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Inviting ~ Building ~ Equipping
Inviting people to seek
Christ
Building
each other up in the faith
Equipping one another to
serve
Building
Building
is an exciting, time-consuming, costly,
and stretching challenge. The
expectations of a finished product keep one focused to completion.
The rewards are worth the effort.
There are different phases in a building program—formulating
ideas, putting ideas into plans and then developing the plans into an
actual structure.
Mr. Webster gives the following definition of “build:”
· To
develop according to a systematic plan, by a definite process or on a
particular base.
· Increase,
enlarge. To improve the status of. Enhance.
I
have been pondering what it means to build one another up in the faith.
Paul says we are to “comfort each other and build (edify) one
another. . .” (I Thessalonians 5:11).
Can the analogy of a building program be applied? Paul thought
so.
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and
foreigners,
but fellow
citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
having been built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets,
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows
into a holy temple in the Lord,
in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling
place of God in the Spirit.
Ephesians 2: 19-22
| I see construction
words-household, foundation, cornerstone, fitted together, temple,
built together, and dwelling place. But also woven into the
blueprint are people, Jesus Christ, holy and Spirit. Something is
different in this building program. I like Psalms 127:1,
"Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in
vain..." The Hebrew word for "build" in this
verse is "repair." Our spiritual bodies (house) are being
repaired (build, remodeled), and the contractor is Jesus
Christ! We are all laborers in this building project-hammering
nails of faith, laying bricks of truth with the mortar of grace,
painting walls with forgiveness, installing windows of mercy,
shingling the roof with love, tiling the floor with prayer and
sweeping up the trash of sin. The result is a beautiful, holy temple
fit to be a dwelling for the Spirit of God.
This building project is a lifetime
investment in people's lives, producing rewards beyond measure.
By Pat Hertzler |
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