TEEN TREE 
OF LIFE
A Person’s Toolbox for Successful Living
Part 4
July 18, 2021
Before you begin, ask yourself a very important question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins? If you answered yes, you will need to be sure that you are filled with The Holy Spirit. How do you do this? You name your sins to God The Father in His Son’s Name. This is called Rebound. As a Christian, you must rebound any time you sin. This is taught in 1 JOH 1:9: If we confess [name] our sins [directly to God], He [God] is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, if you have never believed that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins, all you have to do is say to yourself that you believe in Him and you are saved! The Bible verse which teaches us this is ACTS 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
The Hammer
As we continue our study of A Person’s Tool Box for Successful Living, ask yourself this question: if the nails are doctrine, then what is the hammer? Obviously doctrine is learned by studying God’s Word which is then supposed to be applied to life. But what drives the truth of doctrine deep into our souls so that it’s reflected in how we live and then can be recognized by others? It’s the troubles and trials of life that make it happen. While knowledge can be acquired through study, it’s the experiences of life that brings you to the point of application. And once, you’ve applied God’s Word and put it into action, other people can recognize His Work in your life. So trials and troubles are the hammer!
JAM 1:2-4 (The Message Bible) says it perfectly: Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
The Builder
We do our part, but God is the builder. A well-built structure will have been created because the blueprints designed by the engineer were followed. The site will be properly prepared and a solid foundation laid down. The structure will be framed out with good wood trimmed to fit exactly where needed and then bound in place adding strength and form to the whole structure. The completed structure may receive acclaim as something beautiful by those who see it, but the structure is nothing and would not exist except for the builder.
This point is made in HEB 3:1–6: So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He’s the centerpiece of everything we believe, faithful in everything God gave him to do. Moses was also faithful, but Jesus gets far more honor. A builder is more valuable than a building any day. Every house has a builder, but the Builder behind them all is God. Moses did a good job in God’s house, but it was all servant work, getting things ready for what was to come. Christ as Son is in charge of the house.
There’s a lot of work that goes into building a house with many different tools used in the process. You need a design, blue prints, preparation of the site, a foundation, and framing with each piece within it, cut to fit into its proper place and secured together.
The Lord has revealed His plan in the Bible. The Holy Spirit prepares you for His Work in you by convicting you of sin, righteousness and judgment: “When he comes, he’ll expose the error of the godless world’s view of sin, righteousness, and judgment: He’ll show them that their refusal to believe in me is their basic sin; that righteousness comes from above, where I am with the Father, out of their sight and control; that judgment takes place as the ruler of this godless world is brought to trial and convicted.” (JOH 16:8 The Message Bible)
God The Father makes you alive in Christ so that you may be saved by His Grace through faith in The Person and Work of His Son, Jesus Christ. He equips you to serve Him with spiritual gifts, ministries, and empowerment. Part of God’s continuing work to conform you to the image of His Son takes place in the fellowship of the church in which each believer interacts as one body so that the whole church is built up and matures. We are unified by our common doctrine, our belief in God and what He has revealed in His Word. God even uses the troubles and trials of life to mature us so that our trust in Him grows as we recognize the real purpose of our existence.
God is the builder of everything. We are His House. God has a unique layout for each of us – for each of our hearts. Our houses each have different gifts, purposes, and desires. We the church are His House — a community inviting others in, feasting at the table together, experiencing life together, living in His glory. We, the houses, go through triumph and grief. We are constantly being refined by Our Helper, Our Builder. Through it all, The Builder returns again and again and never abandons His Creation.
God is our builder and if we hold firmly to the foundation that He so graciously gives us, then we are His House. Of all the things that might show up on an inspection report, foundation issues are the worst. If you decide to buy a house with a bad foundation, you’re signing up to suffer a host of serious problems throughout your home, or you’re signing up to pay tens of thousands of dollars to have the foundation fixed. Most buyers simply walk away from a bad foundation, and for good reason.
If Christians are ever going to maintain and steward a home in a meaningful way, we must build our house on Christ. Regardless of whether we own or rent, whether we have lived here for 25 years or a few days, we have the opportunity to rebuild the foundation under our spiritual feet. Look at what Our Lord said in MATT 7:24-25 (The Message Bible): “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.”
A house that is built on Christ can withstand the storms. Never doubt that! If you’ve been living on sand, start pouring God’s Word into the foundation underneath you. As strong and secure as most modern houses may seem, many of them are quietly crumbling from the inside out because God’s Word has been neglected. We subtly (or overtly) build our houses based on comfort, privacy, entertainment, and safety, without making room for God himself to speak. Then when the rains of various trials fall, or the floods of crises come, or the winds of life beat against us, the once strong house suddenly falls apart. Build your home, instead, on the Rock. Allow His Voice to be the guiding, shaping, correcting, and comforting foundation under your lives.
A truly successful life is one that glorifies Our Creator, and He supplies all that is needed to live that kind of life. He is even the one that empowers you to do your part of the work. So the question of whether you will live a successful life or not comes down to a matter of whether you will yield to Him and use the materials and tools He has supplied to build it or not.
When you allow God to build your house by belief in The Lord Jesus Christ and studying and applying His Word to your life, you’ll make wiser decisions and live a life which glorifies Him. If you don’t allow Him to build your house, it will have no meaning or purpose. Look at PSA 127:1: If the Lord doesn’t build a house, the work of the builders is useless.
God has a design for every person who is born and He has provided the Blueprint which is the Bible. PSALM 15 (The Message Bible) gives a good description of God’s basic blueprint for every person. It describes what a person who is welcome to stand in God’s presence must do: “Walk straight, act right, tell the truth. “Don’t hurt your friend, don’t blame your neighbor; despise the despicable. “Keep your word even when it costs you, make an honest living, never take a bribe. “You’ll never get blacklisted if you live like this.”