Wood, Hay, Stubble & Plastic

    The Apostle Paul said, "as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, (For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.) I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood , hay, stubble;" and plastic? (1 Cor 3:10-16)

    I work in the bottled water industry. (I am not at liberty to say which bottling giant I work for but it's not Hershey.) Most days I watch as empty plastic bottles come into my filling room at several hundred bottles per minute, the air is evacuated from the empty bottles, and streams of pure water replace the displaced air.  The filled, capped, bottles then run (at several hundred bottles per minute) through a labeling machine and then off to the next stage of production.

   While at work, my mind on spiritual things, I see analogies abound.  We believers are like these plastic bottles.  Empty and, well, "plastic".  If we do not lay aside the lusts and works of the flesh to make room for the Spirit daily, the rivers of living water, that Jesus said would be characteristic of believers, cannot flow through us.

   We may have a good label, we may "go through the motions" properly, but if we are not filled and running over to others then we are building the wrong things on the right foundation.

    We believers are all like a container of water, labeled (if we belong to a church), but we are also made of "plastic".  That part of us that is called the FLESH.  The FLESH is ugly.  One Star Trek encounter had the alien life-force calling us "ugly bags of  mostly water." or something like that. It's true, that's what we are.  Part of us is still deeply affected by our fallen Adamic nature.

   We need to be careful how we build on the Foundation of the Truth.  "Are we so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are we now made perfect in the flesh?" (from Galatians)  Anything that we fake; that we have to plaster on a "plastic" smile and muttle through, will be wood, hay, and stubble.

"Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"

Let's be sure we are building with gold, silver, and precious stones; those things that only the Spirit of God can produce.  "He must increase, WE must decrease!"