Becoming like Christ for the sake of others

A note from your pastor: June 16

By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
through knowledge its rooms are filled

with rare and beautiful treasures.
Proverbs 24:3-4

There’s a crawl space under our house that looks terrifying to enter.  I have yet to venture inside.  There’s a small little entryway on the front of our house and when you peer through the door it looks like the entrance to a monster’s lair.  You can imagine some enormous spider living way in the back of it.  It’s a bit intimidating, to say the least.

Back in my youth, I used to work for a telephone company and often would have to run cable through these types of crawl spaces.  They are always filled with spider webs and rodents and puddles from leaky pipes.  It is dark and musty and filthy.  I’d come out covered in dirt from head to toe. Once I even crawled past a dead cat.  The worker directly above the spot said, “I always wondered what that smell was.”

When scripture talks about the formation of our spiritual lives, one of the most common metaphors is building a house.  And again and again, we are reminded of the importance of the foundation.  Without a firm foundation, the building won’t last.  It won’t survive the storms.  We must do the work to make sure we’ve properly laid the foundation, and that takes intentionality.  It must be done right.

But it isn’t simply a one-time deal.  Foundations need to be inspected over time.  Are there any cracks developing?  Is there any water damage or mold?  Is my crawlspace infested with termites?  There’s only one way to find out.  Someone is going to have to go in there.

Our spiritual lives have similar vulnerabilities.  And sometimes we’d prefer to stand outside that crawlspace and simply pretend everything is all right. That is until we start to see the outward signs of decomposition and decay.  But when that happens, we usually have tremendous repair work to do.  The wise man will inspect early and inspect often.  And so should we.

This week at Deeper Walk will be talking about God building our house.  And though it is God that does the building, it is on us to willingly enter into the process.  It can be humbling work…messy even.  But when we do, we discover newfound freedom.  It is called peace of mind.  It is the freedom that comes with walking in the light of truth.  It is the peace that leads to a good night’s sleep.  In other words, it’s worth it.

So come this Wednesday night to Deeper Walk as we look more closely at our foundations.  Let’s go in there with the Holy Spirit and let God shine the light around.  Because that’s where true security lies.  God is overseeing the repair work.  All we have to do is get on our knees and crawl in.

We meet at 7 PM live in the Fellowship Hall or on Zoom at meeting ID: 652 073 534 and the password 424026.

Love you guys!
Jeff