SCHOOL OF FAITH

Basis of Union Paragraph 3

​

Reader 1

“In Jesus Christ God was reconciling the world to himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19 RSV).  In love for the world, Gove gave the Son to take away the world’s sin

​

Reader 2

In raising him to live and reign, God confirmed and completed the witness, which Jesus bore to God on earth, reasserted claim over the whole of creation, pardoned sinners, and made in Jesus a representative beginning of a new order of righteousness and love

​

Reader 3

The church as the fellowship of the Holy Spirit confesses Jesus as Lord over its own life; it also confesses that Jesus is Head over all things, the beginning of a new creation, of a new humanity.

Devotional

​

Reader 1

Some time ago, we bought some furniture, which arrived in many boxes.  Over a couple of days we had to do a great jigsaw puzzle and try to fit the pieces together.  At one stage I was stuck and couldn’t work out how to build the frame for the bedside tables.  I looked everywhere and couldn’t find any hole in the cross pieces to put the screws.  I rang up the store and found that I’d been looking in the wrong place.  It was hidden right at the very end in the metal. Thankfully­­, once I had found where these holes were, I could connect the pieces tightly with screws.

​

Reader 2

To join anything in carpentry you need to make a hold in both parts that are going to be put together.  If there isn’t a hole in one part there will be no long lasting joining.  Jesus, who was a carpenter by trade, would have known this, and would have been an expert in bringing pieces of wood together (mark 6:3).  In todays passage we hear that it is in Christ that those who are saved by grace through faith (v 8-9) are joined together with God’s People (Israel).  This building has a foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone (v 20).  It is Christ’s excellent spiritual carpentry skills that creates this amazing organic building that rises to become a holy temple in the Lord (See also 1 Peter 2:5) .  It is Christ Jesus that builds us together into a dwelling where God can live by his Spirit.

​

Reader 3

So what are the holes that enable the joining to take effect in this living building?  My mentor John Mallison, who passed away a few years ago, once gave me a book by Andrew Murray called “Abiding in Christ”.  To be honest I didn’t start reading this book until when I began to prepare for this prayer book a few months ago.  I had found a quote mentioned on the internet by Andrew Murray that tied well into the book.  To my amazement I found that it was the very book John had give me.  Andrew Murray says:  “In the death on the Cross, Christ was wounded, and in His opened wounds a place prepared where we might be grafted in (Abide in Christ, Andrew Murray, Kindle Edition, Wilder Publications © 2010, p 44). 

Reader 4

Christ’s very wounds upon the cross, become the place where we can be joined with him.  For He is the cornerstone to which each plank in this living temple must be nailed.  If we want to become part of this dwelling where God lives, there is not other way than to join in Christ at the cross. We must allow the holes in our life, our very sinful nature, meet the holes in his hands and feet.  If we would allow Christ to unite us into this wondrous building with God and God’s people we cannot avoid the cross.  The great Carpenter became the living wood that sin and death was nailed to (Col 2:15).  If we would receive the abundant life of Christ, we must unite with him and abide with him in his death (Romans 6:5).

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the gift of your Son, the great Carpenter, the one who joins us to you and to your people through the precious gift of his wounds upon the cross. Help each of us as living planks, to come humbly and be joined with you and your people in the death of your Son.  May we rise in Christ, so that together we would become a holy temple and a dwelling where you can live by the Spirit.  In Jesus’ mighty name we pray.  Amen.