Living Stones

 Living Stones by Elizabeth Stone

I Peter 2:4,5

Come to Him, that Living Stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious; and like livings stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  

What could be more dead than stone?  Yet Peter grabs this image of stone, weaves it into the ancient idea of a keystone, or capstone – a stone that holds an entire structure together – and identifies the LORD Jesus Christ as that Stone, the cornerstone of God’s eternal household, made of living stones.  Jesus, Who came alive again after death, is the foundation of the New Covenant, a Covenant based not on tribes or bloodlines or inherited land in the Promised Land of the Old Covenant, but on salvation by faith through grace.  We belong in God’s household because we believe.  “See what love the Father has for us that we should be called the children of God, AND SO WE ARE!” I John 3:1. We belong in God’s family through faith, His household is made up of people whose hearts of stone have been transformed by belief in Christ, who became His kids and received new hearts, hearts of flesh.  So we get to stroll into Heaven as home, because our Father God owns the whole household.  And Jesus our Savior, our elder Brother, the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith, has blazed a way into Paradise for us, and prepared a place for us, a home there, just for each of us.  And as we come to Him, that Living Stone, we are transformed from dead to alive, we live because He lives.  We are alive not just for this world, but for eternity. 

Life is what the Gospel is all about.  Love is the why of Christ’s mission, but life is the what, it is the reason Jesus came to earth to save us.  He restores life to all of us who believe, resurrection life that lasts into eternity.  Resurrection stories follow hard after Jesus’ resurrection from that first empty-tomb morning until today.  Peter, rough fisherman turned disciple, then denier turned apostle.  People coming to faith, thousands baptized, new believers from all nations exploding into a church on fire with the Holy Spirit because of the resurrection power of Christ’s new life.  When I met Christ as a lonely 16-year-old my hard heart became alive, and life has never been the same.  Resurrection power has marked every step I have walked, has empowered me to accomplish the impossible, including finding my calling in Christ as a writer and speaker.  Resurrection power brought my daughter Erin, back from the brink of death in 2007 when she attempted suicide.  God gave her a whole new life.  WV Living Stone Ministries is about sharing life, life that comes from God, makes us members of His household, and plugs us into Christ our Living Stone so that we too, become alive, impossibly and gloriously alive, forever. 

What could be more dead than stone?  Can’t think of anything.  What could be more alive than hearts made alive in Christ?  Nothing in this world or the next.