OzThoughts. Thursday, 15th October 2009.

OzThoughts. Thursday, 15th October 2009.

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I have often wondered what Peter was like as a fisherman. Was he a better fishermen than others along his part of the sea? Was he a leader amongst the other fisherman? How about in the community, was he a good net-worker and was he community minded with compassion for the poor and outcast?
We do not get an answer to that but we know he readily answered the call to follow Jesus. We know, too, that Jesus renamed this man previously called Simon, Peter which means rock and spoke of him being a foundation.
And now I'm going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock. This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out. (Matthew 16: 18 The Message).
Now “Rock” (Peter) writes about the rock Jesus, rejected by men but restored by God. He calls his reader to be joined with Jesus and become building stones.
Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which you'll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God…
you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God's instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.

[Listen: Congregational Song: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/songs/songs_053.mp3 ]

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness,
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

Chorus
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to veil his face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, his covenant and blood,
Support me in the 'whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
Author: Edward Mote (1797-1874)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 745

1 Peter 2:4-10 (The Message)
4-8Welcome to the living Stone, the source of life. The workmen took one look and threw it out; God set it in the place of honour. Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which you'll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God. The Scriptures provide precedent:

Look! I'm setting a stone in Zion,
a cornerstone in the place of honour.
Whoever trusts in this stone as a foundation
will never have cause to regret it.
To you who trust him, he's a Stone to be proud of, but to those who refuse to trust him,

The stone the workmen threw out
is now the chief foundation stone.
For the untrusting it's
.. . a stone to trip over,
a boulder blocking the way.
They trip and fall because they refuse to obey, just as predicted.
9-10But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God's instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.

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