Build the Big Beautiful House

-
Build the Big Beautiful House

Scripture:

Hebrews 6:1
Therefore let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation:

Observation:

The Christian walk is never static.  The word "walk" implies we are going somewhere, and the author is pointing us in a direction, toward a goal.  This is not a time to be running around in circles.  Instead this is a journey, leading us ever onward toward perfection.

We are called to a journey of continual progress toward the goal, to completion in Christ.  That's why we move on from the very basic teachings which we have already learned and are encouraged into a deeper walk.  The foundation has already been laid.  Now we are to build on that foundation a beautiful holy life that looks more and more like Jesus himself.

Application:

Just as a builder has a blueprint for a building, so God has a blueprint for our lives.  The plan leads us to completion....a beautiful and perfect likeness of the image, Jesus Christ.  Sadly, too many never get to the real structure that is intended in the construction plans for they spend too much time rebuilding the foundation over and over again.

Somehow we have bought into the argument that just getting saved is enough.  We build the foundation.  As a child I used to walk past a house in Nampa, Idaho that was just a basement.  The foundation had been laid but instead of going on and finishing the entire house, the people finished the basement and added a door and that was it.  It looked rather odd in the middle of a neighborhood with finished houses all around.

Just imagine an entire neighborhood of basement only houses.  Could it be that is how we are living spiritually.  We are satisfied with what we have.  "Thanks, Jesus, I'm saved and going to heaven!"  And we live in and readjust the basement, never allowing the entire structure to be built.  Jesus didn't die for the basement.  Jesus died to make us his holy people....he died for the whole big beautiful house!

For the big house to be built we have to work together with God.  Just as a house doesn't get built on its own, neither does our spiritual life.  Paul has told us to become imitators of Christ.  If I want to be like him, why not imitate him.  Why not join with him in building the house...spend time with him, read the word, pray...and then engage in the world the same way he would engage in the world.  Allow him to transform the rough rocks into beautiful gems, continually moving on toward completion, or perfection.

The blueprints are beautiful. God's plan is tremendous!  Why are you satisfied with the ugly basement when he has promised you the beautiful house?

Prayer:

Lord, please help me never to simply be satisfied, but to continually move on with you.  Amen.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Take Off Your Ornaments

-
Scripture: Ex. 33:4 ¶ When the people heard these harsh words, they mourned, and no one put on ornaments. Ex. 33:5 For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, and I will decide what to do to you.’” Ex. 33:6 Therefore the Israelites stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward. Observation: The people had sinned before God by making and worshiping the golden calf!  They had taken their golden jewelry — the earrings and other items they had gotten from the Egyptians and used them to create an idol.  Now, in an act of humility and repentance they were to take off all of their jewelry and ornaments.  It was a time of mourning over their sin and it included intentional action on the part of the Israelites.  Application: We don’t do all that well with humility and repentance!  It seems that we live in a ti...
Read more

Does God Value Boys More than Girls?

-
Scripture: Lev. 12:1 ¶ The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Lev. 12:2 Speak to the people of Israel, saying: ¶ If a woman conceives and bears a male child, she shall be ceremonially unclean seven days; as at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean. Lev. 12:3 On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. Lev. 12:4 Her time of blood purification shall be thirty-three days; she shall not touch any holy thing, or come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification are completed. Lev. 12:5 If she bears a female child, she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation; her time of blood purification shall be sixty-six days. Lev. 12:6 ¶ When the days of her purification are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. Lev. 12:7 He shall offer it before the LORD, and make atonement on her ...
Read more

On Grief and A Flute Player

-
Scripture: Matt. 9:23 When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, Matt. 9:24 he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. Matt. 9:25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. Matt. 9:26 And the report of this spread throughout that district. Observation: This is a simple story which we have heard or read numerous times. Jesus heals the little girl and the people rejoice. But at the moment in which he arrives at the home he encounters the professional mourners. These are the flute players, the ones who have come to make a great noise about the child’s death. It is the flute player that testifies to the fact that she is truly dead. Also, flutes were generally employed when it came to the death of a child. The whole community would therefore understand that it is a child who has died in this home. The flute player is doing the job they have ...
Read more