As
we were studying the letter of 1st Peter this semester in our small
group, I found myself pausing for a number of weeks in 1 Peter 2 where Jesus is
referred to as the Living Stone, and we are told that we also are living stones
and are called later in the chapter to “live such good lives among the pagans that, though they
accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the
day he visits us.” I was reminded of the many times in the Old Testament where
God instructed His people to raise massive stones, referred to as standing stones,
to mark where He delivered His people and demonstrated His power. (Ever wonder
what it meant to raise your Ebenezer? There you go!). In generations to come,
as children would ask their parents what the stones (sometimes 40+ feet high)
signified, they would pass on these stories of God’s faithfulness and
deliverance. However, the meaning of the stones would be lost once the chain of
testimony was broken. The purpose and meaning of most standing stones remaining
today has been lost over the years.
In the same way, as living standing stones, we are called
not only to live lives that are set apart, but also t live these lives “among
the pagans,” or among people who don’t yet know Jesus. Most Christians tend to
gravitate towards one end of the “relational evangelism pendulum” of either all friendship and no intentionality or else all
evangelism without building the trust and vulnerability that comes with a
friendship. This is the balance that we encourage our students to find in every
relationship that God has given them here on this campus. Please pray that all
of the students involved in our ministry will catch this vision and be intentional
with there non-believing friends on campus. This campus is loaded with
opportunity! Alex from my small group put it best when he said, “we were called
to be the salt of the earth, not the salt of the salt shaker.”
Dave Umphress
EDGE Corps - UNC
Used by permission