Peter tells us that believers are like living stones. He says, “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5).

In 1st Kings, Chapter 6, we read about Solomon building the first Temple that David, his father, was forbidden to build. Verse 1 tells us that in the 480th year after the Israelites came out of Egypt Solomon began to build the Temple. The interesting this is that the stones were all cut, shaped and dressed at the quarry not on the building site. It wasn’t until all the material for the Temple was assembled that the construction began. So verse 7 tells us, “No hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.” It was constructed in silence. God’s mysterious work in a believer’s life is similar. As living stones, every believer has to be shaped for placing into the spiritual structure called the “church.”

God has blessed each of us with a particular SHAPE. We have unique Spiritual gifts. We have a unique Heart (passion) for expressing those gifts. We each have God given Abilities. We have specific Personalities with effect everything we do and how we do it. God brings us all through personal Experiences also to make us the men & women he wants us to be. God is shaping you for service in His Spiritual Temple, the church. in the quarry of preparation God uses hammers, chisels, and iron tools to shape us according to His desires. It’s often extremely painful preparatory work that has to happen in our lives before we can “fit” into the proper place God has prepared for us. If we can think of all the painful experiences in life as being like the chiseling of God in the quarry, preparing us for divine service, it may help us learn the appropriate lessons we need to in order to become what God wants us to be.

Chuck
“He (God) will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify …and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.” Malachi 3:3