Rejected and Chosen!

Wednesday 5-4-2016  (Los Antiguos, Argentina) 

Scripture Reading  2 Sam 8 - 9    1 Chron 18 -19    Matt 21

S=Scripture  O=Observation  A=Application  P=Prayer  SOAP for the soul.

S. Matt 21:42-43 Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: 'The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD's doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes'?  "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.”  NKJV

O.  So often God choose those that men have rejected or despised.  The builders had rejected this “Stone” as unworthy to enter in the structure.  Look at it. It is flawed. It was been misused, marked with ugly scratches and punctures. It is tossed aside as unfit to serve in the temple structure.  But God chose that “Stone” for the cornerstone of His temple.

A.  Jesus was a rejected stone.  Who wants a cornerstone or a king with scars on His hands, His feet, His head and His side?  Who wants a king who touches unclean lepers and sits at the table with the publicans and other sinners?  Who wants a weak king who forgives his torturers and prays for them?  Who?  I do!  I want that scratched, scarred “Stone” to build my life upon.  I want that “King” Who is eternally marred with scars of love etched there... for me.

P.  Oh, my Lord and my God.  Many of us are just rejects, tossed aside by the experts.  We are not among the elite, the nobles and the wise. But You chose me anyway, weak and foolish, base and despised. I was just a zero, complexed with inferiority.* You, too, were a reject.  You were misunderstood, arrested in the dark of night, judged in a mock trial by evil men. You did not stand up for Your “rights”. Like a sheep before the shearers You were silent.  You did not answer Your accusers.  You, the Creator of us all, laid your beaten bleeding back on that post and spread out Your hands to receive the huge spikes.  They couldn’t take Your life from You, You laid it down Yourself. You did that for me and for a world of other unworthy souls.  Amen.

Ralph

* God’s choices: 1 Cor 1:26-31 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,  that no flesh should glory in His presence.  But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God — and righteousness and sanctification and redemption —  that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the LORD."  

NKJV