by David Brenneman
"According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are." 1 Corinthians 3:10-17.
What do you think of concerning your choices and decisions in your life? Are you aware of what we just read that is going to come upon everyone?
A Christian can only build upon the foundation of those firm standing Believer's who came before them. We have that as our starting point and it's our obedience to God's Word that increases to our account.
The Gospels contain various parables of the talents. The King entrusting talents to various people and on the day of his return exacts an accounting of what they did with what they were given.
This passage here works with those parables.
We can choose the selfish road or the selfless road. We can choose to rightly pursue a life in Christ or we can pursue our own goals.
While it says plainly that we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that we might walk in them, it's our obedience to God's Word that brings these things to light.
Our world inundates humanity with thoughts of how to live for self. It's everywhere. How you neeeed this or need that if you are going to be the best you that you can be.
This world also teaches that there's more than one way to Heaven. That it's ok if you're good enough by your own standards, by your own estimation.
The world teaches that sin is too harsh of a word, that its best to just call those things mistakes.
These types of things are all a part of Satan's schemes.
Realize that this world is at odds with the Creator of all things. Satan's against God in everything and uses his influence wherever he can to keep people from following Jesus Christ. If he loses that battle and those people do find salvation in Christ Jesus, he then switches tactics to get them to not take it seriously.
A quote that I saw again the other day says "Everyone thinks that I am crazy. That I take this Jesus thing too seriously. I don't know, but I do know He took me pretty seriously when He died on the cross.".
Seriously. That's the idea. That's what those in Christ Jesus should be taking life. We should be recognizable as followers of Jesus Christ. We shouldn't be blended in so well with the world that we have no distinction as being a Christian.
We should take time to be in the Word of God daily. We shouldn't solely take someone else's word as to what it says and should be investigating it ourselves. We should be working on our relationship with Jesus, on how we interact with Him. Our prayer life shouldn't be stunted. When we pray it shouldn't be as if we're simply contacting Customer Service. It shouldn't be that we treat talking to Jesus as if He were our butler either nor some genie to do our bidding.
The seriousness of the Apostle Paul is everywhere in the books he wrote about living out the Christian life in such a way that honors God in Christ Jesus.
Will the content of your life go up in flames or will something come of it that can be given back to Jesus for all He's done for you?
Paul describes it as running the race with the thought in mind to win the race. Running with endurance. Running with persistence. With intentionality. For the right reasons.
We are all given the same amount of seconds per day. The same amount of minutes. What are you going to be doing with your allotment?
What will you do for Jesus today that you didn't yesterday?
The choice is yours and the consequences are real. If we aren't being transformed by the renewing of our minds in Christ Jesus we face a world that's more than eager to conform it to their way of living.
When your life's reviewed before Jesus what will it show? Commitment or compliance?
That's for you to decide.
All NASB 1995 and NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission. (C) Lockman Foundation.
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