Our FOUNDATIONS are built with Eternity in mind...

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss... I Corinthians 3:11-15

Our friend Paul starts a pretty deep conversation aimed at those who wish to build God's Church. At the point we join him above he makes the statement as clear as he can that no one can build on anything other than Jesus. Sound familiar? Are not we supposed to build our own lives with Jesus as the centre? In the same blueprint for constructing the church we can also see the plans for our own lives being drawn up too.

This is where it gets scary. Not scary, as in the "Ryan and Sharpay" from High School Musical Scary (it's much worse) but potentially the "Same Difference" kind of scary. It's that bad. Why? Because we are informed that we must build with eternity in mind...

Eternity is a very very very very very long time. I mean eternity is a very very very very very very very very long time. It's like forever! So what do we know about "forever"? One thing we do know is that some of the things that seem so important, so vital and so special to us now, will suddenly seem pointless, useless and may even vanish in eternity. Some stuff will last, other stuff won't. Perhaps you could take some time out today to consider what those eternal things may be?

At the end of time, each one of us will have the "fire test" applied to the work we have done in our lives. It is not that we will get kicked out of heaven if we don't become a goody two shoes: our place in God's loving arms is forever secure in Jesus. But what we do with our time - the "works of our hands" - these will be judged and filtered by heaven, and only what is eternal will remain. Yes that is scary, but at the same time I am filled with hope and a little bit of excitement too. What if what I do in life could echo in eternity? What if the words of my mouth, the imaginations of my heart and the deeds of our day could make a lasting mark in heaven!

Today's "Page 1" mindset is a prayer about foundations. It is a prayer that above all that our lives will be filled with things that will last and not pass away. May our dreams be focussed on the eternal Jesus and his eternal word. May we find our days filled with rumours of hope and outbursts of thankfulness for our lives that are being used by God to shape the future of eternity.

We finish with the wise words of high school musical: Let us not be those that seek to "bop bop bop to the top" of this worlds system but let us be those that look to be "the start of something new" today!

FOUNDATION CHECK: Make two columns on a page and then begin to list some of the common things you think, do and say with your life now. In one column put the heading "Temporary" and the other column write "Eternal". As you write out the activities and attitudes of your life, why not take some time to prayerfully consider what you see will one day be found as "wood, hay and straw" and what will shine forever as "gold, silver and precious stones". How could this list shape what your thoughts, behaviour and actions for tomorrow might just become?