We get together at Thanksgiving with our families.  And on Sunday, we get together with our other family--God's people.  We love our families.  Paul puts it this way: "...you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God...built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets--Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone..framed together, growing into a holy temple in the Lord." Ep.2:19-21  The first thing is the corner stone.  Then comes the foundation of the building.  Then you and me.

Those verses are a picture of a building built with stones.  I like to think of myself as the pebble on the South side six rows up from the bottom.  Holding my place with all the other pebbles, rocks and stones in the building.  Not very important, unless I fall--and then the stones around me start to crumble.  We are all important in God's building.  We hold it together.  We are his church.  His abode.

Jesus said to Peter, "Peter, you are a pebble, but upon this Stone (corner stone) I will build my church."  Some religious groups take that verse to say that Jesus built his church on Peter, but if you read Greek, you find the correct interpretation called Peter a pebble and Jesus the Stone.  Christ is the corner stone of the church, not Peter.  Peter is a pebble.

I built two houses from scratch in my lifetime.  The most important part of the house was the foundation.  I watched them dig the trenches and pour the concrete.  I opted for the deepest trenches and the most reliable concrete company to do this job.  The rest of the houses went up without a hitch because they were built on a solid foundation.

We finished the book of Leviticus Sunday.  It was really hard to teach.  But it ended with an easy theme.  It was a list of "If/then" statements.  Being a mathematician, If/then statements make sense to me.  It listed what God would do for us "if."  We have responsibilities.  And "if" we are faithful to do them, "then" God will bless us.  If you are His child, you will be blessed--if--.  You can't expect God's blessings if you aren't in line with his will.  The relationship will remain--you are his child.  But the fellowship will be broken.