So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2:46-47 NKJV
You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:4-8
The Bible speaks of a time a group of guys got together and set their minds to fashion some bricks, bind them together with tar, and erect a city and a tower to reach up into the heavens. Their purpose was to make a name for themselves. God shut that thing down! Why? God said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.” (Genesis 11:6) God diversified their language and scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth to thwart their purpose. Thousands of years later, we still feel the sting of division in the world, as well as in the church, all likely stemming from these people exalting themselves and their works against the will of the Lord. Without intervention, we as a diverse world of people would stay divided and be incapable of building anything of lasting significance with the work of our hands.
However, God loves to build His church! He is the master architect and it has been His grand plan from the beginning to build a pillar within His kingdom erected to the glory of His name (not ours!), built with the multiculturally diverse stones of every tribe, tongue and nation of those who would believe in Him (That’s us!). He had to wait until the promise of Jesus was fulfilled in His death and resurrection to pass on the incorruptible seed to those who would believe that Jesus is who He says He is, and that He did what He said He would do. Once that occurred and we sprung to life and were raised up with Him as “living stones.” We are finally in a state of being where He could stack us, one by one, on top of the firm foundation laid by the Apostles with Christ as the cornerstone. He who once scattered now gathers to Himself, and He who once divided now unites us for HIS purpose! We each are living stones, and it is the Holy Spirit who binds us together and shapes us as He will so that our living tower, our church body of Christ will take His form.