You live in a ‘what?’

Two days ago, I wrote that Paul was a tent maker. Afterward, it occurred to me that his spiritual calling was not so dissimilar. In writing to the Corinthians, Paul said we are living in a tent (this body) that will be replaced by a permanent spiritual house. Paul may have been a tent maker by day, but he taught house building by night.

Coincidentally, Jesus is called the architect of our faith (Heb. 12:2). And our inner man is called God’s temple (1 Cor. 6:19). But more to the point of this post, Paul says we are God's ‘building,’ which is a verb (not a noun), meaning and emphasizing the “process of building.”

The basic idea in 2 Cor. 5:1 is that God is building a completely new house for the believer’s spirit, “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” What a difference it would make in our daily choices if we had a revelation of this truth: In cooperation with God, we are now building the house we will live in forever. 

Was Abraham the First Pitcher?

Are we living in a time when, in order to be a popular, a pastor must be a perfect pitcher?  One of the contemporary meanings of the word “pitch” is to promote or sell a person or product. A popular show on ABC, called “The Shark Tank” features aspiring entrepreneurs pitching their businesses/products to a panel of successful, sharky, venture capitalists, hoping to leave the show with an investment.

Does there appear to be a lot of pitching in the church these days—pastors pitching their preaching, products and personalities; and churches pitching programs? Locally, a church funding campaign, called “Please Hand Me a Brick,” is pitching to raise to $1.5 million over and above members’ normal tithes by 'selling' $1,000 bricks.

Ironically, the Bible uses the word “pitcher” to describe Abraham who, apparently despising bricks and building programs, “pitched” his tent wherever he stayed (Gen 2:8), a symbolic act of detachment, “looking to a city with eternal foundations, designed and built by God” (Heb. 11:10). That said, Abraham was a builder: while he was pitching tents, he was building altars to the Lord. And when Abraham pulled up stakes, all that was left behind was a monument of devotion to God. Might that be our legacy too?

Which “Tent” Do You Live In?

A survey out last week says 60% of Americans are discontent with their jobs. And since another 20% of Americans are un- or under-employed, would you agree that our nation is having a “winter of discontent” (from Shakespeare's Richard III).

God hates discontent in His children. In the Wilderness, the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron—and God effected a plague that caused the death of 14,000 (Nu. 16). Later in the journey, God asked them to go into Canaan, but they were afraid and “complained in their tents” (Deut. 1:27). Consequently, God kept them in the desert for 40 more years until every man from the old generation had died. No complainers got to the Promised Land.

Discontent is really much worse than most of us think! When you complain, you are telling the world your God has not provided what you need, implying that He is not good. What's more, you are in agreement with the devil whose strategy from the very beginning was to question God’s provision and goodness—discontent is born of the devil (Genesis 3). When you complain, your mind becomes a house of negative thoughts, but let me put it another way:

Everyone lives in one of two tents—content or discontent. Which tent do you live in? If you have you been complaining a lot lately, today might be a good day to some “tent-cleaning.” Take a broom (the Word) and sweep away every thought that is trying to captivate you (2 Cor. 10:5). And determine not to live in discontent any longer.

Have You Seen the City of God?

Altha and I live in a mobile home. It’s rather ironic: mobile homes are not attached to the ground. And those who know us well know that we are not very attached to things of this world (or so it is our intent not to be).

Abraham, whose faith is an example to all believers, saw the City of God and was never the same (Hebrews 11:10). Though God promised him the land of Canaan, he lived in tents, never building a permanent dwelling. Abraham was detached from earthly things: he knew anything built in this life was temporary. The Bible says, he “pitched his tent and built his altars” (Genesis 12:8). His priorities were right. We should imitate the faith of Abraham.

Those who have seen the eternal city of God pay less attention to building something in this temporary realm. Like Abraham they are content to live in tents (or even mobile homes) because they possess a spirit of detachment. Conversely, the less they see the city God is building, the greater their attachment to their earthly dwellings.

So let us follow Abraham’s example: let us give more attention to building our altars of worship to God than our earthly dwellings. We have everything to gain, and nothing to lose: detachment from the world results in great contentment.

Do you see it? Once you see the city God is building, you will give your attention to that which is going to last forever.