Getting It Right. How?

I really want to ‘get it right’ in life, don’t you?  To come to the end of a week or month and realize time’s been wasted, that a poor choice has led down a wrong road, is regrettable, but can be corrected. To be near the end of one’s life, coming to the realization that the wrong measures of success shaped our choices is tragic! How can we know? Which voice do we follow?  There are hundreds competing for our attention.

Peter quotes preacher Isaiah, who was inspired with this divine declaration:  “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” (1 Peter 2:6, NIV)  In our time a cornerstone is ceremonial, often set in place at the dedication of a building.  This passage references an earlier time when the ‘cornerstone’ was carefully chosen and set in place with great care because it was the reference point from which the rest of the structure was built.  For our lives there is a Cornerstone that God has put in place. His wisdom shapes our personal morality, our life’s hope, our goals, and defines ‘success.’

Dallas Willard, author of The Divine Conspiracy, wrote these insightful words. “In our culture, and among Christians as well, Jesus Christ is automatically disassociated from brilliance or intellectual capacity. Not one in a thousand will spontaneously think of him in conjunction with words such as ‘well-informed,’ ‘brilliant,’ or ‘smart.’ "   Jesus is, for many of us, nice and good. He died for our forgiveness and rose to assure us of heaven. That much we believe, but His words about loving are made sentimental. His teaching about forgiveness is made an ideal that lies outside of ‘real’ life practice. His teaching about non-retaliation is made into a maxim for the playground disputes of children but they are tossed aside by adults when they come into conflict.  Really! Think about it. 

Do you make Jesus’ words your guide for living because you trust His wisdom above all else?

Willard writes “The early Christians, who took the power of God's life in Jesus to all quarters of the earth, thought of Jesus as one "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Col. 2:3 NAS) They thought of him as master of every domain of life.”  He was, for them the Cornerstone!

With the start of this new week, let’s pray for new appreciation for the wisdom of Jesus and make Him our practical reference point. Start simply by trusting His directive to radically love, thinking through the implications of a bold, engaged, costly love of the kind He showed.  Begin to treasure what He makes valuable.  Ask Him to teach you an eternal perspective that shapes your choices beyond gaining some advantage for this day. The promise is that a life formed by the amazing wisdom of Jesus, one that is measured through Him and by Him will not come to regret!

Here is a word from the Word. "God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31, NLT)

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Cornerstone
(listen and worship)

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame

But wholly trust in Jesus' Name

Christ alone cornerstone

Weak made strong in the Saviour's love

Through the storm He is Lord

Lord of all

When darkness seems to hide His face

I rest on His unchanging grace

In every high and stormy gale

My anchor holds within the veil

My anchor holds within the veil

He is Lord Lord of all

When He shall come with trumpet sound

Oh may I then in Him be found

Dressed in His righteousness alone

Faultless stand before the throne

Edward Mote | Eric Liljero | Jonas Myrin | Reuben Morgan | William Batchelder Bradbury

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Pastor Jerry Scott

FAITH DISCOVERY CHURCH

www.FaithDiscovery.com