What are you Made of?

Hey hey hey saints of God, brothers and sister in Christ! Today I wanted to touch on something I know a lot of us can relate too, if you are walking this saved and committed life to God, and even if you are not as of yet! (I pray for your salvation and deliverance RIGHT NOW!) SO, I am still in Corinthians (1 Corinthians chapter 3 today), and the verses towards the end of the chapter is a WHOLE WORD! PERIOD! OK, so have you ever been saved before, I mean given your life to God at an alter call, or revival, or may be just sitting in your house alone, WHEREVER! The days after you REALLY gave it a good try, you woke up, prayed and even read the bible a little. You tried not to cuss, had your gospel music playing, tried to be as pleasant as possible. I mean you really gave it a go, going to bible study and prayer service, never missed a Sunday, said "Uh UHH devil, not today" when you were faced with opposition! Tried changing up who you hung out with, changed your scenery, stopped going to the club. Stayed away from negativity, smiled more, closed your legs (no sex), deleted the weed mans number, dumped out the bottles of liquor in the house. After you give your life to God, you are feeling that EUPHORIA, positive thoughts, thankful to God for forgiving you, that light on the inside shining brighter than ever, RIGHT!? God has built a foundation for you, you know what He requires, because you have been reading the word a little on your own, and you have never missed a bible study or Sunday service. After a while of going through this HONEYMOON period, LIFE HITS! BOOM, like a ton of bricks, a situation will arise, a trial by FIRE! You are going through something you think is unbearable, you think you will never get through this! This is where our salvation is TESTED! You see, God lays our foundation, but it is up to us to build on top of it with the right materials and stand strong! Whether we crumble and fall or stand strong depends on the material we built our house with! If our foundation is the word of God and his commandments, His joy and peace, grace and mercy, then what should we build our house with? Our materials should be OBEDIENCE, SACRIFICE, HUMILITY, BEING HUMBLE, LOVE, and really allowing the word to penetrate our spirit and renew our minds! Some of us (me being that person at one time) get saved, and our salvation is on the surface. It's showing up at bible study, but not allowing the word of God to really change us. It's joining every church group (choir, usher board, kitchen ministry, etc), but not listening to the voice of God to get His direction for your life! Going to conventions, making the church program, baking for the bake sale, serving the food in the fellowship hall, but only being changed a little on the INSIDE! Then when we have to deal with life WOES, we start to question if God really loves us, we get angry because we thought that being saved meant NEVER GOING THROUGH ANYTHING! We get angry at God for allowing it to happen, we slowly buckle under the pressure. We start to think, "I was better off when I wasn't saved!" (I used to think that CONSTANTLY a few years ago when I was just simply, GIVING IT A GOOD TRY!) In order to guarantee of victory, in order to stand strong during those times is REALLY knowing the word of God and his promises! We have to really put in the work, not just reading but studying and meditating on the word. It's not just simply stopping the cussing on your own, its allowing God to change your vocabulary. It's about following the direction of the Holy Spirit. (The feeling you get when you are about to make a wrong decision, or say the wrong things! It's that churning feeling in your stomach that screams NOOOO! Some people call it intuition!) Most important of all, you have to build RELATIONSHIP with God, pray without ceasing! That means talk to Him about everything, prayer is just another word for talking to God. You can do that anywhere, anytime! Seek his guidance, follow His lead. Totally surrender to His will for your life! Keep the faith, put all your hopes and trust in Him!

Follow ALL his commandments, not pick and choose the ones you want to follow! God wants to bless us fully, and restore us to greatness!! If we continue to build our house with faulty materials (superficial salvation, not from the inside out), we will fall at the sign of trouble. We will have just enough to bare make it out alive, suffering the great loss of our house, working with ashes! If we build house with sustainable materials, that is, being obedient to Gods word, renewing our minds with the word of God, allowing God to change us from the inside out, surrendering completely to His will, when we are being tried in the fire, we will come out as pure gold! We can rebuild and be restored completely, we can come out not hurt or damaged by the situation, but stronger and more resilient! That is what God wants for us, being saved isn't always just a walk in the park, it's knowing that no matter what GOD IS IN CONTROL! It's knowing that working your faith, obedience, and sacrifice, leads to Gods rewards and blessings! ABUNDANCE! SO, how you live your life for Christ will determine if you stand strong and make it though your trial by fire, or barely make it out alive with your life, having to rebuild yourself from scratch! I was tired of bare making it out with my life, tired of doing things my way, only allowing God limited access to my heart! I went through the same cycle every 2 years, the fire (eviction, and having to live with my mother), no engaging in destructive behavior until I got it together again, then picking everything back up because I thought everything was finally okay! Wash, Rinse and Repeat! God will set you on a solid path, keep you consistent, your response during a trial will be praise, instead of malcontent, and suffering! Just allow God to do it! As the old folks used to say "HE'LL KEEP YOU IF YOU WANT TO BE KEPT!" I love you very much, and I pray that God continues to bless and keep you! GOD LOVES YOU MUCH MORE AND IS WAITING FOR YOUR YES!! ~Amen

I Corinthians 3:11-15

"For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone build on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet be saved-even though only as one escaping through the flames."