"Awake"- Building Your Home Life!

QUALITY HOME LIFE

All relationships are different in some way or another, but there are certain principles in a relationship that apply to every person alive today. These principles were established by our Creator for us. It is so important to pay attention to them and tap into our priceless resources made available for the building of an awesome home life.

People will often agree that God is "love"; but we also have to realize that He is the Master of love. So, that being said, His divine guidance is not going to tell us something that would guide us into a relationship full of hatred, conflicts and abuse. So I urge  us all once more, as we begin to search  out and explore the materials that make a Strong Home, Stay Awake! Pay close attention and get ready to start filling up those abandoned love tanks!

Maybe your love boat, so to speak, has been tossed around in the storms of life and your love tank is empty. Maybe your boat isn't even running, leaving you drifting through life with lack of purpose? If so, please don't abandon ship yet! Just hold on tight and let's find out, as we explore your options for how you can begin to refuel your relation"ship" and get your engines running full throttle again! It will be worth it, I promise!

Note: Remember. A house is a place, a home involves people. Don't be confused.

And since you are reading this right now, you are not alone! Don't hesitate to drop an email anytime and I will help you find a place to call home in your area. There are people waiting to welcome you.

Following my college days, I spent some time in the home building business. We built houses with a few bedrooms made of average building materials and we built other houses out of the same materials, but the rooms were bigger. Then there were a few houses we built that were mansions. The mansions took years of planning and a year or more to build. Many of the materials were ordered special from  international artisans and manufacturers all over the globe.

Once there was a couple who many of you would know if I named them because they own a national company. This older couple made a trip over to Europe to look at a chimney that they saw in a picture and thought they wanted for their home. After seeing it for themselves, they took the Stone Mason back over to Europe with them so that he could get a true understanding of the materials and choice they had made. The stone mason then came back and built the exact same fireplace and chimney in their new home once the stone had arrived by ship from Europe. Now that's quality...and expensive!

Regardless of how much was spent on the materials, whether it be thousands or millions, the cheapest was a house and the most expensive was a house.

The mansion was a better house because of the quality of the products used and it came with allot higher price than the houses built with average products. Value effects the price you are going to pay. You might find this interesting or you may be thinking that I have gotten totally off track talking about building houses, but let's take a few minutes to see how this relates.

We may be working very hard on our home life, but are we using average materials? Some of the things that it takes to build a quality home life are valued highly today, such as our time, respect, worship, obedience, love. In our day many of the self help books teach us to acquire for ourselves the things I just listed in order for ME to succeed. I want to share a  radical  fact to apply to build a quality home life. In the following passage Paul teaches us that we are to give these things to have peace in our hearts, unity, wisdom and encouragement in our home life.

In Colossians, chapter three,verses fifteen through twenty-one, the Bible says, " And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged."

WE NEED THREE QUALITY HOMES

What if I said that everybody ought to have three quality homes. Would you think I had lost my mind? How about if I took it a step further and told you that you ought to build three of those highly valued mansion style homes instead of just average like most of the population. You probably aren't following me, but the fact is that you have the highly valued materials already. Why not invest your God given resources and go ahead and build an amazing home?

BUILDING OUR FIRST HOME

This is the first point that Paul brings to our attention in this life changing passage. What are we doing when it comes to our spiritual home life? Are we asleep and running on auto pilot, driving to church at the scheduled times of service and driving home again week after week? Here is a good way to know if we are using the high quality material to build our spiritual home. Look at what Paul says," let the peace of God rule in your hearts, for this reason also you are called in one body; and be thankful...".  Does the peace of God rule in your heart? Don't just say "yeah". Think about it throughout the rest of today and especially tomorrow as you go through the Lord's day. If you find that it isn't there, don't get discouraged.


Paul mentions this first because the peace of God in your heart is your #1 resource for building the Three Quality Homes that we all need. Without putting the priceless peace of God into your first Home material list, I'm afraid you are going to have to settle for an average spiritual home life. What's really amazing though, is that this priceless item is yours free for the asking! It's between you and God, right now, tomorrow, or next week. God has made us to receive His peace so that we can build upon it. 


Shalom

ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

IT IS HIGH TIME TO AWAKE!
As newly married couples join hearts and hands in marriage, there are far too often those who feel they have the privilege of offering their two cents to the couple, even before the wedding reception is over. The traditional quotes and riddles with hidden meanings are passed on by those who have fallen asleep at the helm of their love boat, so to speak.

