Ephesians 2:20-22, Romans 12, Ephesians 2:10, Philippians 1:6

Jeff Cutts

When I was younger I was going to be a builder or an architect. My father had a building company and as a teenager I would work holidays and weekends. I worked hard, it taught me many skills and kept me in spending money - a good arrangement! After college the skills and experience enabled me to work on different sites and pay my way on a few short term mission trips and travel adventures - experiences and adventures that shaped me and helped set the course of my life.

With my father's company the main focus of the building work was in renovation - taking old dilapidated properties and restoring them.

One thing you could not escape about this work was that it was so messy! In order to re-render crumbling walls all the old plaster had to come off, there was dust everywhere = mess!! The roof? All the slates and old wood off the roof = mess!! Concrete = well, mess, you get the idea...and so it was with every job!

It's a few years on now and I am not an architect - but I am involved in building - and it's still messy!!

You see, together we are being built into God's holy Temple.

'Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.' Ephesians 2:20-22

This is a process, just like physically building. Over time as we follow Jesus we change and grow. We are challenged in Romans 12 not to be conformed to the world, but instead to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Living as a Christian is a process of transformation. If there is one thing about growth and transformation - being changed as we grow in faith - it's that it can be messy!

Do you ever feel personally that you're stuffing it up big time and yet you want to change? I know I do and it can feel a mess. Maybe you are involved in working with people, guiding them into a life that involves God in the centre, a life being transformed by the Spirit and guided by him...again when you look at things in this light it's messy!

I was once given a helpful picture about an artist sculpting from a rock. The artist sees the image within, and chips away at it to form the sculpture, a thing of beauty - but to the bystander it looks a mess of chipped rock and rubble. So it is with us, whatever our age, maturity, experience, background, circumstance, we must allow The Artist to continue chiselling away at us!

Individually we are also being built into God's masterpiece! Do you see yourself as a work of art?

Ephesians 2:10 tells us, 'For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.'

Also, know that God will never give up on you and walk away. No matter how messy it seems there is the promise that 'I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.' (Philippians 1:6)

God bless you as you follow Him and allow Him to work within you