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The Flames of Heaven

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.
1 Corinthians 3:10-13

These verses aren’t about our salvation. Or about the content of our lives.

That’s the way I’ve heard countless pastors preach them. But that’s not what they’re about.

If you read the context, they’re about our ministry.

And they should be sobering to us all.

I think the scariest prospect for any person is a wasted life. You have such a limited time on this Earth, so you have to make it count. And while we usually think of wasting our lives as doing something besides what we’ve been called to or living against our purpose, there seems to be something even scarier than that. And that’s doing exactly what you have been called to do but doing it in such a way that you waste your life anyways.

According to Paul, those in ministry aren’t exempt from this possibility.

You could pastor a church for 40 years. Everyone would say you’re a paragon of faithfulness. But if you added hay for 40 years, it’s going to burn up in 40 seconds.

What a waste.

It’s not enough to simply “do ministry.” It’s not enough just to show up day after day under the guise of working for a church and hand in crap. Or do things that really don’t matter, even if you think they do because you’re getting paid to do them for God. We’ve got to make sure that what we’re adding is of the highest quality. That it’s something whose impact outlasts the present.

My goal isn’t to have the biggest bonfire in Heaven. I don’t want to spend a lifetime building something that isn’t going to last into eternity. I don’t think you do either.

So whatever you do in your church – preach, crunch numbers, assimilate, counsel, herd 8th grade boys – make sure what you’re adding is worthy of the foundation it’s being laid upon. Otherwise, you’re just stacking wood to watch your life’s work eventually go up in flames.