The First Stone

Stones have a prominent place in Biblical teaching.  There is the "Let he who is sinless cast the first stone" in John 8:7, where we learn nobody qualified to stone a sinful woman.  There is   "You are like living stones (1 Peter 2:5) where we learn to become places/people that mark a place where God's work/goodness happens.  There is Jesus as "the stone that makes them stumble and the rock that makes them fall (1 Peter 2:8)" where we remember that failure to obey Jesus' teachings causes us to stumble and fall in our life of faith.  Then, there is the stone that builds an altar (found throughout Scripture).  Over the next couple of months we will be studying how to build and become an altar, built to worship, honor and point to God.

The title of the Bible Study (we will begin this subject on Ash Wednesday [February 14th] as we enter the Lenten season) for Lent, which we will share on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, is Altar'd.  The idea of this study is to 1) learn about Biblical altars, 2) get God's guidance on how we and our church can be an altar and, 3) how our devotion to Jesus can/should alter our lives.  I am really looking forward to where we will go with this time together!

As I begin to think about altars and stones, I remember (about four years ago) when I decided the planter areas at the house in Freeport needed more definition.  They didn't look good and they were not well-defined.  The plants, the mulch and the intrusive grass went pretty much where they wanted.  So I went to a stone place in Dothan and loaded my truck with a lot of pretty big river rocks.  I used the stones to outline and define the planter areas.  The stones kept my mulch and soil where it was supposed to be.  It also kept intrusive weeds and grass out of the planters.  The river rocks also looked attractive.  The end result made my yard look better and much easier to maintain.  The project was a success.

Building an altar has a similar effect on our life of faith.  Altars point to who we worship and they are built for the one we worship.  They are places of devotion, worship and sacrifice.  They frame the places we can grow best.  They hold in the fertile soil, and keep out the invasive weeds.  We go there to find nourishment, but we also go there for one very important thing.  The altar is where we (at least figuratively) enter the presence of God.  God's presence is the only thing that makes the altars in our church holy.

This week I want you to think of a word.  The word is Sanctuary.  Think about what this word means.  And, I want you to think out of the box a bit.  Think about what that word and that place might mean to God.  What is God's purpose in giving us this place?  How does this place further God's mission in the world He created?  Why did God (from the beginning) give humans a place to both worship and meet Him?  What does this say about God and His relationship with people?  See you Sunday!  Randy