Builders

It is Saturday morning, 18th December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.” And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me.

So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they set their hands to this good work.
Nehemiah 2:17-18

We are builders. We are not demolishers.

If we go to Matthew 16:18, Jesus said:

I will build My church, and the gates of Hades (the gates of Hell) shall not prevail against it.

Our God is in the building business, He is not a demolisher. He is a builder and as His Children, must do likewise. We have to build people up, not break them down. If we have nothing good to say about someone, rather don’t say anything at all. We might say that we don’t have any building material to work with - Well, just like Nehemiah, let’s use what we have got: a kind word, a positive attitude. You know, like the old story of the glass being half-full of water, rather than being half-empty.

I have often seen that when they build a new road bridge, they leave the old one standing, and I have spoken to some builders and I have asked them, why don’t they take the old one down once they have built the new one. And they have said, it takes more money to break down an old bridge than it takes to build a new one.

You know, they also talk about breaking in a young horse. Now, on this farm, we have many horses and we don’t believe in breaking the spirit of a young horse. We believe what Monty Roberts says, the Horse-Whisperer. He is the original one, he says that we join up with horses. We build up confidence in the horse and then we ride him.

Today, let's be builders and not destroyers. Let this Christmas time be a time of building up God’s people.

Have a wonderful day!
God bless you and goodbye.