RECEIVE The CHIEF CORNERSTONE! Part I

There’s a program I sometimes catch, by happenstance, which centers around home interior
decorating that’s designed to enhance the re-selling of the featured home. Prior to their working their interior design “magic,” the renovating hosts ask the presumably thick-skinned sellers to view the tape of a hidden camera, after various prospective buyers have completed a walk-through of the house. A range of critiques such as, ‘Man, this is AWFUL!’ ‘Wow! Check out the ancient wallpaper!’ Or, ‘What’s that SMELL? They must have pets!’ ‘Who’d BUY this place?’ (The sellers, poised to have their home wonderfully transformed, sit there with the hosts listening to these strangers’ dishin’ out some major criticisms of their home.

Well, as comical or cringe-worthy as it is to hear the negative critiques of their homes, it makes you wonder if our Lord cringes as He observes our Christian walk from time to time. That’s something worth pondering, isn’t it? Being the proud owner of a “1,001 Homes & Gardens-type” domicile, while possessing an unregenerated heart, is a scenario that sadly describes many Christ-professing souls. Such hearts more closely resemble a run-down neglected house in the middle of a similarly neglected inner city, (or suburb)! Souls who remain “in Adam,” and not in Christ, are understandably oblivious to their true heart’s condition. They have no hope, and are without God in the world, says Ephesians 2:12. Alternatively, the true Christ follower is called to make his calling and election sure, by daily pursuing a clean heart-house, where walking worthily of Christ Jesus is concerned. {2 Peter 1:10; Ephes. 4:1} He is the Bread of Life and the Chief Cornerstone [John 6:35; Ephesians 3:20]. He is the ONLY One qualified to QUICKEN the spiritually dead and RENOVATE the heart that’s in need of more than merely
superficial repairs, like the forementioned houses. Praise God for His Spirit who is dedicated to
convicting us of our sins and inspiring us to daily enlist His loving support in heart purifications! If this spiritual quickening (i.e., the new birth) is what your “heart-house” needs today, dear reader, heed His solemn command: “You MUST be born again.” (John 3:7)

PRAYER: Dear Abba, we who belong to Christ were created by You to be living epistles of what a heart renovated by Jesus Christ looks like in this sinful world. May we be willing and cooperative participants in that life-changing process! Thank You, LORD! Amen!
By Sis. Denise Diggs