Building Materials

In 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 Paul talks about building materials, there are good materials like gold, silver and costly stones and then there are not so great building materials like wood, hay and straw. He goes on to talk about how the building materials will be tested by fire and that the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If the material survives, then we receive a reward, if not we suffer loss, but the good news is that we will still be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames...
We have been talking about building on the firm foundation of Christ this week and how important it is to realize that Christ is our firm foundation for life. But, do you realize that even if we build our lives on Christ that it is possible to still build a 'shabby' building.
Some will say, "Yes, we all must build upon a firm foundation," but do we realize that it is possible to build wrongly upon the foundation? When we build wrongly upon the right foundation we find ourselves still not enjoying true happiness or true security either.
What are you building today? Some would say, "Oh pastor, if I am building wrong at least I'll still be saved." Yes it is true, but did you notice what Paul said? He said you will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. I don't know if you have ever been burned or tried to walk through fire, but let me tell you, it doesn't look like much fun.
Start building with the best materials today, things like gold and silver and costly stones. You say you don't have any of those materials? For gold use the 'golden rule' that we talked about a couple of weeks ago, for silver try treasuring a friendship and for costly stones try expressing to the Father today that He is truly more beautiful than diamonds and let your desire today to be able to say, "Nothing I desire compares with You, Lord."
See You Sunday...Bro. Alan