Are You Earthquake Proof?

I Corinthians 3:10
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it, each builder must choose with care how to build on it.

The earthquake that struck Chile was far stronger than the one that struck Haiti in January.

But, initial reports show that damage was much more contained. While the death toll of 214 is only preliminary and is expected to grow, it’s still a thousand times lower than that of Haiti’s.

One emergency official quoted by Reuters said the number of deaths was unlikely to increase dramatically. Chile will undoubtedly also be helped by the fact that the earthquake did not happen in as dense an area as Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where parts of the city and several government buildings were literally flattened. It will also be helped by better-enforced building codes, one of the most significant challenges in Haiti. A US Geological Survey researcher told Reuters that a low death toll could be attributed to strong building standards.

It is often the crisis in life that comes along and tests our work. We are constantly building something in our lives whether it’s a church, a business, a government, a marriage, or a partnership. WE are all builders but the question is what are we using to build?

As Christians we must make sure we are up to code. Having been a part of multiple building projects one thing that can be frustrating is being up to code. There are standards that each municipality has in building requirements and depending on where you live it varies as to how strict the code enforcers are.

Jesus is our standard. Everything we build must have Jesus as the foundation. The foundation has been laid, now what we build upon that foundation is what God will judge us for. Paul talks about the building materials that we use in our building (ministry) projects:

Verse 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw...

Notice he starts with the most expensive and goes to the cheapest. What happens in many building projects is that we start the project dreaming using the best material but as we start looking at the cost we start "value engineering” and all of a sudden we resort to using cheaper materials to cut costs and speed up construction at our detriment.

Often times it costs us more later because we used cheap material that lacked integrity. It looked good but it didn’t have any strength or substance to hold during an earthquake, or fire or crisis. Oftentimes, the stuff we build doesn’t make it, marriage crumbles, churches goes through a scandal, and business goes through bankruptcy because of how we built them or who we built them with.

The good news is that the foundation is still there and you are still saved if you built on Jesus.

Verse 15 if the work is burned up the builder will suffer loss. The builder will be saved, but only as through fire.

If you are going to get your building, ministry, relationship earthquake proof then you are going to have to:

1. Build on a solid foundation. On Christ the solid Rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand. Matthew 7:25-27

2. Use quality material. Only what you do for Christ will last. I Corinthians 9:25

3. After your test rebuild with quality material not cheap. Luke 14:27-29

Dear God, help me to build what you tell me to build with the materials you tell me to build and to count the cost so I can finish strong. I’ve come through the fire, I’ve come through the flood, and I’ve been kept by your love.

In Jesus Name,
Amen