Word For Today Words Are a Platform

Word For Today

Words Are a Platform  

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.

Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

What if we stopped viewing people from a worldly point of view?

What if we could see the heavenly house of righteousness

Instead of the tattered tent?

If we can see the power of reconciliation

The ministry God has given us

We could give Vision and Hope to others

We can practically do this by building others up

By building a platform for others to stand on

The Word for Today that others need to hear is a word

That will cause them to see you think something of them

Words Are a Platform 

Words have the power to build up or tear down.

I inherited a house which

was in a bad neighborhood.

It had been under a land contract.

It had been lived in by an elderly person on

dialysis who could not keep up the house.

She moved out but her nephew moved in.

He flooded the basement

and had a fire in the kitchen.

Not to say the other lack of care to this house.

This house looked horrible inside and out.

I wanted to get away from it…

But could not.

It plagued me with stress.

I struggled with thoughts of tearing it down.

It was the image of “This OLD House”.

Today this house has become very desirable

and the people living there love it.

So what happened? ...

Vision

I had to have a new vision for this house.

A vision that was risky.

A vision that would cost.

We all know people who are like that house…

Living in a bad neighborhood.

Run down inside and out.

And they seem to have little motivation to change.

We have three choices.

One ignore them.

Two tear them down.

Three build them up.

Ephesians 4:29 says…

     

Do not let any unwholesome talk

come out of your mouths,

 but only what is helpful for building

others up according to their needs,

 that it may benefit those who listen.

Unlike a house, people

have to change themselves.

I spent a year or more rebuilding the house

I inherited and it is now paying me back.

People change only when their thinking changes.

But like the old run down house, there

had to be a vision for something better.

Vision is not enough…

 There is another element and that is Hope.

Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 talks about our bodies

being tents turning into heavenly houses…

  

That takes Vision and Hope.

In verse 16 of 2 Corinthians 5, he says…

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.

Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

What if we stopped viewing people

from a worldly point of view?

What if we could see the heavenly house

of righteousness instead of the tattered tent?

If we can see the Power of Reconciliation.

The ministry God has given us.

 We could give Vision and Hope to others.

We can practically do this by building others up… 

By building a platform for others to stand on.

The Word for Today that others need

to hear is a word that will cause them

to see you think something of them.

I remember as a young man

one of my mentors greeting me.

He spoke words like this to me…

 “Mighty Man”

“Mighty Man of Faith”

Those words were more of a platform then a truth.

They were words I liked and wanted to live up to.

When we focus our words on the Vision instead

of the demolition, we will get farther in life.

When we speak of things that are not yet,

 instead of the things that are,

we give Hope and Vision.

When you meet people and you speak a

Word for the Day to them, what will it be?

You don’t go into a house in need of

repair and just start tearing things down.

Everything that gets removed is removed

because of Vision and Hope for something new.

So we should learn how to give people a

Word for Today that will put them on a platform.

A platform or pedestal they will

not want to get down from.

Something they will want to live up to.

Stop viewing people from a

worldly point of view as a tent.

But view others as a spiritual eternal house.

Who knows maybe they will believe you and

run with the Vision because you gave them Hope.   

 

Scripture Reading

Ephesians 4:29 NIV

29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

2 Corinthians 5 NIV

5:1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13 If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.