Building the Temple, One Stone at a Time March 12, 2010

Exo 20:25 And if you will make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stone. For if you lift up your tool (key phrase) upon it, you have defiled it. (People are living stones from which the spiritual house of worship is built. To take a tool, i.e., mold them to fit what we think they should be and what we think that they should look like and where they should fit, is to in effect tell God how he will be worshiped in His own house.)

Eph 2:20 You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself the chief Cornerstone. 1Co 3:11 For any other foundation can no one lay than the one being laid, who is Jesus Christ.(The foundation, like the church is a work in progress as the church grows the foundation is laid to support it. )

Eph 2:21 In Him the whole structure is joined (bound, welded) together harmoniously, and it continues to rise (grow, increase) into a holy temple in the Lord [a sanctuary dedicated, consecrated, and sacred to the presence of the Lord]. (the Temple is a work in progress and will continue to be so until the day we are all in heaven at the marriage supper of the Lamb when: Rev 21:22 And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty is its temple, even the Lamb.)

Eph 2:22 In Him [and in fellowship with one another](here is the foundation of home groups/ the Simple Church) you yourselves also are being built up(a work in progress, not a finished work) [into this structure] with the rest, to form a fixed abode (dwelling place) (the goal of the work) of God in (by, through) the Spirit.

1Pe 2:4 Come to Him [then, to that] Living Stone which men tried and threw away(their attempts to manipulate and form the Stone into something that they wanted failed so they threw it away), but which is chosen [and] precious in God’s sight. [Ps. 118:22; Isa. 28:16.] (the temple will be built out of stones that the world/American Church considers worthless but are precious in the sight of the Lord. Here is a caution for all, make sure that we use no tool on these stones for they belong to the Lord and are chosen by Him and are precious in His sight)

1Pe 2:5 [Come] and, like living stones, be yourselves built(the stones are being fitted by the Lord one at a time. Care, forethought and divine purpose go into the placement of each stone. Each stone is just that, an individual stone with its own unique characteristics yet it is fitted and joined together by the Lord into His temple) [into] a spiritual house, for a holy (dedicated, consecrated) priesthood, to offer up [those] spiritual sacrifices [that are] acceptable and pleasing to God through Jesus Christ.( these home groups are meant to be discipleship groups and covenant-building relationship groups. These groups, although made up of individual stones, are in turn to be part of The corporate body, The Church of Jesus Christ, for it is only in the dynamic of covenant relationship with one another and with the Lord  that true worship will be experienced I saw in a vision,  many people and as they gathered they became like living stones in the temple wall. The wall did not keep people out, instead, as people came to the living wall, they became part of it. The building, if you will, had walls created by people joining together to worship the Lord, however, the building had no roof. Instead, it’s covering was the glory of God and it was His glory spilling out over the walls, because the glory of God cannot be contained, that was drawing people.