Do You Want to Be a Better Christian?

John 15:4-5 (Jesus speaking) – “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

“Better Christian.” Likely, you have either said this phrase yourself or heard it many times from others. Today I was half listening to the radio when I heard the phrase, and it sent me into introspective thought.

There are many good follow-up questions, such as how do you become a better Christian? Or what does a better Christian life look like? But for now, I will focus more on the motivation and mindset of the desire to be a better Christian and suggest that when we consider relationships of any kind, with man or with God, we might start replacing the word “better” with “closer.” What if instead of becoming a better husband or wife, a better friend, a better mother or father, we pursued being closer to our spouse, a closer friend, or closer to our children or other family members? What if instead of becoming a better Christian, we pursued simply being closer to our Lord and knowing His character? What if instead of seeking to love better, we sought to love closer, more intimately? I believe this reset in perspective and pursuit will make all the difference in the world.

When we resolve ourselves to be better at something, the truth is that the focus lies squarely on ourselves. We may want to be better for someone else’s benefit, but at the core of our action is a focus on ourselves. Furthermore, in order to feel progress or success, we will have to be analytical and judge whether or not we are better. This leads to a lot of self-focus. However, if instead we refine that desire and replace it with the desire to be closer in any relationship, we will find our focus squarely on the other person. To be closer to someone is to know them better, to perceive their heart, to share what matters to them. As we do this, our eyes, desires, and actions will turn outward. This is true of human relationships, just as it is true of our relationship with our Father, Creator, and Savior God.

The root of the desire “to be a better Christian” can actually be very good. To desire to be a better Christian is often derived from a conviction of incompletion or separation from God. It is a recognition and admission that we need to be changed. It is a desire to live out our lives as Christ, yet a realization that we currently are not doing that well. These are sound convictions that the Holy Spirit works in and through. The twist comes when we begin to focus on ourselves and our shortcomings, desiring to be better, when in reality our truest and deepest desire is simply to be closer. Closer to our holy God, loving Savior, and trustworthy Counselor.

After all, what is the outcome of a life lived in the pursuit of being a better Christian? Or a better anything? I will affirm that learning discipline, especially in spiritual things, is quite good and right; but it is the underlying mindset and approach that I am seeking to divide joints and marrow, truth and error, with the scalpel of the Word (Heb 4:12). Take for instance the desire to be a better husband. This may be lived out in any of a number of tangible ways. Perhaps a man desires to be a better husband and begins to buy his wife flowers on a regular basis. Perhaps he gives other gifts, acts of service, gives his time, offers words of love, or seeks to embrace more often. Whatever he does, as he sets out to be a better husband, he will likely succeed…at least for a little while. But if the desire to be a “better husband” does not meet up with a desire to be a closer husband, closer to his wife, then these languages of love will soon grow dull and meaningless. Months later, dozens of bouquets given without thoughtfulness, acts of service done begrudgingly, time spent with other things preoccupying the mind, repetitive words spoken, embraces given as the new “more” routine…if none of these things are of the heart, they are meaningless. What good are any of these actions that represent our perception of a “better husband” without growing nearer in relationship with your spouse? The true reality is that if we start with the desire to grow closer, we will find ourselves being better. If we grow closer with loved ones, spouses, friends, family, even co-workers, bosses and subordinates, or the man on the street…if we seek to grow closer to the individual, as we do grow closer, we begin to care for them better. And just as this is true in human relationships, it is true in our relationship with God.

Have you ever tried to please someone without knowing them well? It can be very difficult. Have you ever tried to please God (be a better Christian) without knowing Him well? It can be very difficult. “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6). I will submit that without knowing God, it is impossible to have faith. For who has faith in something of which they know nothing about? Can I have faith that the sun will rise if I have no knowledge that it exists and no one has ever told me? Can I have faith that a light bulb will turn on if I’ve never known that it exists? Can I have faith that a seed will grow into a plant if I’ve never seen a plant or a seed, nor have I ever heard of such a thing? Ah, but upon hearing, I can begin to wonder. The power of revealing the truth of Christ to someone who does not know anything about Him! But to truly know our God, is to have faith. And to have faith, is to please our God. To please our God is, so to speak, to be a better Christian. Therefore, if our aim is to be better, our means is to know Him, to be closer to Him. And as we make that our aim and desire, our pursuit is no longer to be better afterall; yet, that is exactly what we become. When we grow closer to God, being “better” simply flows from the relationship. We must let go in order to apprehend. We must step back, to be brought forward. We must surrender in order to be set free. This is the way of our Lord, and how gracious is He to grant us the abundant blessing of knowing Him more closely.

