PAGANS LIKE BRICKS, GOD LIKES UNCUT STONES

PAGANS LIKE BRICKS, GOD LIKES UNCUT STONES

                My son Zach and I were talking about authentic Christianity the other day. We were talking about how being conformed to the image of Christ is so different from being conformed to any other thing, person or ideology.

                Paul said in Romans 12:2: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

                Pagans like bricks. They are manmade and uniform. They are all the same and with them men can build their empires, having complete control of every aspect of the building. They don’t like stones that stick out. They don’t like stones that think for themselves.

                We see this in society today, where instead of honoring various cultures, they seek to blend them together. They can’t even stand it that there are males and females and God forbid that there are any differences between the two. It would be sexist to say that men and women think differently, or look or act differently than men do… or that the differences are actually what make men and women compatible.

                No, they push for unisex and the blending of gender identities and the mixing of gender identities until they won’t even be able to tolerate signs that say “ Men’s” or “Women’s” on the restrooms. It is getting crazier by the minute what they are doing and under the surface it all boils down to a matter of controlling our very thoughts and our ability to speak out or to say anything that doesn’t fit into their brick like society.

                                And so society is being formed into a society of clones with a hive mind… made up of people who dare only to say the acceptable thing… even as they are being built into a new Tower of Babel. Having the right signs on restrooms may seem like a small thing, but it is huge if we stand back and see the brick-like molds into which society is being pressed. Everything is being done in defiance of God and the order of His creation.

                This is why evolution remains a corner stone of pagan society even though they have never been able to prove it. God created everything male and female. And when you think about it, the odds against even one complex life system evolving on its own is astronomical, but to have both a male and a female of that same system to evolve at the same time and then to require each other to come together to produce another of their kind… well, the odds against that are so astronomical that the universe is neither big enough nor old enough even at their proposed 14 billion years to have produced even one frog, let alone the complex array of nature we see today where everything compliments everything else and yet remains unique and beautiful in its own way. 

                Being conformed to Christ is different than any other kind of conformation. When you are truly born again and conformed to Christ you become a unique one of a kind authentic person. Like an uncut stone, you have been formed and shaped by the heat and pressure of life. But the difference is that you have received the Spirit of Christ and it was the Spirit of God that was the active agent in creation. He made no two things alike. Only the Spirit of God can create an infinite number of things and yet have each one of them turn out unique and different from the other. Even snowflakes are all made of complex crystalline structures of which no two are alike.

                In the world today we see two different kinds of unity working at the same time. One is the pagan Christian idea of uniformity for the sake of global unity. They are seeking to attain this unity by dropping unique doctrines that make Jews and Christians different from others. They seek to press us into a brick mold so that we can fit in with other bricks in their tower. This is what I hate about ecumenism and what God hates about it too. True unity in God’s eyes is not uniformity. God doesn’t like bricks… He likes uncut stones. True unity is found in sharing the Spirit of Christ as He is expressed in each one of us uniquely.

                Now, uniformity is a part of unsaved human nature. This is why in days of old, the prophets were tortured, imprisoned and killed. They dared to be uncut stones, wild and authentic, storming out of the desert with a fiery word from God Almighty. Their words always stirred up society, calling them to become uncut stones in the building of God rather than idol worshipping bricks of manmade conformity.

                In Christ we become living stones, each with our own gifts and talents… our own expression of reality, our own testimony of how God called us from being a brick to become a living stone. Even then it is our human tendency to be conformed to one another rather than being conformed to Christ. It is so much easier to pastor a church full of bricks than a church full of living stones. And so pastors often seek to make bricks, not realizing that it is the living stones that make the best church members in the long run. It is they that breathe the life of the Spirit into the congregation. They have forged out an authentic relationship with the Lord in the silence of aloneness with God and they have come out of their own desert with a fiery message from God Almighty.

                But strangely enough, in spite of their uniqueness and one of a kind relationship with the Lord, they are also the first ones to pitch in to help carry the burdens of a congregation. They are living stones, not dead stones and they go about stirring up life in otherwise dead churches… forever breathing life into stones that are slowly becoming bricks again because they have not sought an authentic relationship with their Creator. Instead they just hang on the words of the preacher, hoping for a bit of life and yet complaining about the uncut stones that make life uncomfortable for them.

                Instead of fastening their eyes upon Jesus, they are looking around at the carpet, the paint, the air conditioning,  seeking uniformity and sameness, fighting change and variation… wanting music and sameness that will give them comfort even on their road to spiritual death.

                Peter was one of life’s uncut stones… and yet in the end, Jesus built His church upon the authenticity of his confession. Peter had the audacity to say it first. “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God” and so Jesus replied, “Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Mt. 16:18.

                Peter was the only one with the audacity to step out of the boat and to walk on the water with Jesus.  Now, is that authentic or not? The truth is it takes the Spirit of God in our lives to make us authentic. It takes faith and dauntless courage to step out with Jesus... and all of the bricks will look at you as if you have gone mad. Your authenticity riles the bricks, but it inspires those who are seeking to become living stones.

                God’s Remnant people in the end of time will be a people who dare to become living uncut stones in a world of bricks. They will hold to the unique truths of God’s Word. They will love the authenticity of living by the Spirit and by the infinite Word of God and they will rather die as a martyr than to become a brick in Satan’s tower.

                Living stones, drinking living water and eating of living bread are becoming living temples of the Holy Spirit and as living temples we are being formed into a living Body of which Jesus Christ is the head. Each organ in the Body of Christ is unique and serves a unique purpose and because they worship God and not themselves, they, like nature itself, are allowing their uniqueness to contribute to the health and wellbeing of the whole body.

                In this day and age, when the great global tower of Babel is being built, God is calling for uncut living stones to come out and be separate and to stand for something eternal and authentic and true.

                Our church is built upon a God, who had the audacity to step out of the boat of heaven, to be born into the human race in order to wrench this planet out of Satan’s hands and to buy back for us with His own blood what Adam lost in the fall. It doesn’t get any more original than that. Receive this One with your whole heart and He will make you into a unique, one of a kind uncut living stone in His Kingdom.