Build Worthy

I've been thinking about our pastor's sermon all week. I think I've mentioned before that I like the word pictures in the Bible. The passage he preached on was about building the church well on the foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was really struck by the word picture. Jesus is the foundation. He is completely good and beautiful and majestic. And the question is how we build upon that. Do we act in faith & build with gold, silver, and precious stones? Or do we build with wood, hay and straw? So I was thinking about the great buildings that I've seen. It would be absurd to think about Westminster Abbey being built of mud bricks, with a thatch roof. Can you imagine if, after laying the foundation that it has, the White House were made of hay bales? And I thought about when someone says that currency is "not worth the paper it's printed on". It's a similar concept. So, I'll pass on the challenge that our pastor gave us: Build God's church well in your local community of faith.

For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw-- each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.
1 Corinthians 3:9-17