If we set out to be better Christians, there exists a danger of our lives soon becoming all about works and less about faith. If our focus in on ourselves, we begin to strive to earn sanctification and even salvation through works. We did not start there…we were saved by grace and fully aware of it. We then desired to be changed and in our fleshly foolishness, sought to be better in order to get closer. But we have it backwards when we approach the Lord that way, for we can only be “better” by being closer, and being closer to our Lord is a far richer experience than any self-realization of being a “better Christian.”

Zech 13:9 - This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.'"

Job 23:10 - But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

Oh to be refined in the refiner’s fire! For the dross to be burned away! To come forth as pure gold! Let us willingly come before our Refiner, and let our desires to be better Christians melt away, "setting our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:2). May we discard our pursuits of being better, and embrace the pursuit of being closer. May we do this in our marriages, our friendships, our families, our work environments, in everywhere we go. And may we do it unswervingly in an abiding relationship with our Father, Creator, Savior, Defender, Counselor God. Amen.

"My Work" vs. the Holy Spirit

About a month ago, I had the true privilege of giving the message at Church in the Park in Houston, TX, a ministry to the homeless every Saturday. I am not new to public speaking, but I am very new to preaching, as my first experience was only 6 months prior. As usual, in the days and weeks leading up to giving the message, I was giving a lot of thought and prayer to what message God might want to speak through me and how to deliver it.

The story I’m telling you today amazed me because it revealed something very simple about God, yet it was so profoundly communicated to me by Him through the experience.

In preparing for a sermon, you search for the most impactful illustrations and analogies, for the most insightful scriptural cross-references, and you pray that the Lord would not only give you the words to speak, but also, no matter what words leave your mouth, that they would be received by the ears of others with the Holy Spirit’s impactful guidance. And I even sometimes drive myself to the point of worry…something we are instructed by God not to do (1)…in this process. Isn’t it interesting how even good work on our Lord’s behalf, if we are not absolutely centered on Him, can be the things that drive us from Him? In my case, I’m thankful that He convicted me of my worry and replaced it with peace (mostly, anyway). But the lesson remains that “Christian work” can be the very thing that hinders our relationship with our Lord if our hearts are set on the work and not absolutely and simply set on Him alone.

On that Saturday morning, I felt well-prepared, and I thank the Lord for that. I delivered the sermon in a manner that I was pleased with…sometimes afterward you realize that, “oops, I forgot something!” Or, “That came out very awkwardly…I should reword all of that.” And your greatest fear is that you might lead someone astray through your own ignorance of God’s Word, combined with overzealousness. It is an amazing responsibility. But on this morning, I praised the Lord that it seemed to be very well received by those in attendance.

Afterwards, several people were standing up front to pray with anyone who desired it. As I stood at the front, I was the single person who no one approached to pray with. Others would actually stand in line to pray with another prayer partner, glancing briefly at me, making eye contact then looking away and waiting their turn. I thought, “Lord, why is no one praying with me? Please make me approachable! I enjoy this as much or more than the preaching. Please make me welcoming so that others will feel comfortable praying with me.”

No one prayed with me. That is, until near the end, a man walked up who looked a little disoriented. I spoke up and asked him how he was doing. He asked what was going on. I told him that we were praying with people at the end of the service and breakfast would be served soon. He walked over toward me, and this began a series of events that have remained burned in my memory.

He spoke, but I couldn’t quite make out every word. I thought, “Did he just say he wanted to give His life to Jesus?” I looked at him almost stunned for about 2 seconds, then I actually asked him, “What did you just say?” I laugh at myself now, firstly because I was so shocked that he was giving his life to Christ, and secondly that I actually asked him to repeat it. But I did want to be sure. He affirmed. He wanted to go right up front and be prayed over and to give his life to Christ!

After praying with him and doing some discipling on what it really means to be saved by Jesus Christ, he shared a little bit more. He said that he didn’t even come to the service. He was sitting on a bench several blocks away and knew that the service was going on. Then, in his words, “Something told me I needed to get up and go to the alter call.” When he arrived, he ran into me, and by the end of the morning, he had accepted salvation from our Lord Jesus Christ.

