Building On The Foundation Of God

For we are God’s fellow workers;

you are God's field, you are God's building.

According to the grace of God which was

given to me, as a wise master builder

I have laid the foundation, and another

builds on it.  But let each one take heed

how he builds on it.  For no other

foundation can any one lay than that

which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3: 9 -- 11

            It is so easy to become caught up in the affairs of this world, its culture, and all the things that seem to be so joyful and happiness that we forget that we are not citizens of this world.  We are not called to be successful, or to be simply philanthropic although that is a good thing for when it is done for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ it is a very good thing.  It is good to be successful but not at the expense that would cause us to leave behind who we are, and who we represent, and our demonstration of our faith.  Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians gives us exactly what our work is while we remain on this earth, until either Jesus Christ comes or we die.  Paul wrote very important words for every Christian: "Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you are in Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5: 18 -- 20).  When we exercise our faith so that we are fully converted to our Lord in Jesus Christ we are not the same people any longer: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; all things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5: 17).  This is a problem that is clearly seen in the Corinthian church and unfortunately we see this in many churches today whereby they have invented new doctrines that have the sound of good things only they are nothing more than an introduction and invading of the wisdom of this world and its culture.  We are citizens of the heavenly kingdom: "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3: 20).  This is a most wonderful truth that we are no longer subject to the throes of this world with all of its sinfulness, trials, and even persecution for we are, even though we now live in this world, and must at times suffer those throes, we are all already and legally in heaven.  This ought to be cause for rejoicing, and as we face what ever this world may throw at us we know we have the promises of God and that He cares for us.  God may not take us away from things that may even be harmful, but God has promised to take us through anything this world can throw at us for our God is faithful and our faith has the foundation based upon the Lord Jesus Christ and the work he did in His passion on the cross: "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you" (1 Peter 5: 6 -- 7).  When our lives are for God, and not just to make us feel pious, for if it is not on the foundation of God and His doctrines, then we begin to do things that make us feel as though God loves us and we begin to do work that's not based upon faith but rather to try to wrench from God His favors and love.  We are to rid ourselves from those things that we participated in before we fully gave our lives over to the Lord Jesus Christ and became a fellow worker with a message of reconciliation.  Are you demonstrating this message of reconciliation by the way you live, by the way you talk, so that others can see the Lord Jesus Christ for who He is; and how your faith in God and His Son is the foundation for your life? As Paul said: "Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, would, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and a buyer will test each one's work, of what sort it is" (1 Corinthians 3:12 -- 13).  What are you building upon; is it things that may be destroyed or is it that which can never be destroyed?  Are you vacillating because you're not fully committed to your convictions about the Lord Jesus Christ?  What have you allowed to enter into the church that are things that are of the culture of this world and of its wisdom?  These are important questions Paul then gives this stern warning: "If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.  If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire" (1 Corinthians 3: 14 -- 15).  I'm afraid that some Christians are going to enter into heaven with; “SMOKE ON THEIR BODIES AND CLOTHES.”  Your salvation is assured by God for He cast none of His children out of the hand of His Son Jesus Christ to whom he gave.  For it is not as some teach that you can lose your salvation, you cannot lose your salvation, but, you will as all of us will give and account for what we have said or done in relation to the ministry of reconciliation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ to our world.  This assurance of our salvation does not give this cause to be apathetic and tacitly approving of what this sinful world guns and its effect upon us, and our children, and even our congregation with which we worship.  Under the Jewish economy the actual physical temple was where God resided in where the sacrifices for sins were brought to Him by the priests.  Our priest today is not a man, rather, it is the Lord Jesus Christ and we are the temple of God under the new economy brought to us by the death, resurrection, and is sanctioned by Jesus Christ into heaven where He sits making intercession for all of the children of God: "Do you not know that you all are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him.  For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are" (1 Corinthians 3: 16 -- 17).  The word that is translated from the Greek as defiled actually means to be corrupt, and the word that is translated from the Greek as destroyed, has the actual meaning of having been brought to corruption and it is in the future tense and can carry and does carry the meaning of spiritual ruin, one who has become depraved and the good news as recorded by Peter under inspiration is: "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter 1:2 -- 4).

