Rock of Ages

Foundations, we all have one of some sort.  Some run deeper than others and some may be new, but we all have some sort of spiritual foundation.  How deep is your foundation?  Strengthening that and following Jesus and His commands is the topic of His fourth parable.  We have already discussed the first two parables about the wineskin and the cloth with our Burst the Mold discussion in an earlier blog.  We also talked about letting our lights shine, Jesus’ third parable, in This Little Light of Mine.  Check those out if you haven’t already.

 But we will begin here with Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:24-27.  "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."  Jesus is teaching us some very important lessons here.  We will notice at least two of many applications of this rich parable that is full of lessons for us as Christians.

First, I notice that we seem to only have two choices.  It appears to me that we either build our foundation on Jesus or we don’t.  There is no middle ground… we are either with Him on firm footing, or we are not and seem to be on sinking sand.  We are wise, or we are foolish.  I am not here to say that we can’t shore up a foundation that might not be as strong as it should be, but once we decide to put our trust in anything or anyone other than Jesus we are building on the spiritual sand and are headed for a “great fall”.  In Luke’s account of this same parable he describes the firm foundation as one “dug deep” and” laid on the rock”.  That house is “well built”. (Luke 6:48)  So we need to dig deep into the Word of God and build our foundation on that.

The second thing I noticed only recently.  I have heard this parable from vacation bible school all the way through to my present studies at Heritage Christian University.  The rains come on both houses!  I had realized that bad things happen to good people and knew Matthew 5:45.  “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”   I had never thought about Jesus teaching us that lesson again here, but He most obviously does.  Not only does the rain come, but floods and winds.  Sounds like a storm to me, what about you?  Luke mentions the storm being so great that a flood comes and the stream breaks out of its banks (6:48-49).  Maybe it is even a thunderstorm that we must withstand at times, but the difference is not in the house, but the foundation.  We must dig deep and build our spiritual foundation on the Rock of ages, Jesus.  How deep is your foundation?  Are you ready for the storm?  Jesus will be there to help us weather the storms of life.  We just have to dig deep.

God Bless.