Hosanna Restoration Church

As I was reading about God building us into a temple, I was reminded of the joy we experienced as we built Hosanna, and again when we added on to our house. When we started it was just a bunch of pieces laying in piles. We had a bunch of wood and a bunch of nails. As we nailed the pieces together they became solid lying on the ground, but when we stood them up they were pretty unstable. However, as we anchored them to the deck and tied each wall together they started feel a little more solid. With each step in the construction it stood stronger and stronger until finally it was finished.

Now to many this is pretty elementary. Obviously it gets stronger as you add to it, but for some reason I always get a thrill as the structure goes from the stage where you wonder how it could stand to the stage where you are sure nothing can take it down. I am sure that many of you already know where I am headed with this. God is doing the same thing with us that a construction crew does with a building.

We come to Him in pieces. We come in a pile that needs to be built into a whole new person and in a moment with the mention of the Name of Jesus our foundation is laid. God then proceeds to build us. He takes the piles we come in, and one piece at time He carefully works on our lives. As each section is ready, he stands us up. We are often a bit wobbly and unstable as we get our spiritual legs. Sometimes we even topple over, but He patiently stands us back up, only this time there is another section that has been prepared because of what we learned in our topple and He ties them both together.

Soon, we have a pretty good framework and he puts on the siding. This really brings things together. I see the armor of God as our siding. It is the thing that really begins to get us ready to stand against every wile of the devil. The Holy Spirit arms us with everything. God protects us from the outside and at the same time does the finish work on the inside of us to make us a nice place for the Lord to dwell. The things that are done on the inside serve to make the outside that much stronger.

I remember when we had the outside finished on our house I was ready to ease up a bit. My wife was not of the same mind. She wanted the inside finished and she wanted it done as soon as possible. She lived on the inside and wanted it finished. Sometimes as Christians we may think we can get by with just putting on our Christian act and talking Christian talk while there is a mess to be fixed on the inside. Fortunately, God does not let this go on for long. Sooner or later, the inside is exposed and then something needs to be done with it.

One thing about the building process, I never had a piece of wood that said no when I went to work with it. Some of it may have needed a little twisting and convincing but it never said no. This is how I want to be in Gods hands as He builds me into His Spiritual temple. How about you?