The original house had been constructed in the early 1800’s. Beneath the siding and the interior walls, this house was made of massive, hand-hewn logs. The walls were thick, about a foot of solid tree trunk put together. This original part of the house was over 200 years old and as strong and sturdy as the day it was built.
On the other hand, the part of the house that had been added to the original was a rotten piece of termite infested junk. Its fate was to meet with a bulldozer and be torn down. It was thrown into the fire. Then the rebuilding began.
From the outside, the two parts of this house looked the same. It was only after you went into the house and examined it could you see the strength and stability of the original and the rottenness of the newer. The outside hid the flaws…but it also hid the strengths.
You have probably heard the phrase that you can’t judge a book by its cover. There is some truth to this but judging is one of the things that we as humans do best. We judge people by the way they look, the clothes they wear, the cars they drive and the houses they live in. All these things are things apparent to the eye only. You look at an expensive house with expensive cars parked in the driveway and you think those people are rich and well off. Yet oftentimes when you look behind the doors of that house, the marriage is falling apart and the kids are neglected. Those fancy houses and fancy cars are paid for with debt and the family is killing itself to pay for the outward appearance of prosperity.
For suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring, dressed in fine clothes, and a poor man dressed in dirty clothes also comes in. If you look with favor on the man wearing the fine clothes so that you say, "Sit here in a good place," and yet you say to the poor man, "Stand over there," or, "Sit here on the floor by my footstool," haven’t you discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
James 2:2-4
Outward appearances can be deceiving. What looks good can be rotten and what looks bad can be good. What we have to learn to do is to suspend judgment and look within first. We have to look past a person’s clothing, the car they drive, the color of their skin, the music they listen to, and all the other things we use to measure people. We have to examine the heart. In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees would judge you on what you ate and whether you kept traditions. Yet Jesus set them straight.
"Are you still lacking in understanding?" He (Jesus) asked. "Don’t you realize that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated? But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a man. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a man."
Matthew 15:16-20
A person’s character is all that should matter as we look at one another. I would rather have a friend that dressed like a bum and walked everywhere he went but treated me with love over a rich friend that would not lift a finger to help me in a time of need. I know that I must purge myself of my tendency to judge others. And so must you.
"Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with the judgment you use, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
Matthew 7:1-2
By what do you judge other people? The color of their skin? How they dress? Their apparent financial success? The neighborhood they live in? What church they go to? Whether they go to church at all? Whether they follow your traditions or not?
I married an African-American woman. I am a white man (about as white as they come). Despite the warnings I received about what life would be like if I married a black woman in Kentucky, the decision to marry my lovely wife was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. She has been the most amazing wife I could have ever imagined. Yet what if I had judged her by the color of her skin and concluded that she would somehow be less of a wife because she did not look like me? Some of my best friends are not white and I am a better person because of the diversity in my life. Some of my wife’s best friends are white and she is a better person because of the diversity in her life.
We all have to learn not to judge by outward appearances. We have to learn this because it is not our natural instinct. We have to learn to look at the heart of people. The nice cars and the big houses and pretty wife and perfectly groomed children do not always tell the whole story.
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord."
But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
1 Samuel 16:6-7
In order to build a great life, you will have to choose your friends wisely for "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm." Proverbs 13:20. The heart, the unseen character of a man or woman, is what matters most to God. It should be what matters most to us. But because of our judgment mentality, we are quick to judge ourselves and our success by the measures we use on others. Think about it for a moment. What does success mean to most people? Nice house, nice car, good job, healthy bank account? All of these are the outward appearance things by which most judge one another. Yet they will not be the measures that bring true happiness and joy.
Teaching our children to have good hearts and character is more important than them having the best grades in school or being stars in sports. Having strong marriages full of love and laughter is more important than having the biggest and best house that you can afford and all the stress that goes with the mortgage. Being right with God is more important than being politically correct with your neighbors and friends. Being honest in your dealings with others is more important than being the top salesman or the top producer.
"Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
Practical Application:
By what do you judge your success or the success of others? Are these things of the heart or things of outward appearance?
