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Hear the podcast/devotional here: https://bit.ly/3LnX3WO. There is no video of this podcast for today.
2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 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. 6 For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:2-10 New International Version Bible)
A blessed and Tremendous Tuesday to you, dear Reader. May the blessings of the Lord Jesus be yours today and all days. Pray for one another, pray for those who have asked prayers from you, pray for the needs of the world. I thank God for your prayers. I can feel them all the time. I shared with just a couple of you that this past Friday night Nellie, Carli, and I drove to Mission for our granddaughter Adabelle's 8th birthday. We rented an AirBnB that we had used before and I loved that it had a garage with enough space for my truck. We also knew that bad weather was coming our way that night, so we had a chance to visit with our daughter, son-in-law and our three grand-babies, two of whom wanted to stay the night (the girls; Eliana and Adabelle). That night the storm hit about midnight and by 1:30 the power to the home was out. I kept thinking the power would return momentarily. It did not. I don't know about the Airbnb but our daughter's home just today, Monday at about 6 pm. Schools have been cancelled for tomorrow in Mission. But last night, Dad here, could not sleep wondering if our daughter and family were safe from the carbon monoxide fumes from their generator powering their portable AC, internet, and fridge. So, I tossed and turned. And at about 1:58 am I remembered that I made a mistake in my recording and I had edited it out for the audio podcast, but not for the video part that goes on TikTok. My server is set to send it automatically at 2:15 am. So,, I got up, came to the home office and edited it and by 2:11 it was set to be sent. Then a quick breakfast, a nap, and then to Gonzales for Nellie's appointment. Bless you all for your prayers!
Rocks, which we shall include stones, are very much a part of Biblical language and the geography of the Holy Land. Depending of the edition and version of the New International Version the words stone and rock appear 399 times in the entire Bible. You could probably remember many of the times the words were used to describe God, Jesus, the power of God, etc. We must remember that Jesus re-named Peter, "Rock" when Jesus said He wanted Peter to be the foundation for the Church.
This passage has a reference to the Lord being a "living Stone, " who was chosen by God; and Peter writes, we are called to be living stones as part of a spiritual house meaning we are a part of the ministry of Christ, even being called priests of the holy priesthood, so we can be part of offering spiritual sacrifices to Jesus Christ. Peter sees this as part of the maturation process of believers. We go from being newborn babies who crave pure spiritual milk, and up we grow in our salvation and then become the living stones like Christ that are the foundation and walls of this priesthood. Peter quotes scripture about this high calling that we received upon our receiving Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior. What we do after we meet Him must glorify God and bless those around us. We have been set apart to be examples and bridges to help other come to know Jesus in the same way.
The telling part, Peter writes, when we were apart from Jesus we were not even considered a people; now in Christ, we are the people of God. When we were apart from Jesus we people who had not experienced mercy, but now we have and we must show mercy to others.
PRAYER: God of mercy and faithfulness; bless our walk so that we can truly become the living stones of a wonderful sanctuary being built to honor and serve God; help us be faithful bridge-builders to help others come to know You; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord. YOUR CALL TO ACTION: Claim for yourself that you are truly a bridge-builder for Jesus.
Receive my blessings of hope and love,
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
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