活石
在1970年代初期，我的父母有机会在亚伯达省购买一块地，这块地崎岖不平又长满树木，他们知道要费很多功夫，才能把它变为一块可以耕种的地。他们买了这地，一起着手努力清理它和靠它维持生计。我们孩子大后也加入帮忙，春天时我们来到田里，帮忙拾起那些被冬天的雪推到那里的石子，我们把大堆的石子倒在树木的旁边。
经历过检拾石子后，对我来说，成为活石的观念并没有什么大的吸引力，我能想像到的只是一大堆没有用的石头而已。
然而，这并不是彼得的想法。他称我们为活石，意思是我们已经蒙拣选和被塑造，为要达成一个目标：成为一座美丽的建筑物的一部分，而建筑物里面每一块被塑造的石子，都是经过刻意安排与房角石基督联合、并且藉神的灵得生命的。彼得提醒我们，基督是房角石，祂蒙神拣选和是宝贵的，像基督那样，我们也被建造，成为一个事奉主的群体。
石头通常被视为死物或是没有生命的。然而，在基督里，又藉着神那不朽坏、永活、恒久不变的话语，我们已经重生了。因着基督的缘故，我们就好像活石一样 — 永存、宝贵、和不会改变。
主耶稣，感谢祢拣选我们做祢的活石，又建造我们成为美丽的灵宫。祢是我们的磐石和救赎主，愿我们的心思意念蒙祢喜悦。阿们。
彼得前书 2:4-6
4 主乃活石，固然是被人所弃的，却是被神所拣选、所宝贵的。
5 你们来到主面前，也就像活石，被建造成为灵宫，做圣洁的祭司，藉着耶稣基督奉献神所悦纳的灵祭。
6 因为经上说：“看哪，我把所拣选、所宝贵的房角石安放在锡安，信靠他的人必不至于羞愧。”
Living Stones
"You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house." - 1 Peter 2:5
In the early 1970s, my parents had an opportunity to buy some land in Alberta. It was rugged and thick with trees. They could see it would take a lot of work to make it suitable for farming. They bought the land and worked hard together to clear it and make a living. When we kids were old enough to join in, we’d head out to the field in springtime to help pick up rocks pushed up by the winter frost. We dumped the rocks in a big pile along the treeline.
After all that rock picking, the idea of being living stones was not very compelling to me. I just pictured a big pile of unwanted rocks.
But that is not what Peter has in mind. By calling us living stones, he is saying we have been selected and crafted for a purpose: to become part of a beautiful structure in which each shaped stone is set deliberately in line with Christ, the cornerstone—and made alive by the Spirit of God. Peter reminds us that Christ, the cornerstone, is chosen by God and precious, and, like Christ, we are being built up to become a community of people serving the Lord.
Stones are often described as dead, or without life. But in Christ we have been born again through the imperishable, living, enduring Word of God. We are like living stones—lasting, precious, and permanent because of Christ.
Lord Jesus, thank you for picking us to be your living stones, and for building us into a beautiful spiritual house. May the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to you, our Rock and Redeemer. Amen.
诵读: 楚云
片头: 张妙阳
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