January 22, 2013 … Build It Right!

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2013 - Day 22

Passage of the Day: Psalm 127: 1a [NLT] …
Unless the LORD builds a house, the work of the builders is useless. Unless the LORD protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good. 
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Reference Passage #1: 1st Chronicles 28: 9 [from the context of verses 8-10] : [NLT] … { It’s the motive behind the plans and the work which God judges. David had to learn this with life experiences. We need to learn it through God’s truth. } …  
8 So now, with God as our witness, I give you this charge for all Israel, the LORD’s assembly: Be careful to obey all the commands of the LORD your God, so that you may possess this good land and leave it to your children as a permanent inheritance. 9 “And Solomon, my son, get to know the God of your ancestors. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and with a willing mind. For the LORD sees every heart and understands and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him. But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. 10 So take this seriously. The LORD has chosen you to build a Temple as his sanctuary. Be strong, and do the work.” 

Reference Passage #2: 1st Corinthians 3: 11-13; 16-17 : [NLT] … {Why are we doing what we are doing? Are we building our lives with the wrong materials, … the wrong motives? } …  
11 For no one can lay any other foundation than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. 12 Now anyone who builds on that foundation may use gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. 13 But there is going to come a time of testing at the judgment day to see what kind of work each builder has done. Everyone’s work will be put through the fire to see whether or not it keeps its value. … 
16 Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17 God will bring ruin upon anyone who ruins this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you Christians are that temple. 

My Journal for Today: “If you’re going to build it, … BUILD IT RIGHT! Sounds like a truth, doesn’t it?

Today in his devotional, Os Hillman, being in a “workplace ministry,” created a word picture with which many can identify. If we were to have an architect and a builder build our dream home; and the architect designed an incredible edifice; but the builder, though building the home to the design specs, creating what looked like a gorgeous house, but used shoddy materials. Certainly, when the structure was completed, when the inspector came to examine the house, if he was doing his job, he would be expected to reject the whole project because it didn’t meet the established, specs and codes. So the house may have looked good on the outside; but it was inferior workmanship on the inside.

And this is what King David was trying to impart to his son, Solomon, in the passage copied above from 1st Chronicles 3, where David had discovered how he had built a lot of his personal temple [i.e, his life] with shoddy workmanship; and David, the father, didn’t want Solomon to make the same mistakes, especially as Solomon was being charged with building the Lord’s Temple.

Fellow Christian, I hope we all realize that we are building God’s temple everyday with the choices we make and the materials we choose (especially the ideas of life) to build our lives. And as Paul wrote, copied above in 1st Corinthians 3, we’re building on the cornerstone of Christ; and we will all one day stand before the ultimate “Building Inspector,” and He will judge the structure of our lives on the motives and materials we’ve used to build our Temple (please also remember the charge of 1st Cor. 3: 16-17, also referenced above).

It’s such a tragedy that Solomon would build an architectural wonder as he built God’s Temple to the specs given to him by His father; but like his father, Solomon could not build his own personal/spiritual temple any more effectively than his daddy, David; and the entire book of Ecclesiastes, written in repentance by Solomon, is about how this man failed in building his own life on the specs given to him by God through His Heavenly Father’s word.

My friend, how are we building our own personal temple? Is it being built by our own personal designs and with our own selfish materials? Are we trying to build our lives on our desires to control things our way; or are we following the exacting specs and the designated methods outlined and specified in God’s word? And are we, for sure, building the Temple of our lives with Jesus Christ as our cornerstone? Because if we are not building our life-Temple as God designed it and as God provides the materials, it will one day be rejected by the Master Designer and Master Builder.

My Prayer for Today Oh, Lord, I’m building my Temple – as much as I can – Your way and with Your materials. Help me stay true with Your plans and always building with You as my Cornerstone. … Amen