“Building A House?” – Time To Consider message by Steve Martin
July 6, 2020 Love For His People ministry in Charlotte, North Carolina USA
“Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn’t first sit down and figure the cost so you’ll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you’re going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: ‘He started something he couldn’t finish.’” Luke 14:28-30, THE MESSAGE
We all know the parable Jesus (Yeshua) spoke to those gathered around Him when He walked the earth the first time, as He desired to teach us the ways of life. Being the Giver of life as Creator Himself, He alone can give to all what is required. I believe He knows how we should live.
And being we have heard the story a few times, as written in the verses above, and depending on if we belong to a Bible-believing church or one in name only, we can easily dismiss it, and not really consider what more He was saying.
I thought of this parable as I drove home after helping a good friend continue to build his new house. Cementing the heavy stones onto the foundational blocks is no easy task. It was a challenge as I offered my hands and 65-year old back as best I could. Load the wheelbarrow with the big rocks. Cross the great back yard (in vision only at this time) with its ruts and debris, and dump onto the holding pallet until prepared for adherence to the outside wall. Cut groves in the back with the hand power circular saw for the cement to hold it.
Having already mixed the cement by hand, he then slapped on several of the “mud mixture” as I got a stick to hold it tight against the wall until dry. Unless it rains. Which it did.
It will look great when finished!
Sometimes that is all a friend needs – a helping hand.
Praying for further revelation from the Holy Spirit about the “counting the cost” story, I felt there was indeed another level to be uncovered. You see, or know, that our Lord delights in hiding things in His word, so we will spend time with Him and seek them out as treasures, for which they truly are.
“People are wise to count the cost before they begin a project,” He spoke (I am paraphrasing), “and that is good. But far too often they walk right out of faith in doing what I desire them to do as they over analyze the cost, seek to know the end result is assured before they take the first step, and then stop in their tracks before getting out of the gate.”
Don’t we do too much of this? We have this conversation with our self in our head, “Far more time than I have. Cannot happen anyway. What have you got instead for me, Lord?”
Know this. He will not give us the “next for us” until we make the next move. We need to use the mustard seed of faith that comes with each command to move forward, to take the next step, to walk in faith and not in doubt.
No one has it easy in walking the Christian walk. If you are consistently leaning on your close friend, your spouse, your Sunday pastor to continually “pump you up” with a “wee-little faith message” then I would seek a church that gives you meat and potatoes, and not just potato chips.
We need to be challenged. We were created to long for adventures. We were not created to have everything spoon-fed to us. We were not created to just get saved and live for ourselves until brought home.
Get in the Lord’s army and act like the soldier we are meant to be – hear and obey, in order to see Him work the works through us that we have been called to do.
Those doing it can get a bit weary of those who call themselves Christians and yet don’t pray daily, don’t read the Word daily, don’t serve someone other than themselves daily. They need to grow up. They need to get on with what the Lord has given them to do.
Is it time for you also to consider what you have done thus far with your life? Whether it has been these last 3-4 months of 2020 shutdown, or even looking back at the last 10 years that have already gone by? What have you done for eternity, and not just for yourself?
I encourage you to get real with the Lord. See Him as such, the Lord. Hear and obey. And then you can expect a good change to come as a result.
Start by helping a friend “build his house”, his life, and the Lord will be building yours in the meantime.
Ahava and shalom,
Steve Martin
Love For His People Founder/President
P.S. I have received a new and fresh challenge from the Lord. Just yesterday in fact (07.05.2020). In a prophetic word to me through a credible prophetic-gifted man, He said I was to not take my “writing gift with me when I go home, but to pass it on to others. Don’t die with them. Don’t bring those gifts back to heaven. I gave them to you here on earth so you could pass them on. As freely as you have received now freely give.”
Once I get further revelation on that I will! If you have any thoughts, please share with me. Thanks!
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Time To Consider – in the year of our Lord 7.06.2020 – “Building A House?
Monday, 5:30 pm in Charlotte, NC USA
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