To Encourage You

Mark 6:3 “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?”

I heard a very interesting teaching by Dr. Warren Wiersbe on the passage above the other day. It centered around the issue of why God in His sovereignty determined that Jesus would be a carpenter during the years He spent on earth.  Perhaps it was to demonstrate that the Son of Man was first and foremost a builder.  You see, Jesus didn’t just build things during His 33 years on earth.  In the beginning He created the heavens and the earth. Indeed “byHim all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:15).  That includes our individual bodies in the womb, for we are told in Psalm 139:13-14, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  And His spiritual work in each individual’s life when He comes into that life is to build, to create, to do a wonderful creative work. We are told that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).  Likewise, we are told that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).   And then there is His work in the church.  Jesus told Peter, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). 

The gates of hell, Satan and everything about Satan, is about destruction.  He comes “only to kill, steal, and destroy” (John 10:10).  How often the spiritual influences in a person’s life are revealed by the person’s effect on the things he or she touches.  Believers, the followers of Christ, are commanded to “encourage one another and build one another up” by virtue of our words and actions (1 Thessalonians 5:11).  On the other hand, those influenced by the devil will work to destroy, to tear down, the work of God.  From the very beginning of Jesus’ time on earth we are told this, for when Jesus was a baby, his parents were told “Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him” (Matthew 2:13).  Later we are told that “the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him” (Matthew 12:14).  And we are told that Saul, before his conversion to the apostle Paul, “began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison” (Acts 8:3). 

One more thought along these lines – is there any abrasive person in your life right now; someone that really gets on your nerves, who opposes you at every hand, a real irritant?  That person could be someone that the devil is tempting to be that way.  But if you are a Christian, remember that you have the Master Builder at work in your life.  Any builder sometimes has to use sandpaper to touch up His work.  That’s a good reminder as we face abrasive people and situations in our daily walk.

Thank God for His wonderful work of building in our lives, the Master Carpenter at work to mold us and shape us into His own image (Romans 8:29).