Dick and Harry (I gave Tom a rest) are building a house when Dick sees Harry going through a bag of nails. He checks each nail. Throws some of them away and puts the others in a box.
鈥淲hat are you doing?鈥�
Harry replies, 鈥淭hey鈥檙e pointed at the wrong end.鈥�
鈥淒on鈥檛 be silly,鈥� says Dick. 鈥淲e can use them on the other side of the house.鈥�
聽 聽 聽 聽 聽In building our earthly homes there is much amiss. The average home in ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /Vancouver is 1.27 million. That鈥檚 in dollars. Everyone wants to have a home on this earth; then in retirement they downsize to condos or apartments. We all have plans.
聽 聽 聽 聽 When it comes to building our spiritual home for the soul, are we much wiser than Dick and Harry? Do we recognize the tools we need to construct that house of heaven?
聽 聽 聽 聽鈥淯nless Yahweh builds the house, they labour in vain who build it鈥� (Psalm 127:1).
聽 聽 聽 聽 St Paul instructs us: 鈥淏uild on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit鈥� ().
聽 聽 聽 聽 聽In other words, look to the church established by Christ: 鈥淵ou are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church鈥� (Matthew 16:18).聽
聽 聽 聽 聽 Jesus tells us to build like the man 鈥渨ho dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears [the words of Jesus] and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great鈥� (Luke 6:46-49).
聽 聽 聽 聽 The Lord challenges us to serve in humility and sincerity: 鈥溾�榳hat is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be,鈥� declares the聽Lord. 鈥楤ut this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word鈥欌�� (Isaiah 66:1-2).
聽 聽 聽 聽 Again, in scripture we hear God鈥檚 challenge: 鈥渋f you listen to all that I command you and walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight by observing My statutes and My commandments, as My servant David did, then I will be with you and build you an enduring house as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you鈥� (1 Kings 11:38).
聽 聽 聽 聽 The world may reject us for the life we live as Christians, but we are precious in God鈥檚 eyes: 鈥淎nd coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ鈥� (1 Peter 2:4-5).
聽 聽 聽 聽 So build that spiritual dwelling and make it eternal in the heavens. 2 Corinthians 5:1 says: 鈥淔or we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.鈥�
