Daily Devotional: - "Built to Last"

Our Daily Devotional: - "Built to Last" - As I look at the modern American church landscape, I can’t help but notice a troubling contrast. - “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” —1 Corinthians 3:11 (ESV)

A Christ-centered, gospel-anchored Church has survived nearly 2,000 years—through persecution, poverty, exile, plagues, and cultural hostility. Empires rose and fell. Governments changed. Cultures shifted. Yet the Church endured.

Meanwhile, many man-centered, seeker-sensitive churches—built on personality, production, and preference—are already showing cracks. Some struggle to remain faithful beyond the first generation. Others quietly fade once the crowds thin or the culture turns cold.

That should tell us something.

The early Church did not ask, “What will attract people?”

It asked, “What did Christ command?”

Today, we often reverse the order.

When the Church shifts from forming disciples to satisfying consumers, the foundation changes. Comfort replaces conviction. Preference replaces repentance. Attendance replaces obedience. And when hardship comes—as it always does—what was built for convenience cannot stand the weight of the cross.

Jesus never promised His followers comfort.
He promised truth.
He promised life.
He promised a cross.

And He promised this: “I will build My church.”
Not ours. His.

The Church was never meant to be impressive—it was meant to be faithful. It was never meant to mirror the culture, but to bear witness against it with grace and truth. When Christ is the center, the Church may be smaller, slower, and less celebrated—but it will be stronger, deeper, and built to last.

The gospel doesn’t need marketing. It needs proclamation.
And it still changes lives the same way it always has.

“Walk in faith, rest in grace, and trust the One who walks beside you."

In His love and grace,

ray mileur

‘Helping believers walk closer to Jesus, one day at a time.’
www.raymileurministries.com”