Daily Worship

Living Stones

May 17, 2015 0 0

1 Cor 12:12-26

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?  But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one part, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Dear builder God
I’ve been reading about
being a living stone.
A connecting stone, a gospel stone.
One that is built in but never seen
A building block of your Kingdom.

It’s got me thinking about your quarry
You’re the mason who selects the stone
You see its shape even before its cut
Then you cut the stone
I’m praying that I’ll hold together
During the times of your shaping

Wield your chisel with a gentle touch
Cut away the surplus stone in my life
Make me into a useful building block
For it is your skill that will make me live
It is your skill that will make me of value
You shape the stone to fit the structure
You know the size and shape
Then you cut the next stone to fit.

Help me see that if I suffer in the shaping
It is a price worth paying
To be a useful building block
In your Kingdom
Lord make me a Gospel shaped Stone

Amen