5.08.10_Luke 14:28_Whose building are you?

Praise the LORD!!!
  
   This is going to be a first. This morning while reading my personal devotionals, the LORD led me to post one of them to this devotional, the one I normally write by HIS leading. I believe you will find this to be a topic of interest. Not from my personal opinion, for I enjoyed it, but for the fact that the LORD had me post it here for a reason and most likely a very good one at that.

"Building for eternity   Luke 14:28

 

  "For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
 

   Our Lord refers not to a cost we have to count, but to a cost which He has counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal and hatred; the deep unfathomable agony in Gethsemane, and the onslaught at Calvary—the pivot upon which the whole of Time and Eternity turns. Jesus Christ has counted the cost. Men are not going to laugh at Him at last and say—“This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”

   The conditions of discipleship laid down by Our Lord in vv. 26, 27 and 33 mean that the men and women He is going to use in His mighty building enterprises are those in whom He has done everything. “If any man come to Me, and hate not …, he cannot be My disciple.” Our Lord implies that the only men and women He will use in His building enterprises are those who love Him personally, passionately and devotedly beyond any of the closest ties on earth. The conditions are stern, but they are glorious.

   All that we build is going to be inspected by God. Is God going to detect in His searching fire that we have built on the foundation of Jesus some enterprise of our own? These are days of tremendous enterprises, days when we are trying to work for God, and therein is the snare. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus takes us over for His enterprises, His building schemes entirely, and no soul has any right to claim where he shall be put."

May 8th
Chambers, O. (1993). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year (NIV edition.). Westwood, NJ: Barbour and Co.

  Though this was originally written  several centuries ago, it is very relevant today also! Especially so, when you can look around an see so many ministries out there and most are named after the one wanting the glory. Why else would a person name something after themselves? I may be wrong on this count, but I've a feeling that I'm truly not that far off in saying it. Too many people have taken on works for the LORD, only to end up building them with wood and straw( erroneous ways and motives.) Then there are some of those ministries that bare the founder's name, yet hold true to the GOSPEL. I'll not be the judge, but I know one that will be and the day is coming when all that bare HIS name shall stand before HIM to be judged for the works that we've done. On this day and it alone will we all know the full truth. Not just on the works that others have done, or those of our own hands, but we will know every little detail of HIStory, as if it had just happened. Then we will know who taught the total truth and who were in error. I look forward to this day. Do you?

   There are also several other reason we need to look deeply at the verses here. For many people today call themselves Christians yet there is no proof of it within their lives. If one has truly had a "Born Again" experience within their life, they've become regenerated by the presence of the HOLY SPIRIT within them and there is a visible proof of this fact. If someone tells you they're a Christian and there is no sign of of the HOLY GHOST on board, you should think about talking with them and introducing them to the real JESUS CHRIST and what it means to truly be Born (Again) from Above!!!



Prayer request can be sent to: prayers@vineofchrist.org 

GOD bless and good day,

Rev. Marshall Barth


Vine of CHRIST Ministries

Vine Ministerial Network International