            Pray for the aid of the Holy Spirit for that aid is so much needed as we live in this sinful world for God is faithful to take us through all things for his promises are always yes and yes.

Then Job answered the LORD and said:

"I know that You can do everything,

and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from you....

            I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,

but now my eyes see You.  Therefore I up for myself,

            and repent in dust and ashes."

                                    Job 42: 1 -- 2; 5 -- 6

Repent and follow Him

Richard L. Crumb

Living As true Minister's Of God

And I, brethren, could not speak to you

as to spiritual people but as to carnal,

and as to babes in Christ.

I fed you with milk and not with solid food;

for until now you were not able to receive it,

and even now you are still not able;

for you are still carnal.

For where there are in the, strife, and divisions

among you, are you not carnal and behaving

like mere man?

1 Corinthians 3: 1 -- 3

Paul had just written that as Christians we are to have the mind of Jesus Christ.  Anything that would make cause for us to act in exercise our brave outside of the mind of Jesus Christ is to not be spiritually mature.  It may mean that as a baby in Christ we have been feeding him far too long on melt and have not been given even junior food, or meat.  Apparently, the Corinthian's fall into the former as babes in Christ and are spiritually ignorant as to what it means to be in the mind of Christ.  Paul mentions that they were still carnal, and this carnality exercised by envy, strife, and divisions occurring among the Corinthian church.  Paul mentions what some of those divisions were: "For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not carnal" (1 Corinthians 3: 4)?  How often is it that we find ourselves following the teachings and even the doctrines of certain men who seem on the face of what they say to be teaching what is the mind of Christ.  When examined according to scripture and with Scripture, we find that they are teaching the wisdom of men and are very much up for by the present-day culture.  All sounds good: and yet, it is not good.  The Corinthian seem to have done the unthinkable by aligning themselves with certain man rather than aligning themselves with our Savior Jesus Christ.  Paul then goes on to teach the Corinthian's and us by asking questions: "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as Lord gave to each one" (1 Corinthians 3: 5)?  God gave these men to be ministers of him and to teach them the truth about him and the way they should live their lives.  The Corinthian's as has many people throughout history began to believe in the person more than in the message.  Paul then explains what it meant to be a minister for the Lord Jesus Christ: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase" (1 Corinthians 3: 6).  Too many preachers and teachers think that they are the ones that are causing the increase of believers and Paul explains that it is not by being a minister that increase in Christianity occurs.  All by God and by His decision and by and for His purpose is there any increased for it is by Him that there is an increase.  God calls, died in Naples, and God gives really the gift of faith so that a person may believe a word of God when it is spoken to him.  Man has only one purpose as Paul explains: "So neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.  Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.  For we are Gods fellow workers; you are Gods field, you are gods building" (1 Corinthians 3: 7 -- 9).  Let us not forget this very important doctrine.  All men, including all Christians, will give an account for every word and every action before our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when He comes again to take home his children and to remove all those who are sinners.  What are ministers of God to do in their preaching and teaching: "According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it.  But let each one takes he how he builds on it.  For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3: 10 -- 11).  Are you reading this carefully?  Each one of us must take care on how we build upon the foundation that is Jesus Christ.  We do not add to scripture anything that "smacks" of the culture of this world that is in contradiction to the mind of Jesus Christ.  There is no other foundation than the foundation that is built upon Jesus Christ.  It is the gospel message and how that message is to be applied in our daily lives, exercised in the various circumstances that we face that we teach others so that they are living in exercising their lives by the mind of Jesus Christ.  Paul then gives us a warning if we are not following this metric: "Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is" (1 Corinthians 3: 12 -- 13).  Paul mentions of various elements and covers all the bases that would be destroyed if a person's work is not built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.  Paul then gives some great encouragement: "If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward" (1 Corinthians 3:14).  Won't it be grand to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ on the last day when he comes to judge all things and hear him say: "His Lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.  Enter into the joy of your Lord’" (Matthew 25: 23).

But the LORD is the true God;

            He is the living God

and the everlasting King.

            At His wrath the earth

Will tremble, and the nations

            will not be able to

endure His indignation.

