The Builders

Confident Hope Faith and Salvation Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5)    The Power of the Gospel 1 Corinthians 3:1-15 The Message 3 1-4 But for right now, friends, I’m completely frustrated by your unspiritual dealings with each other and with God. You’re acting like infants in relation to Christ, capable of nothing much more than nursing at the breast. Well, then, I’ll nurse you since you don’t seem capable of anything more. As long as you grab for what makes you feel good or makes you look important, are you really much different than a babe at the breast, content only when everything’s going your way? When one of you says, “I’m on Paul’s side,” and another says, “I’m for Apollos,” aren’t you being totally childish? 5-9 Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God’s field in which we are working. 9-15 Or, to put it another way, you are God’s house. Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually, there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely. For Reflection As you embrace the sovereignty of God, you are saved by grace. But being saved is not the end goal. Nor is it a tactic or a strategy. Being saved means that you give up trying to be the originator.  Only God is the creator and God bestoes. You only take what has been originated by God. God owns it all and shares it with those whom God has created. The faith you will grow into enables you to entrust your life to God, to have confidence in God's promise, and be obedient to God's will for you to live a joyfull life in a relationship with God and each other. God is the architype, Your decision to become faithful to the word of God is just the beginning, Your transformation in righteousnes will take the rest of your Earthly life.  Relax, God will help you. God will rescue you if you err. God forgives so you can forgive yourself and others. Pray Pray let God be you counse. Pray and follow the Way of Jesus Christ. Pray and be amazed at how the world changes before your eyes. Pray and bask in the joy of servitude to your Creator. Forward to a friend