Spiritual Home Improvement | Wayfarer

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Chapter-a-Day 1 Corinthians 3

Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials?gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person?s work has any value.?I Corinthians 3:12-13 (NLT)

Down in Missouri, on the lot next to our Playhouse there sits a house on a poured foundation. Years ago the owners poured a nice concrete foundation and began to build on top of it. They enclosed the house, furnished the inside and added a patio door that opened toward the lake. Then, they abandoned it.

No one has been to the house on the lot next to ours for decades. The roof collapsed. The furniture and walls are covered in black mold. Local wildlife have lived on the inside and caused more destruction to the contents. The house is a health hazard and an eye sore. But, the foundation is still solid. We have more than one friend who has eyed the property and come to the conclusion that you could bulldoze the house, clean off the foundation, and start building a new home on it.

That house (or what?s left of it) is the perfect word picture of exactly what today?s chapter is trying to communicate. When we come to the point of decision and choose to follow Jesus, the Spirit of God indwells us and pours a rock-solid spiritual foundation in our hearts. From that point on our motivations, our thoughts, our words, and our actions are the construction materials with which we build our spiritual ?house? on that foundation. As we live day-to-day, the quality of our choices and lives determine the quality of the spiritual house we?re building. Some of us throw up a shack and are content to live in spiritual squalor. Others take the time, develop the discipline, and make the sacrificial investment to build a spiritual mansion. Like our neighbors at the lake, some of us abandon our spiritual building and its foundation altogether.

Today, I?m meditating on this simple word picture and considering the quality of the spiritual house I?m building on the foundation of salvation Jesus poured in my heart 30 years ago. As all homeowners know, the work is never finished. I have sections of the house I?m proud of. I have other sections that need to be gutted and renovated from the ground up. As one company reminds us: ?never stop improving.? As long as there is life and breath, the building and renovation of my spiritual house will continue.

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Wayfarer, husband, father, consultant, thespian, writer, thinker, and back porch musician. Pressing on through the journey one step at a time.

Source: http://tomvanderwell.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/spiritual-home-improvement/

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