It wasn’t until Saturday, on the coed teams last day at the work site, that I was struck by a new meaning to Paul’s words from 1 Cor 3:10-13.
“By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.”
In reflecting on the work we’d done the past week I saw many parallels in the building process to our Christian growth. In working on the house I witnessed first hand how things are done in “layers”. The foundation and framing was done by previous workers and we were adding to their work. Brad had us screw cement boards to the floor of the bathrooms and in the process we found that there was a spot that wasn’t level so he showed us a power planer and in minutes we’d leveled the spot so that our cement board was no longer rocking on it.
Later we had to place a tape on the floor along all the seams. (Sort of like what you do with dry wall.) Then we mixed a putty/cement to seal the seams. That’s so water doesn’t get into the sub-flooring. Anyways, we had to make sure that it was put on smoothly so that later when another group came in they’d be able to set tiles on it. We had to make sure we did a good job so that they wouldn’t have to make too many adjustments or corrections.
Paul says we need to be careful how we build. In other words we need to present the gospel of the Lord as accurately as possible so that when the next “crew” comes in they won’t have to take a planer to what was already laid down. Or if they do, that they won’t have to make too many adjustments…since none of us is perfect there are bound to be needed adjustments. But like one of the guys said…only God’s perfect and that’s why we have caulk-to cover up the cracks when the ends don’t meet perfectly.
In making the wrap-around stairs for the porch I saw how the base for the stairs had to be hung evenly or the next step of nailing the boards on would not be level. Each previous step needed to be done correctly and with accuracy or it would require more sanding, removing and re-nailing, to adjust things in their proper place so that the end product would be acceptable. How many times have we had to have our misconceptions about who God is “sanded” and refined? As a new Christian I thought that God was all about “Love” and that love would cover all my sins. It wasn’t till I became more mature in Christ that I learned that God is also a “Just” God and that our sins needed to be paid for. I learned that the only thing that could compensate for my sins and keep me from an eternity of burning in hell was the precious blood of Jesus. In other words, Jesus had to die for me to pay for the sins that I am guilty of. There had to be a balancing of the scales for a Just God to be satisfied and because he loved me so much he sent His son to pay the penalty for my sins.
I thank God for His loving provision for me. Now it’s up to me to try to live a live worthy of that love!