How many of you have projects that you started but have yet to complete?  I know I have several, some of which I haven’t even begun–and time is running out!  A good friend that I worked with at Hyster always closes his emails with: “So many books, so little time!”  Amen to that!   There is a real sense of satisfaction when we finally complete a project that we’ve been working on for sometime.  For example, years ago we constructed a 1/30th scale replica of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (on the North Carolina coast).  Over time the wood started to deteriorate and the lighthouse needed to be replaced.  Since the model is constructed of three hexagonal sections, and the main section is also tapered, it took some time to get all the pieces cut out, assembled caulked, sanded and painted.  We finally got the new lighthouse up in the fall. It looks great and gave us a real sense of finally accomplishing the challenging venture.  

     Some homeowners seem to have perpetual remodeling going on.  Probably none is comparable, however, to Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester’s remodeling project.  Sarah and her husband, William Wirt Winchester, lived in New Haven, Connecticut. where William started the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Their infant daughter died of a childhood illness and then a few years later, William died of tuberculosis. In her grief, Sarah, heiress to a large portion of Winchester Arms, decided to move out West for a fresh start. She bought an eight-room farmhouse near San Jose, California, and began what might be the world’s largest and longest home renovation project. It lasted from 1884 until Sarah’s death in 1922.  The mysterious, sprawling Victorian-style mansion became an historic landmark that has been visited by millions (my family included). The eight-room farmhouse had been turned into a 24,000 sq. ft. mansion with 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 52 skylights, 40 stairways and three elevators, 47 fireplaces with 17 chimneys, 40 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms (but only one shower!), 6 kitchens and two basements.  There are a number of mysterious features such as doors that open to walls, and stairways that lead only to the ceiling. Most likely, had Sarah lived longer, the remodeling would have continued as long as the money lasted!

     I’m sure our time on earth will expire before we finish all the projects we have started or planned, especially since we keep adding to the list!  But, I’m so glad God always finishes what He starts.  He, of course, has the advantage of being omnipotent and omniscient while we are finite, frail humans. When the Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the church at Philippi, in his introductory comments he reminded them of his thankfulness for them (Phil. 1:3), his prayers for them (v. 4) and his gratitude for their participation in the Gospel (v. 5) and then he wrote of his confidence in God’s continuing work in their lives: “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (v. 6). 

     The “good work”  of which Paul speaks is the transforming work of grace, something of which we are incapable. Paul added: “For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (2:13).  In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul explained the “good work” as conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ (Ro. 8:29). Each one of us, no matter where we are in our spiritual journey, has to admit that it seems like a rather “ambitious” plan. It is a good thing it is God doing that “good work!”  As Paul wrote: “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God” (II Cor. 3:5).  Whether it is God’s plans for Israel, for Old Testament believers or for His Church (us), He declared: “Truly I have spoken, truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it” (Isa. 46:11b).  Whatever God plans, He accomplishes. Whatever He starts, He finishes. Jesus demonstrated that in His mission to earth to pay the penalty for our sins. He came to do His Father’s will, and accomplished that in every detail. From the cross, “He said, ‘It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit” (Jn. 19:30). 

     Jude, the Lord’s half brother, as he closed his letter, wrote this benediction: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever Amen.” (Jude 24,25).  

     The believers at Corinth were struggling spiritually and Paul wrote to them, saying: “And I brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men (unbelievers)?” ( I Cor. 3:1-3). Yet notice that in that same letter of rebuke and correction, Paul also wrote this: “I Thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus…who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day ouf our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (I Cor. 1:4,8,9). 

     Praise God that He is faithful and able, and will finish what He started. He will not give up on us. If He has begun a “good work” in us, He will perform/perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ (when He takes us home) (Phil. 1:6). 

Forever His,

Pastor Dave