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Day 73
Today’s Big Idea: A spiritual house. Living stones—now there’s an image. There’s nothing more dead than a stone, so a stone come to life is truly a miracle.
Key Verse: 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 (1 Peter 2:5).
Thoughts to Consider: Peter uses the metaphor of living stones on purpose. In the Old Testament, God met his people in a single geological location, the temple—specifically in the holiest of holies, between the cherubim above the ark of the covenant. This place was so holy that only the High Priest could go into it on one day a year—Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). So the temple was a holy place, but it was also an exclusive place. God was there, but He was separate from the people.
After the Day of Pentecost, all that changed. Now God lives in us, not in a static temple built with stones that you might travel to once a year for atonement. What does it mean to you when you consider yourselves living stones in the spiritual house Jesus is building?
Scripture
About this Plan
This devotional is a companion to the book 100 Days to a Healthier Church, by Karl Vaters. Like the book, the principles laid out here are not one-time, quick-fix solutions. They are long-term principles—nudges, not jumps(the tortoise, not the hare.) It is divided into four main steps over 14 weeks. It works best when it starts on a Saturday, so this devotional is designed with that in mind.
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We would like to thank Moody Publishers for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: https://www.moodypublishers.com/books/current-issues/100-days-to-a-healthier-church/
