Gluten Free & God Seeking: From the Life-Study of 1 Corinthians - How Do the Believers Build With Gold, Silver, & Precious Stones in 1 Corinthians 3:12?

Sunday, March 3, 2013

From the Life-Study of 1 Corinthians - How Do the Believers Build With Gold, Silver, & Precious Stones in 1 Corinthians 3:12?

I read a sentence in a Life- Study of 1 Corinthians that made me think: "In the building of the church we ourselves are used as materials" (Lee, Witness. Life- Study of 1 Corinthians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1981, Print). Based on Paul's word in 1 Corinthians 3:12 Witness Lee asks his readers in chapter 32 of the Life-Study of 1 Corinthians if they are wood or gold, grass or silver, stubble or precious stone.

Most of us he admitted would have to say that we are in a process much like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Just like this transformation process changes the caterpillar into a butterfly, spiritual transformation changes our wooden nature into gold, our grass into silver, and our stubble into precious stones! Isn't that incredible?! Sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in the cocoon with nothing much happening.

I liked this excerpt on page 280 because it shares in such a clear way how we can become these precious materials that God can use:

In order to build with these materials, we ourselves must be constituted with them. We need to be constituted of the Father's nature [gold], the Son's redemption [silver], and the Spirit's transformation [precious stones]. This means that we must be constituted of the Triune God. When we receive Him, when we take Him into us by drinking Him and eating Him, when are transfused with Him and by Him, the very Triune God--the Father, the Son, and the Spirit--comes into us to be our element and substance. This causes a metabolic process to take place within us by which a new element is added and an old element is discharged. Another name for this process is transformation (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of 1 Corinthians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1981, Print).