Daily Lesson for September 16, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 3:

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. . . 9For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. 12Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. 14If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15If the work is burned, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire.

I have been watching some videos on the building of the Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi's great basilica in Barcelona. Construction for the church began in 1882 and is still ongoing today. Generations of builders -- many from the same families -- have come and gone, giving their brains, brawn, blood, sweat, and tears to the building of the church without seeing its completion. They have built, block by block and generation by generation, knowing that they would never see the completed project. This generation may be the one to finally see the temple's spire rise to its ultimate height.

We build. Some are genius visionaries. Some are laborers. Most names are altogether forgotten. Even some of the greatest names are forgotten just in a generation. Yet the building rises, and still stands. Even after all these generations, the Church still stands.

And Christ is the chief cornerstone.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.