Are you prepared to risk?
"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have"
Exodus 24, when Moses meets God at mount Sinai and God asks, "I want Israel to be my people. Will they be my people," Moses walks back down and asks his people this question, and they all agreed to be God's chosen people. Moses made an alter the next morning, sacrificed animals, and set up 12 stones that tell a unique story of how God showed up in their lives. Years later, God made a passage for the Hebrew people through the Jordan river to the Promise Land. When this happened 12 disciples were chosen to carry stones on their back and to place them and carve the story of the Lord into them. There are stones from these times in Palestine and Israel today. And Gods purpose of this was so that children of the future would ask, "What happened here?" The fathers, mothers and priests would tell the children and disciples about the stories of the Jordan river, and of how Moses's people agreed to be God's people and their stories of how God showed up were a memorial to that time.
So how does this all apply to us?
We are rejected by humans but chosen by God, and precious to him - us also as living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood (see 1 Peter 2:4-5)
God wants us to be his living stones, so that although we are accused by the world and ridiculed for our actions, people will see our good deeds, and through our deeds will glorify God the day he visits us. Our lives should be lived full of praises, and the way we interact in our daily environments should be filled with goodness and sparks of joy that it will force people to ask the simple question, "What happened here?" When you live your life like this, full of sacred goodness from the heart people are going to ask you, "Why are you living your life the way that you do?"
We are God's living stones, we each carry a story, experiences of God's wonder. Lets live a life that will demand an explanation. There are four key aspects of this that are crucial to being or becoming a living stone: Live intentionally within Jesus. Don't ask Jesus to be in living in you, make yourself live in Jesus. Second, Show up with great expectancy. Many times we as humans can walk in and out of a room and not even realize that God was in that room and we missed it. How saddening it is to miss out on God's opportunity for greatness. We are hurried people, rushing everywhere, in and out of places, but what we really need to do, is stop and realize that God is here; wherever that place is. God is there. Third, is to spark ongoing conversation. We pray, worship and love the word of God, but what seems to be the scariest thing is sparking a conversation. We need to ask God a simple prayer; "Lord will you father me through this." Whatever that environment is, go to the Lord for strength to have conversations that will intrigue people, so that we can learn about their struggle, fall, good, and strength of their life. Lastly, is to be ready to risk. The true mature disciple of God will hear His word and be ready to risk instantly with grace and truth. The immature followers will hear His word, and delay an answer or action. Our prayer should be to risk fearlessly for His kingdom.
We can't live our lives as silent stones, because people won't stop you and ask, "Hey can you tell me about Jesus?" People need to see the way we praise God, the way we carry conversation, how we do our good deeds, how we forgive, they have to see it because it demands an explanation And they will say, "What happened here? Why do you live your life the way you do?" They will see we want to spark conversation and that we are fearless because we follow a God more powerful than death.
God took the greatest risk of all for us by giving his only son. God trusts us, now its our turn to risk and to be the living stones we were meant to be.
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