Some people are fascinated with cars; their intricate designs,
their speed, special features, and all. Some others are fascinated by houses!
Before I ever got to meet my father-in-law (of blessed
memory), my husband told me of his fascination with buildings. He described how
his father would stand before great architectural edifices, and marvel at the
creative imaginations of the designer. Someone had a dream, a vision, a mental image of a house. With the
aid of pencil and paper, or
computer-aided architectural designs, they wrote down what they imagined.
Someone else ran with it, got workers together and built the house. Without the
builders the house would remain as a figment of the dreamer’s imagination, or
at best, a document to be treasured or trashed.
We have been called to build our homes and we all have roles assigned to us by God. For example, if you are a husband, God expects you to love your wife, and the wife must submit to her own husband. Parents should discipline their children and train them up in the way of the Lord, and children must honor and respect their parents; that is God’s commandment! If we lack understanding of our roles, we ought to look into the word of God to find it. We must pray for grace to fulfil our God-given role. Sometimes we get into the dynamics of who does what. We may even find ourselves playing a dual role, filling in for an absent or lacking spouse or family member.
We have been called to build our homes and we all have roles assigned to us by God. For example, if you are a husband, God expects you to love your wife, and the wife must submit to her own husband. Parents should discipline their children and train them up in the way of the Lord, and children must honor and respect their parents; that is God’s commandment! If we lack understanding of our roles, we ought to look into the word of God to find it. We must pray for grace to fulfil our God-given role. Sometimes we get into the dynamics of who does what. We may even find ourselves playing a dual role, filling in for an absent or lacking spouse or family member.
We must all be careful how we build; what foundation we
build upon, and the building materials we choose to work with! For no one can
lay any other foundation than that which has been laid. That foundation is
Jesus Christ (1Corinthians 3:11). "Woe
to him who builds his house without righteousness and his upper rooms without
justice, who uses his neighbor's services without pay and does not give him his
wages who says, 'I will build myself a roomy house with spacious upper rooms, and cut out its windows, paneling it with cedar and painting it bright red”
(Jeremiah 22:13-14).
One of the most prominent stories of the old testament
is about Queen Esther and the part she played in the deliverance of the Jews.
Esther was an orphan who was privileged to have a caring cousin named
Mordechai. Perhaps Esther may never have been who she was, and the history of
the Jewish nation may be different if Mordechai had not braced up to the
responsibility of raising an extremely beautiful cousin. Some of us are where we are in life
today because at different stages of our lives, someone was willing to do a
little more and accommodate us. Every house is built by someone! You may be that “someone” in your family, or
to somebody else right now. Do not grow weary in well doing, for in due season
you will reap, if you faint not.
Wherever you may find yourself, Whatever responsibilities
you have been saddled with, remember; “Except
the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD
keeps the city, the watchman waketh but in vain” (Psalm 127:1). God is a
master-builder, building our lives while calling us to build with Him. According to 1
Corinthians 3: 9 ‘We are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s
building. The Land owner is God, the
fields are His, We are His building, the work of His Hands” It does appear that
while we are yet under construction, He calls us to Labor with Him! For years I
did not quite grasp that! I thought I had to be finished, complete, in order to
build for God. Now I know I can participate with the father in building and be
built as I go.
Nice piece.
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