ring ring... it's jesus

hey pick up the phone...
why?
cause jesus has something to say to ya!?

I wish it was this easy sometimes, but for me it's usually more like...

"smack"
what was that!?
oh, that was god hitting me with a brick...

one such brick just hit me between the eyes these past few days. It comes molded in the shape of 1 Corinthians 3.10-15

10By 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. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13his 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. 14If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

My brick has "what are you building!?" written all over it.

Believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved, but the rest of our lives still matter too. We run ourselves ragged by scheduling meetings, sports, family time, church, and the list goes on and on. While not all of it bad, how much actually bears eternal significance... this is the question i've been asking myself a lot lately.

As I was counseling a young person this week the conversation of urgency came up. They need to make some significant change in their lives, like yesterday, and yet they keep putting it off till a "better time" or more convenient season comes along. I told them that that time will never come, they'll just stay trapped in this cycle of sin... the time is now. Now thinking back on that conversation God was telling me the same thing. I carry around these habits and sins, desiring a change but never really letting go and moving on. To repent of something not only means to stop doing it but to take an immediate about face and run the other way.

This sense of urgency is what we need to have in our lives when it comes to building things that last in the eternal sense. We're so apt to go through our days, playing nice with other people, but not really loving them. We go to work or school or spend time at home with our kids and never broach the subject of eternity... i.e. Jesus Christ. We make vast churches with all the pomp and circumstance to Worship God but we never get down to the business of doing just that. What are we putting all our effort into that one day will just be straw for the fire? Hard question right!? It is for me.

SO how do we build for the eternal!? First we need to get to know the God that is worth our best and eternal efforts. His Word, the Bible, needs to take such a priority in our lives that every thing we do and say is tainted by it. We should find that our language becomes almost "biblical" in that whenever we speak or think, scripture should be footnoted if it were to be put into manuscript. As we get ingrained more by God's word then we should begin to seek after the things that are after his heart. Our spirit as believers is in step with God's, check out 1 Corinthians 2.9-12

9However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”b— 10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

As we see God's heart we should begin to do things that will last for eternity. These are the positive motions that have to be part of our walk as Christ followers... but don't forget, this all takes a lot of time. So we have to put off some of the old junk we've been doing that will burn away... you know those hard things like the 4 hours of tv or Facebook that we spend time on each night. That life essential stuff like the football game sunday afternoon or that hunting season... might have to get cut for the kingdom. What I've been finding though is that the process of cutting leaves room for better healthier things to come up, like a new opening in the canopy of life when new sprouts of longterm healthy trees can grow.

Watch out for spiritual bricks friends, it's much easier to just pick up the phone...

Much love.