Spirituality (Do you judge a person’s spirituality based on their position in church? Do you judge your own worth to God in terms of how much you "do" for him? Do you judge your spiritual maturity based on your humility?)
Marriage (Do you judge people’s marriage on how they appear on the outside? Do you judge marriage based upon the amount of love you feel for one another?)
Family (Do you judge a person’s success or failure as a parent on their children’s success in school or sports? Do you judge a parent on how their kids’look or the clothes they wear? Do you judge a parent on how much their kids serve others?)
Career (Do you judge a person’s success on the job by their productivity or position? Do you judge a person’s success by their work ethic and ability to work with others?)
Are there outward appearance items that you tend to judge (skin color, dress, socio-economic status, etc…) others by that you know you need to repent of doing?
Lesson 10 - Nothing Survives the Fire!
Nothing good ever happens when you get a visitor pounding on your door in the middle of the night. I remember vividly a night that this very thing happened. Someone had stopped by the house and was pounding on the door. It seems that someone had been driving by when they saw smoke coming from our barn. We lived way out in the country, too far for the fire department to get to quickly. If the fire was to be put out, it was up to us.
So away the family went, all of us dragging buckets of water from the house to the barn. We had pigs in the barn. All the carpenter’s tools were in the barn. The tractor and all the farming implements were in the barn. The carpenter’s office and all the business records. His shop. My brother’s motorcycle.
I was small at the time and all I could do was drag the buckets to the carpenter who fought hard to save what he had built. But buckets of water were not enough. The fire
moved from inside the enclosed office where it had started to shortly consume the entire building and everything in it! By morning, smoking ash was all that remained.
I had never seen anything so devastating. Even now, it remains the most devastating event I have ever witnessed. Standing there and watching a building I had watched built from the ground up be reduced to ash in just a few minutes was just plain scary. If it could happen to that building, why couldn’t it happen to a house in which I lived? One of my best friends had his house consumed by fire. He lost everything he owned. A boy in my scout troop had his house consumed by fire. He lost a brother. Fire is one of the most destructive forces I know. As I discovered, you can be one of the best carpenters in the world and build a great building but fire can turn all your work into a pile of smoldering ash overnight.
It can happen. I came home one day and found an empty house. My first wife had left me while I was away one night.
All that was left was a note saying, "I don’t love you anymore and thought it easier to leave when you weren’t here." I will admit, I was not the best husband in the world that first time around, but I was trying to build a good marriage. Yet I found my family in ruin, nothing left but ashes after years of building. My marriage just could not withstand the testing of fire.
Because of God’s special favor to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any other foundation than the one we already have – Jesus Christ. Now anyone who builds on that foundation may use gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay or straw. But there is going to come a time of testing at the judgment day to see what kind of work each builder has done. Everyone’s work will be put through the fire to see whether or not it keeps its value. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builders themselves will be saved, but like someone escaping through a wall of flames."
1 Corinthians 3:10-15 (NLT)
All of our work is going to be tested with fire one day. We can work hard at something in life, invest all our time and effort into it and be very proud of what we have built. But in the end, will it withstand the fire of testing? The fire can destroy a lifetime of work. So what do we do? Not build for fear of losing? Or build anyway and do your best to build a life that is going to withstand the testing?
I choose to do the latter, to build something that will stand through the fire because I have seen fire. I do not want to be "like someone escaping through a wall of flames." That thought scares me to death. But how do you keep from being the builder just barely escaping through the fire?
For me, I am choosing to build with strong materials. In my marriage, I am really trying to focus on being a godly husband and treating my wife with love and respect. With my children, I am trying to invest time into their hearts and teach them the lessons that I have learned in life. At work, I try to be a person that is true to my word and honest in all my dealings. I try to be someone that can be counted on when someone needs something. At church, I try very hard to be a man that correctly uses the scriptures to teach, admonish and encourage my brothers and sisters.
The things that I do in my life, I try my very best to make sure that I am building with solid materials. I want my marriage to withstand the fire this time. I want my family to withstand the fire. My friendships. My work.