Most of those couples who have been together for years will tell them that the honeymoon will soon pass and reality will begin to sink in, so get ready! Isn't that a wonderful thought to leave a couple with right after they have married? The reason that this goes on generation after generation is because these couples have fallen asleep at the helm of their love boat.

They no longer feel like they once did because their love boat fuel tanks are empty or running on their last gallon of fuel. When the waves come and rock their boat around, that last little bit of fuel is still there but isn't quite enough to keep the motor from sputtering. The tank is very large and could hold hundreds of gallons of fuel, but that last gallon is swished back and forth past the fuel pump, allowing only enough fuel to barely keep their love boat running in the storm. So they share their experience with the newly weds as a forecast of days ahead in their relationship, almost as though it is normal and to be expected.

The facts are that this type of relationship between a husband and wife is not what God intended and there is a clear and decisive way for couples to avoid falling asleep at the helm and allowing their tanks to run dry. There are clearly defined principles to apply to our lives that will prevent a couple from finding themselves stranded and at the mercy of the storms in their lives. Instead of just hoping for the storms to pass, they will have the fuel and the navigational equipment necessary to move through the storm. When they come out of the storm, they will be on the same course that they were on before the storm and will have also made some progress along the way.

You might be thinking to yourself, "How can I tell if I have fallen asleep at the helm?". Most people, awake or asleep, think that they are doing alright in all of their relationships, but take heed! Paul is talking to believers in the book of Romans when he gives us this warning to "Awake" and this series of messages will show us just how our lives will change when we wake up; at home, at church and in the community around us. I have learned first hand, the things that I will share with you in this series and how applying the principles that Paul teaches us in the thirteenth chapter of Romans will bring a change in your relationships at home, in the community and even in your worship with God.

Romans 13:11
11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.


Now it is HIGH TIME! That means that the HOUR is here and the time is NOW. People just roll over and go back to sleep in relationships all to often. I must agree with the apostle Paul when he says, "IT IS HIGH TIME TO AWAKE FROM OUR SLEEP!" Verse twelve says,"The night is far spent", that means it is later than you may think! I want to tell you that it is later in this age than you may think! I believe that Jesus Christ is at the threshold and I believe that the trumpet is about to sound and Jesus Christ is going to come soon and it is only the restraining hand of Almighty God that has kept the floodgates of evil closed as much as they have been. It may be later in your life than you think! You only have so many more days or hours left to serve the Lord Jesus. James 4:14 says,"What is your life but a vapor that appeared for a little with and then vanished away"!

It's later in the day of opportunity than you may think. We have opportunities now that are unparalleled to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus said when he was here on earth in John 9:4, "I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day, the night cometh when no man can work!" There are allot of things you can do here on this earth, but there's one thing we won't be able to do in heaven and that is to win souls to Christ.

There are several things that I pray that everyone who hears this message will do, that the apostle Paul urges us to do in this passage and the first one is to "WAKE UP"!

God's alarm clock is going off all around us!
A young man asked his pastor one Sunday if there was a good prayer that he could pray whenever he came to the service and his pastor said,"Yes, Now I lay me down to sleep".

It's time that we wake up. So many times we are like Sampson, asleep in the lap of Delilah. When we wake up and go out to shake ourselves, it's without the spirit's power. How do we wake up? Not by hitting the snooze button; we have to wake up and get up! Get busy doing the things that you are purposed to do in your life!

Wake Up! Get Up! Husbands and wives, grab the wheel of your boats and get ready to fuel up and apply the principles we will find in the series of messages I have titled "AWAKE!".

IT'S HIGH TIME TO AWAKE! LET'S GO!

HOLY IS THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY!

"FASCINATING"

I spotted this captivating insect while touring a lake and visitor center at the top of Raccoon Mountain in Tennessee. It appeared to be about ten times the size of an ant and it was clothed in a bright red coating. It crawled like an ant but it looked like a bee. After my brother did some research, we found that it was actually a wingless bee that has been known to gang up and kill cattle with it's sting.

 As beautiful and fascinating as it was, it could have been a life threatening situation if we had gotten too close, as we were at least 30 minutes from the nearest doctor. I can tell you though that we were all fascinated with it's color and design.