What a joy this was! The first time I had ever personally taken part in another’s declaration of belief in Jesus. What floored me even more was the fact that the one man who gave his life to Christ that morning—was the man who didn’t hear a word of my sermon. I absolutely love this because it is such a declaration of the power being of God and not of us!(2) After all of my toil and worry about having just the right words…it became apparent that all that mattered was that I and we were obediently in the appointed place at the appointed time…and the rest of the work—the real transforming work—would be accomplished by the Holy Spirit.

Brothers and sisters, the pressure is off. Do not feel that you need to have the right words or be further educated in scriptures. If you want to invest your time and energy to being more effective in spreading the Good News of Christ, spend your time and energy in simply being obedient to His call and giving yourself to prayer. In the middle, a diligent worker will certainly prepare to the best of his/her abilities—this is being a good steward—but do not fret over that! Simply go and be. Go where God leads and abide in Him, His word and prayer, and I can testify with confidence that the Holy Spirit will do wonders with your tiniest of offerings. Remember, not one person who heard my sermon came forward to receive Christ that day, but the one who didn’t hear a single word did. May you be blessed with the similar experiences, time and time again. I pray that we both are so blessed. Amen.

1 - Matt 6:25-34, 1 Cor 4:20

2 - 1 Cor 3:5-9, 2 Cor 4:1, 1 Cor 2:5

You can listen to the sermon from Church in the Park that morning by following this link to the blog post: Relationship with God - Church in the Park Message

Shared Convictions - Christ Seen in You and Me?

I heard something that really stuck with me from a friend and fellow Christ follower last Sunday.

I'll summarize what the person said with the following question: Do others recognize me as a Christian because I'm living to high standards...or are they seeing Christ in me?

Meditate on that one this week. How am I displaying Christ to my co-workers today? To my family? To anyone I meet? I can strive to live up to the holy standards of the Bible, but the lost seeing Christ in me will be the thing that changes their lives.

At this point, my logical mind asks the next logical question: What does "seeing Christ in me" really mean? Well, I've been doing a lot of writing over the past year, but instead, I'd like to hear from you on this one. Where does that hit home with you? I seek your thoughts for you, and for me, for I know I will be convicted by their truth! And I love that we can share that.

A loved one of mine responded to the question with the following:

"Hey, that's a good question! I've thought about that a lot since working full time.

I think that we will never actually see Christ in ourselves, though I think that the fruits of His Spirit are a good place to start in understanding what it means. I think that others may see Him in us, but it should surprise us if they ever pay us such a compliment. Obviously, we can't make it happen on our own either. We know what the fruits of the Spirit are (love, joy, peace, patience, etc...), but if we focus on "I'm going to be more loving" or "I'm going to work on patience today", we get well acquainted with failure. We have to pray for and rely on the Holy Spirit to change us and prompt us (we have to pray and rely on God to be the means, rather than striving for an impossible end). It is called the fruits of the Spirit anyhow, not the fruits of humans trying to be good people. In the end, I think humbling yourself before God each day (praising God with thanks and joy, directing your inner monologue towards God as fellowship with him, seeking Him in the Word) puts you in a place where God can actually work through you. In my experience, while I would still have to make an effort to be patient with annoying co-workers, or kind to a nasty person, I would look back and see that I'm still not perfect, but I'm not the person I used to be and I don't quite know how I made that progress, except that God was working on me!

I think the hardest part of it all is when you aren't seeing or feeling any change in yourself, to keep running the race, as Paul puts it, or to keep your head down and keep praying and keep reading (abiding) in the Word, etc - trusting God that His promises are true, whether you are "feeling" it or not. Chances are that that in itself is making more of a change in character in you than you know, and that someone may comment on what a change they've seen in you - which again will come as a total surprise. When God is or seems silent, He is still actively at work in us. (This is all just from personal experience!)"

I love that perspective. I'd love to hear from you, too. I invite you to share your convictions by commenting on this post. After all, "as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." (Proverbs 27:17)

-Will

"To Live is Christ" - Personal Death that Brings Abundant Life

From a young age, as a Christian I have always known about being “born again.” And I have always known that Christ lives through us. And I have always known that the Spirit indwells us (maybe not always known, but for long enough). But I have never quite thought of it as O.C. puts it in the 2nd paragraph of the "My Utmost" at the bottom of this post, that we are analogous to Bethlehem as Jesus is actually born into us. If we will yield and let Him enter into us, just as Mary was obedient and thereby yielded and let Jesus into the world through her, then He is born into our lives permanently from that day forward just as His impact on this world is permanent from the first Christmas onward. The day of our salvation is our very own personal Christmas day. Then I think we spend our lifetimes progressing to the Cross. We are to partake in His sufferings upon His birth within us. We may each have different paces to Calvary, carrying our crosses, but we must each be headed there every single day.

