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During my years in business, I travelled to a few different countries. From the moment I landed, I knew I was a foreigner. I went through the passport control line marked for non-citizens. Road signs were different and sometimes they drove on the opposite side of the road. In some countries, English was spoken, but the local accents and idioms separated me. In other countries, hardly any English was spoken. I was also careful about walking on the streets alone, since I didn’t know which neighborhoods were safe and which were not. Although repeated trips to the same location made them more familiar, I still knew I was a foreigner. After a week or two, I was more than ready to go home.

The same is true in a spiritual sense. We are alienated from God until we follow Jesus.  Then the words of Ephesians 2:19-22 come true. It says, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (NIV)

Doesn’t it feel good to be at home in the Lord?

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Visit Elmer Fuller’s author website at: https://www.elmerfuller.com/

Bumper music “Landing Place” performed by Mark July, used under license from Shutterstock.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:00 — 3.7MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Have you ever tried to lay brick? Good bricklayers make it look easy. It isn’t. Our first house had an unfinished room with a roughed in fireplace in the basement. I decided to finish the room and figured I could lay the brick face of the fireplace. I once hauled mortar to bricklayers, so I thought I could do it. Well, eventually I completed the job, but not without tons of frustration!

You see, bricks are easy to stack. I could stack bricks up dry without a problem. But stacked bricks are not stable. They need mortar to bind them together. Mixing the mortar to the right consistency, applying it to bricks and placing them in a straight and plumb wall – these things are the challenge.

This reminds me of Ephesians 2:19-21. Listen for the bricklaying language in this passage. “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.” (NIV)

Those words joined together sound a lot like what a bricklayer does by applying mortar and building a wall. God wants the followers of Jesus joined together as active members of a local church. Together, we are a holy temple of God’s spirit.

How to leave a review: https://www.sparkingfaith.com/rate-and-review/

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Bumper music “Landing Place” performed by Mark July, used under license from Shutterstock.