Under Construction

Let each one take care how he builds upon (the foundation) 
1 Corinthians 3:10

It is interesting to me that Paul compares our lives as Christians to the building of a house.  I had not realized all of the thought and detail that is involved.  It is a pretty involved process, and when done well the end result will last for many generations.  When done poorly, problems soon arise that must be addressed and corrected for the house to continue to stand.

Paul reminds us in his first letter to the Corinthians that our foundation must always be Jesus, any other will surely cause problems.  A house built on a faulty foundation, no matter how well built the house is, will not stand.  But even given that every follower of Jesus has built their life upon His foundation, there is still lots of room for individuality, for a "house" that is uniquely ours.

How we live our life is how we "build" our house.  Our daily choices, our decision to show love to someone who doesn't deserve it.  The choice to give money to the person standing on the side of the road at the stop light.  The choice to think nasty thoughts about the frazzled mom who stands in the shopping line in front of you with her hot pink hair, a toddler on her hip and a baby in the buggy as she pays for her food with food stamps.  All of these things are how we build our house.

It is a good idea to occasionally stop and take inventory of your house.  When you live somewhere for some time it becomes familiar to you.  You become accustomed to the cracks in the walls and don't notice them anymore.  The weak spot in the floor gets pushed to the back of your mind once you recognize it and step over or around it instead of on it.  Over time the house falls into squalor and you don't even notice, until someone points it out to you.  Then you become defensive.  So what if it isn't the best house - it is your house.  And that is where we get it all wrong.  It isn't our house, it's God's house.

1 Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19 tells us that our body is a temple for the Holy Spirit, it is where the Spirit lives if we have invited Him in.  When we forget that and start building a house that we think is best, we run the risk of  discovering that when it really matters, our house is nothing other than a tinderbox that will one day be burned up.  (1 Corinthians 3:15)

What we need to focus on is building our house with "gold, silver, precious stones".  What are these things?  These are the attitudes, the thoughts that our Lord finds pleasing.  These are actions born of loving God and loving others.  These are the times we choose to love even when the recipient doesn't deserve it, doesn't love us back, and doesn't live the life we think he or she should.  These are born of our choice to think the best and have faith that God sees the truth and only He can judge another because of that.  When we focus on building our house on the foundation of God's love for us by loving Him back and sharing that love unconditionally with others we build a house that will withstand the fire and will be pleasing to Him.

What kind of house are YOU building?  I know I have some demolition to do.  Fortunately we serve a forgiving God who gives second chances.

*originally published at Coffee with Christ

Standing on the Promises of God

Have you ever browsed through the discount rack at your local Christian bookstore?  Inevitably you will discover at least one volume entitled something like "The Promises of God".  The book is usually smaller than a paperback and usually rather plain.  Every time I see one it convicts me.

We so often overlook the promises of God in our life.  The Bible is full of promises, over 3,000 of them, and many of them are for you and me.  Yet when difficulties come do we turn to them for comfort?  Or do we sit and sulk?  Or seek advice from a friend?  Or complain?  I am ashamed to admit that God's promises are not always the first place I turn.

Russel Carter was a man who could probably relate to that, at least before he turned 30.  He was a young man that was a star athlete, successful student and eventually became an excellent teacher and coach.  He spent time as an ordained minister, completed med school, and then went on to practice medicine.  In his spare time he wrote and composed music.  All in all he was pretty successful, he believed and God and led a good life.

However, when he turned 30 he discovered that he had an untreatable heart and that his life would probably soon be over.  It was at this time that he realized that while he believed in God, he wasn't truly trusting God, he hadn't truly surrendered everything to God.  He reevaluated his relationship and finally gave God complete control.  At that time he began to trust God's word, His promises and he wrote the now popular hymn, Standing on the Promises of God.  Mr. Carter trusted God to heal his heart, and he went on to regain his strength and live an additional 49 years with a completely healed heart.

It takes faith to stand on the promises of God, especially when the world tells you that there is no hope.  Do you feel hopeless today?  Turn to one of God's 3,000+ promises and have faith that what God promised then, He stands behind now. (2 Corinthians 1:20, Hebrews 13:8)


{if you can't see the video please click here to view}

*originally published in Coffee with Christ

Press On

"I just can't do it!" my daughter cried with a tear in her eye.  She is learning to read, and I know that she can read the word she is looking at - she just read it on the previous page with no problem.  But right now, in her frustration, she is convinced that reading this word is beyond her.  My heart breaks for her as she struggles with her doubts and insecurities about her ability.  A part of me just wants to tell her that it will be okay, she has done enough for the day.  Instead I encourage her to push on, to keep trying, to read the word.