Luke 9:23-26 – “Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”

Rom 8:17-18 – “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

It’s a fresh realization of the life of Christ within me. As O.C. puts it, “Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me.” I long for more of Christ to come naturally through me. Do you ever struggle with that? I do, as I battle the “old self” of sin that I have been (Rom 6:6, included below). I believe the more identified we are with Christ’s death, lived out by our death to sinful nature, the more purely His life is worked out within us, as Paul wrote in Phil 2:12: “Continue to work out your salvation.” I believe this is what he means: Not that we’re earning it, but that we’re learning to die for Christ more every day—we have to work that out by intentional submission and fixing our eyes upon Jesus (Heb 12:2), forsaking personal selfish and sinful desires of old. Therefore, instead of striving to do more good, especially when we see the bad we’ve done—hasn’t this been our strategy, trying to make ourselves do more good and less sin?—instead, we need to seek to identify with Christ in the cross…we need to seek to die to self each day.

To seek the fruit before the plant is mature is backwards and irrational. When we seek good works and pureness of heart without first abandoning all for the sake of Christ, experiencing a full death of the “old self,” we have the same irrational expectation. The seed must be planted, it must be watered, it must soak in the sunlight, and its roots must run deep. In the Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:1-9, 18-23), the sun and the rainstorms killed the plants in shallow soil, but they serve to grow those with fertile soil. So we see that to grow we must embrace the rainstorm of trial and difficult circumstances, driving our roots deep into the Word and prayer and truly personal relationship with Christ. We must endure the sun that seems harsh as we are “in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7), exposing our every sinful desire. We must see God as sovereign and holy, as well as loving, to endure the sunlight. And if we do, we will then grow. And if we grow, we will see much fruit. This growth comes by death first, then trial (or really, an intention of death followed by actually death, one piece of me at a time)—both are identification with Christ. So if our goal is to be like Christ, not just superficially, but inside our very hearts every private or public moment of the day, we must realize that the only way is sharing in His sufferings. We will not experience Him without that, but we will experience the infinite amazement of His presence within us if we do. When once we get a taste of His presence, just a little fuller than we did the day before, we will realize there is no circumstance in this world worth trading for, and our present sufferings grieve us less, giving us more joy, as we “consider it pure joy… when you encounter trials of various kinds” (James 1:2) because we know that we are being grown even closer to the purest and abundantly fruitful love of Christ. Moreover, when we are concentrating on the following: "I must do good, I must not do evil," our focus is on self. When we acknowledge, embrace, and enjoy the Lord growing within us, our focus is rightly on Him.

Gal 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Rom 6:3-11 – “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
(See also Rom 8:9-11, Gal 5:24, Gal 6:14)

Finally, have you ever wondered exactly what Paul meant by “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21)? Dying is easily seen as gain with Heaven in mind, but what about “to live is Christ?” I used to think that this meant to live as Christ by Him living through me, doing good things and acting in a proper manner. However, I have a new perspective: to live is Christ because to live as one born again is to be crucified with Him daily. The essence of life becomes sacrifice, just as Jesus sacrificed all. The essence of life becomes submission to the Father, just as Jesus submitted, as seen in His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, saying in effect three times, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matt 26:39, 42, 44). The essence of life becomes service, just as Jesus served our sentence of death in our place. The essence of life becomes love, just as Jesus loved us literally to death. The essence of life then and only then becomes pure joy, as Jesus' joy was made complete by His resurrection and the redemption of our willing souls who accept Him. Therefore to die is gain, but to live as a true believer is certainly Christ. Amen.

"My Utmost For His Highest," Dec 25:

HIS BIRTH AND OUR NEW BIRTH

"Behold, a virgin shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."Isaiah 7:14 (R.V.)

His Birth in History. "Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35.) Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not evolve out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being, He is a Being Who cannot be accounted for by the human race at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate, God coming into human flesh, coming into it from outside. His life is the Highest and the Holiest entering in at the Lowliest door. Our Lord's birth was an advent.

