"What?  Know ye not that your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God,
and ye are not your own?" - I Corinthians 6:19

Back in the late seventies, we moved to a small town in the hills of Northeast Arkansas.  It was a big change for us, leaving the hometown that we had become adjusted to and of which we had grown so fond.

Even though I was only eight years old at the time, I can remember clearly the anticipation that grew within us during the weeks leading up to the move.  We had a blueprint for the new place that was supposed to be built for us .  For a lower middle class family, this place looked a mansion!  It had a sliding glass door at the back, which we kids were really excited about.  My sister and I were going to be able to have our own separate rooms!  There was a beautiful porch and the neatest shutters on this place.  It was like a mansion and we couldn't wait to move in!

The blueprint was for a mansion, but we ended up building a shack. 

I don't remember if the financing wasn't approved or the builders couldn't complete it before we had to vacate the house we were living in, or what.  But, I remember my dad buying some wood and building what can best be described as a "structure."  It was shaped kind of like a trailer house and was built with 2X4's and plywood.

Somehow we made it and survived until better housing was available.

You know, God's will for our lives is kind of like that blueprint.  He has special plans for you and I, and, if we could see them, we would see that He desires to build a beautiful mansion from our lives.  He gives us step by step instructions in His Word and through His Holy Spirit to help us in the construction.  He gives us the strongest of foundations in the Chief Cornerstone Himself, Jesus Christ.  Obedience and commitment are the tools we are to use to build this mansion.  Faithfulness and service are the materials that are to shape our homes.  Peace, joy, hope, assurance and love are to adorn the walls.

If  you will notice, God is always wanting to add on new rooms.  You know, the new rooms of blessing and grace and mercy...He wants to add them each day.

And while God's blueprint for our lives is to build a beautiful mansion, we can choose, by our free will, to build a shack.  

Shacks are built with disobedience and a lack of commitment. 
Rebellion and neglect are the materials that shape these homes.  The walls of such lives are adorned with worry, fear, anxiety and anger.

God loves you, my friend.  He wants so much to fill your life with all of His abundant blessings. He wants to build a beautiful spiritual mansion from who you are.  But, He won't force His will on you.  He could, but He won't.  He gives you the choice as to how you build your life.

What's it going to be?  I don't know about you, but since Jesus lives in my life...

...I want Him to live in a Mansion, not a shack!
 
Have a "Wonderful DAY in Christ,"
Jimmy D. Brown
\o/ Praise Jesus!