            Jeremiah 10: 10

Praise God: He teaches us the truth

Richard L. Crumb

Denying Ourselves: True Faith

Now we have received, not the

spirit of this world, but the

Spirit who is from God,

that we might know the

things that have been

freely give to us by God.

1Corinthians 2:12

As I begin this week’s blogs I am reminded, and I want to remind you, when we receive the Holy Spirit He unites us with God, so that His Love, God, is manifested in us, and in our life, our daily undertakings. It is impossible to weary the love of God for God is LOVE. LOVE is His nature and if we allow the Holy Spirit to operate in our lives and His Love springs from our center then I, you, have no business to be guided by the wisdom of this world, the spirit of this world and by natural temperament. We must beware not to work along the line of natural sympathy, for if we do then all we have done is blaspheme the Love of God, in fact, we have blasphemed God. God has given to His children freely so that we may know Him and this is done by the teaching of the Holy Spirit: “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1Corinthians 2:13). We are to compare things in this life with Scripture and allow Scripture to lead us for this is how the Holy Spirit teaches is, by His word, and impressing upon our souls to follow God’s word. If what we think is from God, as some do think that by some special revelation God speaks to them, then how would we be able to judge them whether what they say is from God or not? We can’t, but if Scripture supports, not intimates, but supports what they have heard by the Holy Spirit’s directing them to Scripture for the truth then false understanding and teaching will be put at bay. Do you love Jesus? Do you love God? Do you love the Holy Spirit? When Jesus asked Peter three times: Do you love Me, then probably Peter was somewhat hurt at the question(s). What Jesus was doing was probing into Peter’s belief and willingness to love Him and to follow Him. The questions that Jesus, the Holy Spirit asks of us may hurt for we must either obey, and answer the question(s) for in either way we answer we reveal our true selves.  Are you holding firm to you convictions? Or are you allowing the wisdom of this world to lead into things that God has told us not to be involved in: i.e., watching TV shows, or going to movies that portray homosexuality as an OK lifestyle. Will you stop watching TV shows that are hosted or have as persons in the show, as with a person who is homosexual and gives the weather report as he does on GMA and then stop watching that show so as not to give some tacit approval? Jesus tells us that we will face troubles because we are following Him: “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles” (Matthew 10:15–18). We have so much “sloppy agape” teaching and preaching that God and our testimony about Jesus Christ is held in derision by those who oppose Jesus and His teachings and we see this everyday now with even government approving of such as homosexual lifestyles. Are you willing to stand up for the truth? Are you willing to be what Jesus wants, you, and me, to be: His feet, hands, and His voice until He returns for His bride? This is what Jesus told Peter that if you love me you will feed My sheep. If we do otherwise then we are doing that which Jesus spoke against and are denying Him: “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword” (Matthew 10: 32-34). Paul in writing to the Corinthian Christians reminds them and us of the same thing that Jesus spoke: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1Corinthians 2:14). I have heard it said that we are not to judge, but is this true? NO! We are to judge to ensure that God’s commands are being carried out in this world. We begin with ourselves to judge ourselves according to God’s word and not be the wisdom of this world, and by those who are preaching the wisdom of this world: “But he who is spiritual judges all things, ye the himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘who has know the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?’ “But we have the mid of Christ” (1Corinthians 2:15–16; Isaiah 40:13). If you are following the commands of God, then who can judge you rightly? No one! They are followers of the wisdom of this world and not of God and are foolish men and women. We are to have and we do if we have converted to Jesus and are allowing our convictions not to waver. Those convictions are to deny our selves and live for Him. This will take courage, but we have the courage of the Holy Spirit residing in us and we are not to be afraid: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). This will require that we change from the Inside Out for if the inside is wavering then our character that shows what and how we are inside. The reality about us has a need to change and live for the One who came and died for His children.

He who dwells in the secret place

            Of the Most High shall abide

Under the shadow of the Almighty.

            I will say of the LORD, ‘

“He is my refuge and my fortress

            My God, in Him I will trust.”

                                    Psalm 91:1–2

Set Time Aside To Pray And Speak To God

Richard L. Crumb