Build the Wall
By Kurt Bomar
Avery County
There’s been a lot of attention lately about a wall being built. Whether it gets built or not I don’t know, but it reminds me of another wall that needed to be built that we are all a part of. 1 Kings tells us how the walls of the Temple were to be built and there is a lesson in it for us.
1 Kings 6:7 “In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.”
When we go by a construction site, we hear lots of loud noises: Jackhammers, drills, heavy equipment, and lots of hammering. Not so with the building of the Temple. It went up silently. Why was this? I think partly because so much of the Old Testament is a picture of things in the New Testament. What are we called in the New Testament?
1 Peter 2:5 “you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
We are the living stones and when we get to Heaven all work will cease. There will be no more sounds of drills and hammers and pick axes. We will be perfect.
But wait a minute, if this analogy is true, where are we now? We’re still in the world. That’s the rock quarry. That’s the place where we are getting worked on. We’re being cut into shape. Then we’re getting our rough edges ground off. We get chipped and polished. We’re being shaped into perfection… and quite frankly, it hurts. To make things worse, often God uses other stones to grind up against us to smooth us out.
You see we can’t be polished smooth without the friction of others rubbing us the wrong way. We tend to look at others who irritate us as things to avoid, resist, and confront. But often God is using them to point out things that we need to change in our lives.
So don’t fight it. Whether it’s others inside or outside the Church or whether it’s just “bad luck” our first question to Jesus should be “Lord what are you trying to teach me in this situation?”
I know this is a hard thing to do!
But do you want to see how determined the Lord is to complete this project?
Philp 1:6 “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
He’s not going to quit working on us, so let’s pass the test ASAP.
As you get into the habit of this being your first question to the Lord, you’ll find you are being polished and perfected. And you will be pleasing to the Lord.
Selah (think about it)
Inspired by “Footsteps of the Flock”, Jon Courson p.166)
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Kurt Bomar is the Assistant Pastor of Walnut Grove Church located in Avery County. You are welcome to join them on Sundays at 11:00 AM for worship! (When we are allowed to meet in the building again). You can read more Christian news from Kurt Bomar HERE.
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