Building By His Pattern and Design

Daily Life Together

In order to be a good House for Jesus to live in, God’s House must be built together using His pattern and design. His House is made of people, His living stones, and He has a way we must build our lives together. Scripture calls Jesus the Master Architect. We should care deeply about His Blueprint, His Plan.

5/7/2006

Now that we have defined what are good building materials for God’s House...consider this: Suppose we take all the good stones, all the good wood, and all the good, suitable building materials that Jesus chooses for His House and heap all those good materials in a pile. Guess what? We still don’t have a house. God’s House requires even more than just good building materials (true Christians). Just because you have all the materials for a house heaped in a pile does not mean you have a house to sleep in. That pile won’t protect you from the storm, no matter how good the materials may be.

In order to be a good House for Jesus to live in, God’s House must be built together using His pattern and design. His House is made of people, His living stones, and He has a way we must build our lives together. Scripture calls Jesus the Master Architect. We should care deeply about His Blueprint, His Plan.

God has many wonderful people all over the world. What has happened very often in the last 2,000 years is that these people have been desiring to change their lives and please Him, but they have been frustrated. They have been unable to find their full potential and really serve Him well. It is their whole heart, but they fail again and again. The reason why they fail is because we have often built the wrong way. We have not built according to the pattern, the design, that God has given us. When anyone attempts anything, but attempts to do it in totally the wrong way, they will seldom find success, no matter how sincere they may be.

Jesus’ House is built by His design, not ours. And His design is a “hundred fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters.” His design is that we would “confess our sins one to another” and be healed. His design is that we would “bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” His design is that we would be “one together, as He and the Father are one.” God’s desire is not for separate stones that come together on Sunday to “attend” a speech or ceremony, but His desire is a family that is built together every day, intertwined in all areas of daily life, as Family.

Jesus has chosen for His House a design that looks the same in every country, no matter what the language or the culture. The design is that all of God’s people lay down their lives to love and serve each other every single day, as a Family, together. The true church of Jesus, designed His way to be strong, must be a Family every day. They eat together from house to house, they serve each other and help each other in many ways every day. They speak God’s word to each other daily to help them become more like Jesus. When they see sin, they go for a walk and talk about it together. They don’t wait for “Sunday” to hear someone preach a sermon about it. God’s Intent (Eph. 3:10, 1 Peter 2) is that we are all daily priests and ambassadors of God to one another and the world “as we rise up, sit down, and walk along the way.”

We are all called to be priests for Jesus. We are all called to bear the word of God and help one another. This means that if you see your neighbor being selfish or angry, or if you see drinking, or pride that breaks Jesus’ heart, then each of us will take responsibility to help each other change. This is for every day. It has nothing to do with Sundays. The true Church of Jesus is made of Living Stones, and the design of the House is every-day Family. It’s not something that we “attend,” but it is something that we are every day.

Do you see how all this is connected? ONLY WITH DAILY RELATIONSHIPS can you ever know if anyone loves the Light and the Truth, and is therefore a child of God. A few meetings a week will never allow anyone to know if someone loves the Light and is just weak, or if they hate the Light and therefore are not yet Saved. God’s plan is a treasure in earthen vessels. God’s plan is a priesthood of believers. God’s plan is for His people to “admonish one another every day.” As we truly live this out together, one benefit is that all of God’s true children become more and more mature. Another result of walking together as God intended is that if someone doesn’t love the Light, then they are exposed as a pretender. If they are uncorrectable, if they don’t care what Jesus says about these things, if they get angry and arrogant, then they are exposed as being a counterfeit Christian. It becomes clear that they must not have ever really given their life to Jesus because the truth is one cannot have the Holy Spirit and not love the Light (John 3, 1 John 1, 3).

If we will build this way—changing our selfish or lazy lives, and truly learning how to love each other like family every single day, taking responsibility to serve and help each other with the word of God—then it will be a House that Jesus can live in and can love. It will be a House of good design that will be easy for Jesus and for all of us to live in and make our home in.

Jesus said that when we put His word into practice, when the storms come (and they will), then the house will stand. It will stand because it is built on the rock of “putting His word into practice,” not just on thinking or singing about His word. If we only sing about it, pray about it and talk about it and don’t change the way we live to obey His word with one another, then when the storms come, no matter how pretty the house may look, it will be flattened and destroyed. This is what Jesus promised in Matthew 7. So, be sure to build His way and DO something about His Truths. Obey them, and then the storms will not harm you.

In the same way a little bird or little rabbit hides underneath a rock when the storms come, you can hide in the shelter of Jesus’ wing if you will build the way He calls you to. The storms will shake the trees and move heavy things. They will crash and the lightning will strike. But if you will build Jesus’ way and turn your face towards Him when they come, you will be held safe in the shelter of His wings. The violent storms will pass and the sun will shine. The birds will begin to sing again, and life will be fresh and new. It will be a very, very strong House of good Design. When the storms come and batter on the House, it will stand because it has only good materials, and because the design is good. There will be very little damage to this wonderful House, and we will all be safe. Just as Father was very specific about what materials and design Noah should use to build the Ark, so also Jesus has a plan for materials and design of His House. And His Plan is not, in the New Agreement, a holy man giving a speech to an “attendance based” organization of disconnected people. It is NOW “a hundred mothers, brothers, sisters”—deep, daily, intertwined, intimate, “from the least to the greatest” relationships of Light-lovers.

This is the good news of the Kingdom of Jesus. He said, “My Father has much zeal for the house being built.” The Father strongly desires that we build His House His way. In many countries and cities very seldom is the house built the way Jesus wants it built. In almost every “church” in almost every country, there are people who come together with rituals and traditions and then go their separate ways living their lives however they please. Maybe they sin freely, or maybe they try not to. But it’s not a house because they are not a Family, every day, together.

It is only when all the stones are stuck together, by the glue of practical love and vulnerability, and built by God’s design, that it becomes a place that He can call home. Even if you are a pretty good living stone and try to live a holy life, you are still just one stone. If I put that stone on the ground, it still would not be a home for Jesus. He doesn’t want just individual good stones to sit out in a field. We must make ourselves, even force ourselves, to stick together to other stones. Every day we must demand of ourselves that we be stuck together with the other stones, daily in God’s design for a House... as we “rise up, as we sit down, as we walk along the road” together. Washing the clothes together, and going to market together. As we work in the fields, make the bricks, cut firewood, or fix meals, let us do it together so that we will be one Family instead of many individuals or many families. It is in these “trivial” issues of daily life that we bond our Faith, Hope, and Love together. These daily tasks, lived out together as a Family, are the “windows of the soul” that allow us to truly wash each other in the water of the Word, rather than the make-believe religion of “attending” religious ceremonies and sing-alongs and holy man speeches. Jesus is not building anything but family.

Jesus said if you truly obey My will, you will have a hundred fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters—not a hundred neighbors, but a hundred very close family members. This is the will of God. These are the teachings of Jesus Christ—that He builds His house with good materials. Bad materials are not welcome if they won’t change when they hear Jesus’ words.