Isn't that how it is sometimes with people who are famous or popular? People follow them in droves from city to city, station to station, trend to trend?

The thing that we need to keep in mind as brothers and sisters in Christ is that we each have something about us that is just as awesome and just as useful as those people who are considered popular. As a matter of fact, just like this beautiful bug that we were all so fascinated with, some of those "popular" people might not be so awesome and friendly if you had to spend every waking minute with them. If you got close enough, you could even get stung! We all have our faults and we all have our strengths! We read about this every day in the news. There are popular news papers published just to share the latest celebrity heartache! Right?

Please be careful! Remember this! One day all that we choose to do will be manifest and only what really counted will be rewarded.

We all know that God is good! I came across a passage one day that talked about receiving some of His goodness. It might take a little while for us to accept this passage into our hearts in our present day of "idols" , "survivors", "celebrities" and "heroes" , but please take it to heart and know that it is good to take heed when true wisdom is shared.


"Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He takes the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are empty. For this reason let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And you are Christ's; and Christ is God's." ~1Corinthians3:18-23


Isn't that fascinating?  All who believe (popular or not) are on the same plain! This passage comes after a lesson about the ministry of our Lord where Paul was teaching believers that we all are one in our service and in our bodies because the Spirit of God lives in us and we all ought to be working together in life to accomplish the sacred will of God. 


Peter also wrote about the importance of our daily deeds.  Deeds are referred to as work in verse fourteen of the KJV and is described as an act, toil or deed in the Strong's Greek and Hebrew Dictionary . For those who enjoy the facts, the Greek word is ἔργον and the English spelling is ergon.

Don't feel discouraged at this point because, just as many others, you may have become captivated by the wisdom of people instead of  our Lord. Maybe you found those popular men or women of our day to be quite "fascinating".  I suggest to just take a moment and pray. God understands you more than you think. Otherwise, this passage wouldn't have been recorded so many years ago in the book of Corinthians and preserved for us to read, learn and declare today. Let the Lord know that you are fascinated with Him and that all other fascinations fade into the shadows of your life next to Him.

Claim for yourself these three things declared in 1Corinthians 3:22,23 as you put Christ first!


Everything is Mine!


I am Christ's!


Christ is God's!

"A WISE BUILDER"

 In the process of checking my father's roof following a wind storm, I had to set up an aluminum ladder to access the roof. His ladder wasn't very long so I chose the lowest point on the roof. This happened to be at the back deck. I have never liked putting any type of ladder on a deck in the first place, but I thought that if I was real careful it would be fine just this once. As I climbed to the top of the ladder I became more and more confident in myself and the ladder since there wasn't any signs of slipping or movement. So I went to step off of the ladder onto the roof just as I always did when everything was secure, but what happened next was a quick reminder of why I had a problem with putting ladders on decks. The surface of that deck had just enough algae or moisture to cause the bottom of the ladder to kick out and slide. Thank God I had one foot on the roof, but my weight was still on the ladder and my other leg went through the rung and I ended up scraping up my shin.

I knew better when I started up the ladder, but it seemed ok, so I continued up one step at a time. I even remember thinking how well it had gone and saying thank you God in the recesses of my mind, right before the ladder fell. Well, I knew better than to ask God why it happened because He had given me the ability to understand the danger before I climbed that ladder. What I did think about though was this passage.


"According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. " 1Corinthians 3:10-11


Paul was warning the believers to be careful what they spent their lives doing. But I thought about the grace of God that had made Paul a "wise" master builder. He had laid the right foundation which was greater than any other foundation laid by men. Jesus Christ! Just as I put that ladder on an unsure foundation, we too can place our trust and faith in the wrong place. Let's be careful that we aren't building our lives upon the foundation laid by the famous men in this world, but rather on the greatest of all men who ever lived, Jesus.


You may hear someone talking about other men all the time, but forgetting to ever give our Lord thanks for his honor, glory and power. If so, beware! Famous men will fall when they build their life on their own man made foundations. Often so many others who idolize them also get hurt when their foundation gives way and they fall. I can promise any man alive this one thing for sure, "Jesus Christ will never let you down".


 Be a Wise Builder! Make Jesus Christ your foundation and be careful what you build upon it. Selah