Your Message Is Building
Your Message Is Building
At the Beginning of the New Year
Your message is building.
First, try to build yourself spiritually on a sound foundation.
Then work on building others and participate in building the Kingdom.
Build people with love, and with prayer, so that God may work with you.
In the previous issue, we spoke about how a person should have a message in life—a strong message, one that has depth and endurance, and that is also a spiritual message, for this kind of message has the greatest value among all other works.
Today, at the beginning of the year, we would like to invite you to building, and to make building your message in life.
What we mean by building is spiritual building, for many have built and gained nothing from all that they built…
The foolish rich man wanted to build!
He said, “I will pull down my barns and build greater… and I will say to my soul: you have many goods laid up for many years” (Luke 12:18–19).
But the voice came to him: “This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?” (Luke 12:20).
It was a futile kind of building, similar to what Solomon built for his luxury and earthly pleasure.
He himself said: “I built myself houses, planted myself vineyards… made myself gardens and orchards… acquired male and female servants… gathered for myself silver and gold… whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them” (Ecclesiastes 2:4–10).
And what was the result?
“Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done… and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).
The wise person begins by building himself from within.
Some try to build for themselves a fading earthly glory, or to build wealth that they may leave to children who waste it—while gaining nothing for their eternity from all that wealth or prestige.
But the wise person builds himself, and builds on a sound spiritual foundation.
He builds his mind, understanding, and knowledge; he builds his will and character; and above all, he builds his relationship with God and builds his eternity.
The house built on sand, which the Lord Jesus spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount, is every worldly structure built on a weak foundation of passing desires. It is also every spiritual structure built on a false foundation of self-love or self-reliance.
But the building founded on the rock is the building of the soul on faith and love for God—
and working on this building through strong spiritual disciplines that nurture spiritual affections toward God.
It is building yourself spiritually by God’s grace working with you, invoked through prayer and humility, and through cooperation and fellowship with the Holy Spirit in a life of complete surrender—placing your life entirely in God’s hands, surrendering will and desire, like clay in the hands of the great Potter, to be shaped as He wills, and made into “a vessel for honor” (Romans 9).
Now enter into the details and examine how you build yourself.
What kind of reading builds your mind and knowledge?
Do you limit yourself to scientific knowledge alone?
Or to shallow entertainments that lack depth?
Or instead of building, do you destroy yourself with corrupting readings that stir wrong desires, or writings full of doubts that confuse your mind or weaken your faith?
And even more importantly: how do you build your children?
These innocent, tender, easily guided souls—how do you shape them?
What emotions, ideas, influences, and habits do you plant within them?
The Lord Jesus said about building: “On this rock I will build My Church” (Matthew 16:18).
This rock is sound, unwavering faith—the true faith revealed by the Father through the mouth of Saint Peter.
So the question now is:
Do you participate with the Lord in the work of spiritual building?
Do you work with the Holy Spirit in building faith, the Church, the Kingdom, and souls spiritually?
Do you participate in building the heavenly Jerusalem, the dwelling of God with humanity? (Revelation 21:2–3)
How many souls have you built?
And did you build them with the Lord, on a strong foundation that does not collapse?
The Apostle Paul was a wise builder in God’s Kingdom. He said:
“According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it” (1 Corinthians 3:10).
The builder needs wisdom—and also love.
Knowledge alone is not enough, for knowledge puffs up, but love builds (1 Corinthians 8:1).
You cannot build people unless you love them.
How much work has been lost by those who, in their zeal for the Kingdom, overwhelm sinners with rebuke—breaking their souls with harsh correction, and driving them away by cruelty!
With love, the Lord Jesus built the Samaritan woman, the woman caught in adultery, and Zacchaeus the tax collector.
With love, Saul of Tarsus was built, though he breathed threats.
With love, Peter was restored after denying Him three times; Nicodemus was strengthened; Mary Magdalene was healed.
With love, you have compassion on sinners and help them rise from their fall.
As Paul said: “Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, and those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body” (Hebrews 13:3).
And again: “If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness… Bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:1–2).
Christ Himself gave us the example of gentle, wise building:
A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoking flax He will not quench (Matthew 12:20).
And He said: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me… He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted” (Isaiah 61:1).
Be gentle with sinners so that they may love you—and so that you may build them through love.
Build people not only with wisdom and love, but also with prayer.
For if the Lord does not build the house, those who build labor in vain (Psalm 127:1).
If God is the Builder, then seek Him in prayer, that you may work together with Him.
Thus, building yourself must come before building others.
Working with God must come before working with people.
Whoever works alone, without God working within him, builds nothing—perhaps even destroys rather than builds.
Therefore, I say to you, as to my beloved: build.
If you cannot build, at least encourage the builders.
At the very least—do not destroy.
Let us listen to Nehemiah’s call:
“Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach” (Nehemiah 2:17).
Let building be in every area:
in the family, among friends, in church service, in society, and in personal work.
Trust that God does not forget the labor of love.
How beautiful are the words of the Apostle Paul: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
