This building is missing something

If you have a moment, hop online and check out this story: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/-spanish-skyscraper-going-up----without-an-elevator---214416887.html

I found this story late last week.  It is about a luxury high rise tower missing one crucial thing.  As the story goes, this building was started back in 2007 in Benidorm, Spain.  It was originally supposed to be a 20 floor high building, but then they decided to take it to 47 floors high.  That’s a whopping 650 feet tall building.  The building is almost completed and should be finished in 2014.

When construction first started, the building was advertised as the “banner of the future.”  At first sight, it would seem that the building would hold up to that claim.  But six years and over $100 million dollars later, the building now “represents a long story of incompetence.”  With such a large and expensive construction project, you would think every detail would be inspected multiple times.  However, one very important detail was overlooked and not included in the construction plans. 

Now, my first thought was that this structure was missing something like a key foundational piece or maybe even an entrance/exit to the building.  But I was wrong.  What is missing from this expensive luxury apartment building are any elevators.  That’s right.  This building was constructed without any elevator shafts.  So, if you live on any floor other than the ground level, you have to take the stairs.

Now I imagine that the design team and construction crew will figure out how to include an elevator.  What surprises me is that over 35% of the apartments have already been sold.  People actually bought apartments in this building that is not 100% complete and without any guarantee that the builders would backtrack to add an elevator.

Read Ephesians 2:19-22.

What I love about this passage of Scripture is that the building is complete, not because it has a certain number of members or a full scale of spiritual gifts present.  The church is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord through Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the chief cornerstone.  It is what brings us together.  He is the “banner of our future.” 

I would encourage you to read Romans 15:1-13 as Jesus is our hope and our future.

What is the Gospel?

Growing up I was not much of a reader.  I did not enjoy sitting down to read a book, even on rainy days.  Maybe it was because I probably needed glasses at a young age and didn’t get them until I was 30.  Maybe it was because I enjoyed riding my bike through the mud.  It might be that I had so much energy the idea of sitting still couldn’t apply to me.  Regardless of the reason, I never grew to love books.  Even now, unlike so many of you, I do not enjoy to read.  It is not something I do to relax or do for enjoyment.  But I do read a ton.  I am always reading something.  Currently I have on my “to read” shelf over 20 books.  I should note that all of the books I read are biblical or leadership non-fiction.   Sometimes I will read only one book at a time, but that is not normal.  Typically, I have 2 or 3 books that I am going through.  Right now I have 4 books that I am reading (not including commentaries that I use for bible study).   

As I read through a book, I will highlight things that stand out to me.  I highlight everything from great biblical insights to practical leadership techniques.  For this week’s Warehouse, I would like to share one of those highlights.  This comes from Greg Gilbert’s:  What Is the Gos·pel?

Relationship is an important category in the Bible.  Human beings were made to live in fellowship with God.  What we must remember, however, is that it was a specific kind of relationship in which they were to live—not the relationship between two equals, where law, judgment, and punishment are out of view, but the relationship between a King and his subjects.

Many Christians talk about sin as if it were merely a relational tiff between God and man, and what is needed is for us simply to apologize and accept God’s forgiveness.  That image of sin as lovers’ quarrel, though, distorts the relationship in which we stand to God.  It communicates that there is no broken law, no violated justice, no righteous wrath, no holy judgment—and therefore, ultimately, no need for a substitute to bear that judgment, either.

The Bible’s teaching is that sin is indeed a breaking of relationship with God, but that broken relationship consists in a rejection of his kingly majesty.  It’s not just adultery (though it is that); it is also rebellion.  Not just betrayal, but also treason.  If we reduce sin to a mere breaking of relationship, rather than understanding it as the traitorous rebellion of a beloved subject against his good and righteous King, we will never understand why the death of God’s Son was required to address it.

The past 3 weeks we have dove into Galatians 3:1-14.  We have examined the “Performance Traps” that the Apostle Paul was combating.  We have discovered that not only did Paul tell us what faith can do, but also what the law could not do.  But we are not finished yet.  I want to encourage you to be at church this Sunday as we examine the role of the Law in a gospel-based life and answer the question of: After faith, what’s next?  If you want to prepare for this Sunday, read Gal 3:15-29.

 

May the following verses be an encouragement to you this week and remind you of who we are -          In-Christ:

2 Cor. 5:21 – “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 

1 Peter 1:18-19 – “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. “

1 Peter 2:24 - “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

Ephesians 1:13 – “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,”

Ephesians 2:13 – “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”

Titus 3:3-7 – “At one point we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.  We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.  But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having hope of eternal life.