials. So He plants that wonderful hint in James 1:2-3, "Count it PURE JOY (pure strength) when we encounter tests for they produce maturity and completion."

So there you have it. I am not saying put a brave face on your trials. I am not encouraging stiff upper lips. Instead, let Jesus help us stay in a posture of joy and gladness because we have learned that this is the will of God and whenever we are in the will we are in the best place possible. We also know that the joy of the Lord is our strength!

Blessings!
Fr. Scott+

Fret Not--It leads Only to Evil

What kind of word is fret? You don't often hear people talking about "fretting" over circumstances. It is one of those words we think we know its meaning but in reality what does it mean?

Fret - 1.to feel or express worry, annoyance, discontent, or the like.

Psalm 37:8b says not to fret--it leads only to evil. I bolded "only" because in it is the word "one". When you fret, it leads to one thing--evil. There is a tendency to think of "big sins" as leading to "evil". However, this verse tells us that fretting leads only to evil. Once on the fret highway, you will end up in evil town. Satan wants us to worry. Worry is fear based and fear is Satan's "faith". The enemy would like us to take our gaze off the Lord and become annoyed by the smallest things or to become discontent with the hand the Lord has dealt us. We express worry and annoyance and before we know it, the environment around us has changed and is not pleasant. We are at the outskirts of evil. We must beware of fretting in particular because it is the kind of sin that floats under the radar of our discernment. We are on guard against the obvious sins, but fretting?The Lord, however, has given us several powerful weapons to use against fretting. When you suddenly realize you are falling victim to worry, annoyance, or discontentment begin to give thanks.

Thanksgiving changes the environment around us. It is powerful because it quickly puts our eyes back on the Lord. What we behold is what we are in agreement with. As we enter His gates with thanksgiving we gaze upon the Lord and fretting is put to flight. Another powerful weapon against fretting is to remember. All through Scripture, the Lord tells us to remember the past. Rehearse what God has done for you. How many dark moments were there in the past yet look where you are today!At the Holy Communion, Jesus tells us to remember the most important and pivotal point in the history of the world and then to receive Communion in remembrance of Him and His death on the cross. King David wrote, "Do not fret--it leads only to evil." King David's greater son, the Lord Jesus, is the one who saves us from that worry and leads us into peace. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Thee for he trusts in Thee."

Blessings,Father Scott Davis +