Once our reading session is over, I am reminded of the story of Joseph-the guy with the colorful coat not the one who raised Jesus.  This was a guy who encountered some serious difficulties in life and yet he didn't give up.  (You can read his story in Genesis 37, 39-48)  Joseph chose to not only persevere through his hardships, he chose to do it with a smile on his face and an eye to helping those around him.  Joseph's life, in my mind, is a wonderful illustration of 2 Peter 1:5-7.

Joseph obviously had faith, he was quick to brag to his family about his dreams that God was going to put him above his family.  What he lacked was virtue, knowledge and self-control.  Sometimes we have to learn things the hard way, and in my experience life lessons learned the hard way tend to stick the best.  God needed to shape and mold Joseph into the man that He could use to save a nation.  That wasn't going to happen if Joseph continued to live the life of a favored son.  If he never had to depend upon God for anything, would he ever truly trust God enough to follow Him completely?  Probably not.

Joseph had to learn how to deal with difficulty.  First with being betrayed by family, which helped him to understand that even when people abandon you, God never does.  Then with being a slave, which helped him to understand what is was to serve others.  Then he went to work for Potiphar where he learned to put the interests of others first while managing his household.  Once imprisoned for being virtuous and refusing Potiphar's wife he continued to put the interests of others above his own while managing prison affairs.  While in prison he learned patience after chief butler forgot about Joseph after being freed until Pharaoh also needed a dream interpreted.  And through all of this Joseph learned to persevere.

Joseph's ability to persevere, to be patient and bravely endure troubles, is what helped him to be able to show brotherly love when his family unknowingly came before him seeking food.  God was able to orchestrate Joseph's life in such a way that not only was he able to become the man he needed to be, but used his situations to place him exactly where he needed to be too.  As a result what began as 66 chosen people of God was tucked away in Goshen and kept safe until Moses eventually led over 600,000 of God's chosen people out of Egypt.

I wonder how many times we have given up and walked away from a difficult situation that God was actually attempting to use to shape and mold us for something great?  How many times I chose to have a pity party and cry "I can't do it!" rather than look to what I can do or who I can assist in my situation?  God knows we have it in us to overcome any situation we are in, we have only to call on Christ's power and listen for God's voice of guidance to do so.  We have to move past our own feelings of doubt and insecurity.

As for my daughter, she read the word, and continued on with no problems to finish reading the book.  She had only to push past that one hurdle.  Are you struggling with a hurdle in your own life today?  Don't give up!  God has a plan for your life. (Jeremiah 29:11)  Never forget that you are never alone, He is always with you! (Matthew 28:20)

*originally published on Coffee with Christ

Fuller's Soap

But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.

~Malachi 3:2

When I hear this verse I start humming the chorus of "Refiner's Fire" (the Christy Nockels version at the end of My Delight is in You), can't help it.  But when I was reading it during a recent lesson I was drawn to the "fuller's soap" portion.  I am sure I have read this verse multiple times before, and I know it has been taught on multiple times in my church, but I had never picked up this reference before.  Just was is a "fuller" and how is his soap important?  So I went searching...

A fuller is a person whose profession was to clean, thicken and whiten freshly woven cloth.  Cloth at this time was typically woolen.  To create it, the fur was harvested from the animal and then spun into yarn.  Once spun it was then used to weave the cloth.  Often this yielded a material that was full of the animal's natural oils, which attracted dirt and impurities.  The wool fabric was then passed on to a fuller who began the labor intensive process of cleaning, bleaching and felting the fabric. 

This was accomplished by first wetting the fabric and then using fuller's soap, believed to be an alkali derived from the ashes of burnt plants.  The fuller then begins to either beat or walk on the fabric for quite some time over stones with frequent rinsing to remove the undesired parts.  Fuller's soap is used during this process.  It is believed that fuller's soap was derived from the ashes of certain plants once burned, creating an alkaline substance.  Alkalies are caustic if concentrated.  After walking on and/or beating the material to an even, felted consistency it is then stretched and shaped on frames and allowed to dry.  

So, what is the point here?  Actually it isn't all that different than the one often made about the refiner's fire- the process in which we become pure, what we were created to be, is not an easy one.  In this instance, we can expect to endure caustic situations, to feel beaten down, to be worked over, stretched out, and hung out to dry.  Not a pleasant process at all.  However, the end result, a beautiful, strong, clean, consistent and desirable product, is well worth the hardship to accomplish it.  

An interesting side note - a fuller's job was not done inside the city.  This was for two reasons.  First being that the process itself was not pleasant smelling, especially during Roman times when urine was often used as a part of the cleaning/bleaching process.  Second being that it required copious amounts of water.  Our preparation isn't much different.  It occurs outside of our home city (heaven) because it is indeed a very dirty and distasteful process.  And our purification also requires copious amounts of living water -  Jesus.  We can't do it on our own.  It is only through Him that we can become pure.

I don't know about you, but I'll never be able to look at a load of laundry the same way again!

*originally published on Coffee with Christ