I’m sure we’ve all heard the story of stone soup.  Well, us older folks, at least.  It’s a story that varies in different circles, but the story is basic in principle.

It pertains to a village whose people feign hunger in the face of soldiers that happen upon them on their march.  They hid their meager food stuffs when they saw them approaching in order to maintain a small food supply for themselves for they knew soldiers had big appetites.

But in the asking of each family by the soldiers it was found that there was needed a solution to the supposed situation in the village, so the soldiers asked the villagers to bring out a big pot to the village square.  It didn’t matter how big the pot was.

The pot was filled and a fire was built under it to bring it to a boil.  Now some stories, mostly the original one I heard spoke about, the soldiers asking for one smooth stone, but I’ve also read from a variation that there was a request for three smooth stones.  To me, both carry a significance to what I’ll share further on.  The soldiers and villagers got the water up to a boil with the stone or stones, depending on which story we go with and one says this would be good if we had some salt and pepper.  This brought out kids who had such and it was added to the pot.  Then the soldiers asked for carrots to perhaps give some added taste to it.  This brought out women with aprons of carrots.

This continued on part by part adding barley, meat, potatoes and such till it became a sumptuous meal large enough for not only the soldiers, but all the villagers as well.  What started out as a supposedly starving village people turned into a feast with dancing and songs well into the night.  All of this from a stone or stones in a pot of boiling water.

I sat last evening listening to a young woman minister in our church and this story above is what came to mind.  Whether is related to what she ministered or not is not the point here, but many times when someone is ministering I hear things.  When I heard this it wasn’t the first time, but was brought it afresh to my memory.

I ministered this in Praise Tabernacle many years ago and started out the message with a lot of reverb on the mic yelling out a phrase from a former professional wrestler who who would say this just before a match.  “Can anyone, smell, ‘ell, ell, ell, what the Rock is cooking?”  With reverb and a lot of volume I had everyone’s attention.  Especially those who watched wrestling.

Well, to get into this I have to look at the villagers.  They did appear to have a lacking in their individual families for a meal of a variety of eats.  One family would have had an abundance of carrots, another an abundance of barley or another enough milk to drink for their family and possibly more.

We see these people in their own individual right had not enough to eat a balanced meal.  Individual thinking can starve a family with too much emphasis on one particular item, but together as a village it is seen that the gathering of each others food stuff’s at the request of the soldiers, made a balanced meal as a feast for the entire village to partake of, making it a festival of festivals to remember.

Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some [is]; but exhorting [one another]: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

This verse above is where this thought originally started from when I heard it.  You can’t stay alone and survive in this world.  You have to be assembled with others to provide for the whole.

You may feel you haven’t enough for yourself and family, but connected to the family of God there is all-sufficiency.  “Assembling” here, to me, doesn’t just imply that we should come to church, but also that once we get there we need to interact as a puzzle with our piece to be assembled with the others in order that the full picture of the gospel and our God can be seen.

But for this to be we must have that stone or as I’ll say from here on, the Rock.  God is our Rock.  He is our salvation.  Without Him as our recipe’s founding ingredient to the soup, we can’t have the full meal.  Starting that recipe and by our adding our individual parts will complete a picture of the church of God here on earth.

Now a variation of the story is the recipe called for three smooth stones, but it is still God.  This is the picture of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, so see, it’s still the same.

I would venture to say we could add five more smooth stones to that soup.

I Sam 17:40 And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling [was] in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.(brook: or, valley)(bag: Heb. vessel)

Would you like to know what those other five smooth stones are?

Eph 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and  some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

Not only could God be the main ingredient in that soup, but we, his sons and daughters, who are called can be added to the soup.

We’ve heard of the book “Soup for the Soul”  Right?  It’s a good devotional book.  But what I’m trying to say in this writing is that Rock soup is what can bring together the people of God at the coaxing or calling by the Spirit, in this case the Holy Spirit, who I liken to the hungry soldiers who bid the people to place that pot in the midst of the village square and fill it with water, (the Word), and place THE Rock in it.  The Rock must be in the pot.

In that gently leading by the Holy Spirit, people will bring their part to the pot and add it to the Rock, which will make a meal fit for The King, and for all intents and purposes this dying world, so that it may know the salvation that God has paid the price for by way of  His Son, Jesus Christ, the Rock.