His Birth in Me. "Of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." (Gal. 4:19.) Just as Our Lord came into human history from outside, so He must come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a "Bethlehem" for the Son of God? I cannot enter into the realm of the Kingdom of God unless I am born from above by a birth totally unlike natural birth. "Ye must be born again." This is not a command, it is a foundation fact. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me.

God manifest in the flesh - that is what is made profoundly possible for you and me by the Redemption.

Healthy Aspiration - Abiding in What Can Only Be Given

From "My Utmost for His Highest," November 24:

DIRECTION OF ASPIRATION
"Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters . . . so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God." Psalm 123:2

This verse is a description of entire reliance upon God. Just as the eyes of the servant are riveted on his master, so our eyes are up unto God and our knowledge of His countenance is gained (cf. Isaiah 53:1. R.V). Spiritual leakage begins when we cease to lift up our eyes unto Him. The leakage comes not so much through trouble on the outside as in the imagination; when we begin to say - "I expect I have been stretching myself a bit too much, standing on tiptoe and trying to look like God in stead of being an ordinary humble person." We have to realize that no effort can be too high.

For instance, you came to a crisis when you made a stand for God and had the witness of the Spirit that all was right, but the weeks have gone by, and the years maybe, and you are slowly coming to the conclusion - 'Well, after all, was I not a bit too pretentious? Was I not taking a stand a bit too high?' Your rational friends come and say - Don't be a fool, we knew when you talked about this spiritual awakening, that it was a passing impulse, you can't keep up the strain, God does not expect you to. And you say - Well, I suppose I was expecting too much. It sounds humble to say it, but it means that reliance on God has gone and reliance on worldly opinion has come in. The danger is lest no longer relying on God you ignore the lifting up of your eyes to Him. Only when God brings you to a sudden halt, will you realize how you have been losing out. Whenever there is a leakage, remedy it immediately. Recognize that something has been coming between you and God, and get it readjusted at once.

There is a subtle distinction in the writing above between striving to attain the Goal and seeing and knowing the Goal. If you read O.C.'s writing, you'll find a very strong emphasis against striving to achieve any great thing on our own or for ourselves (which is actually a Bible Truth--no doubt the Truth O.C. is trying to convey)--though it may seem so, he is not condoning this striving in the passage above. The above addresses the goal and the life of continual full reliance on God, producing an awareness of His presence that overflows in us to the point that others might notice and errantly say "it was a passing impulse." If we can keep this in mind as not a contradiction, but instead as clarity on the life of delighting in the Lord, desiring Him above all else and even being very aware of Him versus striving to attain any self-righteousness by our own efforts, then we can see this not as a contradiction but instead as a more detailed clarification. Jesus is the Way and the Destination. While united with Him, we do have the experience O.C. describes. Let us never give it up willingly in the name of false humility, knowing also that we could never gain it on our own apart from Him and He is available to all.

Our Work Here - Tested by Fire

From Paul to the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 3:4-15 --

"4 For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not mere men? 5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.
11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.
14 If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.
15 If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."

Verses 4-9 are truth. And I am convicted by verses 10-15. Verse 15 is a comfort — as Christ followers we are saved, yes, that is not in question. Even if what I do fails to save others and have an eternal impact, I know that I, myself, and saved. That is comforting...but what is the work that we are doing? Verse 10 says we must be careful what we build on our foundation of Jesus Christ. And verse 13 says that our work will be revealed through fire. It’s now that I wonder how much of my work will endure into Heaven…through the test of spiritual fire. The answer is “not much to this point," and if the same is true for you, I hope we are both determined to change that. I am convinced that what we do every day will be measured by its eternal impact. What is the fruit of our work every day? Are we building lives and legacies of houses, entertainment, reputations or anything else that can be measured in this world alone? It will be burned away — it will not remain. The entirety of my life — reduced to nothing, except that which brought glory to God and saved others. It is a terrible thought that your entire life could be reduced to smoldering ash…so we must change what we’re working for, and it must be eternal, it must be of highest quality…we don't have to know immediately how, but it must be our new goal, and we must pursue it to completion.

The verses here are simple, yet profound. It makes me think, “today, what am I putting on the foundation of God? Will it burn away like wood, or will it remain, like a precious gem? Today, did I help to build the eternal house or just an illusion of one? What will I do tomorrow?”

What will you do today that will endure into Heaven?