Dead Stones and Broken Branches

As Jesus built the church, He placed a lot of rocks in the pile. Each rock He placed couldn’t speak and couldn’t move and seemed useless. We look today at the hardened rocks in the church and wonder why we can’t get them to budge. But we have to look at Christ and what he continued to do. As the pile of rocks grew, it turned into a basin as the side piled up.

Then in the center, He gathered dry refuse. Things no one wanted. Useless sticks which had no power to hold up roofs. Each stick was useless for building and had no value to the Jews or the Romans. The sticks were too weak for walls and the sticks were too thin for support. Every time someone tried to use them, they fell down and collapsed.

God had made his church out of useless, hardened rocks and useless wood. Then he climbed into the center of the wood and the Romans and Jews crucified. His blood soaked into the wood and the stones and they sat there useless. No one wanted them before and no one wanted them now.

Then God raised His Son from the dead and His blood stayed in the basin, still covering the stones and broken, splintered wood. One day, His Son went to Heaven and as the rocks which didn’t matter did nothing, a Spirit came down and ignited a fire in the wood. The wood burned brighter and hotter than any fire in history. Romans and Jews laughed as they threw more wood into the fire. It burned brighter still. So bright it forced the Romans and Jews back. The stones in the pile grew red hot and people came and took the stone and brought it to the church and started a new fire.

Soon, the original stones were gone as Christians grabbed stones to build a thousand new churches. Each church built their own basin of stones and the world burnt the splintered wood. Eventually, these new churches sent out stones to build new basins.

If you are a stone in the church, you have been waiting for a fire to ignite you. You are not useless, but you bring stability to the church. Someone may see you as broken and they treat you as something to throw away. However, the saving knowledge of Christ that is in you cannot contain the word of God without bursting into flame; you are the wood they discarded. You were not good enough for the world, but God wanted you to help the stones glow with an internal heat which could no one could diminish.

We need stones in the church. We need wood in the church. Both stones and wood are useless, though, without the holy fire of the Spirit. Those who burn brightest will ignite a fire which God can use to spread His word through the Stones. Once He promised to give voices to the dead stones in a valley. I promise you are a dead stone with a voice and a purpose.

Do not fight and say we must build a church from the stones or the wood. God didn’t intend for us to be a building. God put us together to complement each other. His purpose is for us to be a raging fire. We fight each other over who has the right message from God. God has designed the church so that we need each other. The stones give the church stability and retain heat, while the broken wood creates the inferno which makes even rocks glow.
Do not fight and say we must build a church from the stones or the wood. God didn’t intend for us to be a building. God put us together to complement each other. His purpose is for us to be a raging fire. We fight each other over who has the right message from God. God designed the church so that we need each other. The stones give the church stability and cause the church to retain heat. Those who are broken and cast away by the world create the inferno, which makes even rocks glow.

Do not fight and say we must build a church from the stones or the wood. God didn’t intend for us to be a building. God put us together to complement each other. His purpose is for us to be a raging fire. We fight each other over who has the right message from God. God has designed the church so that we need each other. The stones give the church stability and retain the heat, while those who are broken and cast away by the world create the inferno, which makes even rocks glow.