Look around you for a moment. Look at your house and your possessions in it. Look at your vehicles. Look at your neighbors’ houses and cars. Look at your place of employment. Look at your bank and your bank account balances. For a moment consider this: all these things are going to one day exist no more. Like the fire consuming our barn and everything in it those many years ago, all you see will one day be consumed and all we will be left with is what treasure we have stored in heaven.
It deserves repeating because it is so important to our success at building.
his (the builder’s) 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 man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 1 Corinthians 3:13-14(NIV)
Let’s not skirt around the issue. Paul is talking about the Judgment Day of all mankind. I am going to be there. You are going to be there. Our children and our grandchildren are going to be there. Our spouses are going to be there. The quality of our work is going to be tested on that day and if what we built survives these fires, we will be rewarded. Could this be the treasures that Jesus told us to store in heaven? What work could we ever do on this earth that would survive the Day of Judgment? What could we possibly do here on earth that we could enjoy forever?
For me, I cannot imagine an eternity without my children making it. I cannot fathom an enjoyable eternity without my wife. I do not want to think about heaven without my best friends and co-workers with me. I do not want the fires of Judgment to consume these very important people in my life. Therefore, my building of my marriage, family and friendships must serve to help my loved ones make it. I want my kids to be successful in school, sports and career. But I would trade success for failure in all these areas if only they will successfully come to know Jesus and pass the Final Judgment. No matter how many A’s they make in school or how many soccer games they win, none of it will stand up to the fire. I don’t care how successful my wife is at work, how clean the house is, or what she weighs as long as she makes it to heaven.
How I build my marriage, my family and my friendships will have an eternal affect on the people I care about the most. I must build so that not only will I survive the fire, but that they do as well.
How are you building your life to withstand the fires of testing? I have seen what fire can do. Are you ready for it? It is coming!
Practical Application:
Marriage (How are you preparing your marriage for the fires of testing? How are you helping your spouse prepare for the fires of Judgment?)
Family (How are you preparing your children for the fires of testing? How are you helping them prepare to pass the fires of testing at Final Judgment?)
Personal (How are you preparing yourself for the fires of testing? Are you prepared to pass the fires of testing at Final Judgment?)
Lesson 11 - Book Sense but No Common Sense
I was riding in the truck with the carpenter one day. He and one of his helpers were talking about this and that when the subject turned to something stupid that someone had done. I don’t remember what it was, but even though I was young, I agreed that it was pretty stupid. "Yea," Richard said, "He’s got a lot of book sense but no common sense."
There were other colorful phrases that I picked up from the carpenter. "He couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag," is one such phrase. I just always thought that was funny. But the one about having book sense and no common sense has sort of stuck with me over the years. I am not sure, but he may have even said that about me a time or two.
You see, I am an educated man. What does that mean? It means that I have got a lot of book sense. It means that I have studied hard, worked hard and learned a lot of things. I have papers on my wall stating that I am a pretty smart man from two prestigious universities (and working on a third). I have multiple bookshelves full of books that I have read. I have forgotten more things that I have learned than I have remembered. But at least I can call myself an educated man!
On the other hand, the carpenter never went to high school. He doesn’t have papers saying that he is smart. He has probably not read a fourth of the books that I have. But one thing that you cannot say is that he is not an educated man. He has been educated not at some fancy school but by the school of life. He has a degree in life with a major in common sense.
I always wanted to be one of those people that had both book sense and common sense. The book sense comes easy to me as I love to read and learn from others. This is important and we should all try to learn as much as we can. The common sense p
art is what I aspire to gain. Of the two, common sense is the practical application of the book sense. In the Bible, it is referred to as wisdom.
That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him: "Ask. What should I give you?" And Solomon said to God: "You have shown great faithful love to my father David, and You have made me king in his place. LORD God, let your promise to my father David now come true. For You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Now, grant me wisdom and knowledge so that I may lead these people, for who can judge this great people of Yours?"
The House that Richard Built Page 5