October 24, 2013
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Sharing for this Sunday at GPS Home Church with the Living Life devotional for 10/27/2013
1 Corinthians 3:10-17
New International Version (NIV)10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their 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 person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
Over the last 15 years, I have experienced many victories and defeats. Two major disappointments were not finishing my service in the U.S. Army and recently not finishing pharmacy school at Mercer University College of Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia. These events were two challenges that God brought into my life that revealed to me that I needed to get back onto the right foundation in my journey with the Lord. They were difficult and challenging times because they were not being built on the foundation of Christ’s ongoing work in my life.
After finishing college, I found myself with some direction for my life, but with more confusion and uncertainty around me. Friends had failed me, my plans were falling apart, my dreams were shattered, and I was left with nothing but God and my family. As I began to think about life after college, I thought that joining the military was the best choice for me because I could one, get job training as a preventive medicine specialist and two, serve my country. This seed was planted in me during my junior year in college when I visited a recruiter on the college campus of U.C. Berkeley one random day.
That seed became a sprout after college as I indeed enlisted and signed a 5 year contract with the U.S. Army. My time in the military was amazing, yet was cut short as I found myself losing focus on my true purpose and plan for serving. After successfully completing basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and job training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, I began to lose some direction as I drifted into the world little bit by little bit. I attended church faithfully on Sundays, but I was walking a fine line between faith and failure. As a Christian, I had built my foundation in Christ and this was being tested during my time in the service.
Even as my intention was to be a good model and witness for Christ, my compass was starting to be influenced by the world around me. For some reason, I thought that it would be fine to explore some of the pleasures of the world such a going out every weekend in the city, attending a party or two, and visiting the club scene. However, I was beginning to fall away inch by inch, God had already drawn a line and when I started to approach it, the Lord brought everything crashing down.
I found myself being kicked out of my training one day for reasons that I could not understand. I remember my instructor telling me that I was not keeping up with the rest of the group and that I was falling behind in my daily work. From that point on things spiraled downward and I left the service with an early honorable discharge. My time in the service was over after a year and a half. I had stepped over the boundary that God had set for me. When I did, I found out that I was not in charge of this journey but God!
I headed back home to Cupertino where I prepared for my next challenge. This was of course to get into pharmacy school and to become a pharmacist. And as I shared earlier, this was also another failure. Even though I was not walking the fine line as I was in the military, bad habits, such as lack of self-discipline and lack of maturity revealed themselves and ultimately they brought me down again even as I was nearing my goal of becoming a pharmacist.
These two disappointments only revealed to me how life needs to be built on the foundation of the Lord. If it is not, then it is not worth building because in the end it will fail. God has put in every believer a Spirit that gives us His life in this world. This Holy Spirit guides and directs our paths each and every day. He is in the world as God’s hands and feet accomplishing His will for all His people through us! The Holy Spirit speaks to every believer and non-believer to lead them in the path that is right, worthy, faithful, and true. Yet, not all people listen or obey. Even as Christians, we may ignore God’s Spirit working in us as we see it at work in non-believers whose lives unknowingly do glorify God.
Intercede together: Japan, God has been with the Japanese people since the beginning because He created their nation. He knows their history and their journey in this world. Although they seem to reject Him from a Christian viewpoint, God is Lord over every nation. He walks with them like He does with all people hoping that they will honor Him. Although they have experienced many tragedies recently with the nuclear accidents, God has blessed them recently during this time with the privilege of hosting the Olympics in 2020! What an honor and privilege to be a host nation that brings life to the world!
Foundation:
Today’s passage continues Paul’s teaching to the church at Corinth about maturity in Christ. In verses 16-17, the individual believer is identified as God’s temple. Before the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God came to reside in the souls of believers, God’s people were directed to build a temple for God’s Spirit to reside. God gave very clear instructions to His people about how to build His temple, including the dimensions and the materials to be used. In verses 10-11, Paul is instructing the Corinthian believers that the only foundation for their spiritual temple is Jesus Christ.Revealed with Fire:
Paul says that each person chooses what materials he will add to the foundation of salvation through Jesus Christ. Some materials are better than others, but the outward appearance of our temples is not a good measure of the strength of the materials chosen. The true test comes on the Day of Judgment. There are differing ways to interpret “revealed with fire” as used in this passage. Going back to the day of Pentecost, there is a connection to fire. Also in 1 Corinthians 2:10-11, the Spirit reveals and searches the depths of the heart. For this reason, it is plausible that a day is coming when we will stand before the Father to be judged. The Spirit will reveal the nature of our deeds. And the Son of God, as the foundation, will be our salvation. For the deeds that remain, we will be rewarded. But we will experience sorrow over the fleshly deeds that are revealed.Reflection questions
1. Sometimes we try to build our relationship with God on the foundation of other “good things”, like family. Ask God to reveal to you today if your foundation is anything other than Jesus Christ.2. When the day comes, will your temple still stand? Ask God to reveal to you what materials to use as you continue to build on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
Everything in Bold font is from the Living Life quiet time (http://www.duranno.com/livinglife/english_su06.asp)
