Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The Geology Of A Believer

Matthew 7:24-25  “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.”
As believers, our lives must be built on God’s Word. In our job, at our church, with our spouses, and with our children; the final word for us must be from the Bible. Whatever situation we find ourselves in, wherever we are at in our life...we have to get our instruction from the Bible. Forget the hypothetical “what would Jesus do?”  - the real question should be “what did Jesus say?”
God hasn’t left us in the dark here! He told us everything we need to know about our life. He wrote it all out inside His Word. So if there was one priority in a believer's life, what should it be? We should be digging into the Bible before we turn to anything else. God's Word is the the rock that a secure life is built on.

Well, that's only half true...the rest of the story is found in verses 26 and 27. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Knowing God's Word isn't enough to make your life storm-proof. To do that, you also need to obey what you know.

The Bible is the firm foundation for a strong life. Anything that you build in this life – a business, a marriage, your children, a ministry – must be built on the obeyed Word of God. That is the rock that stands firm against the storm.

If obeying the Bible's directions is shown to be the rock to build on, what do you suppose the sand in this story is? Simply put, it's hearing the Word and ignoring it. How many Christians do this every week in church. They hear something from the pulpit that convicts them, they know that they need to change, but they walk out and forget about it! Jesus said that was like building a house on the sand!

Now let's get a little more in depth. When you look at all the passages where sand is mentioned symbolically, it always referring to masses of people. If you think about it, this is one of the biggest reasons why people don't obey God's Word. They hear it -  but then they talk to their mom who's got a better idea. or they hear another “viewpoint” on TV, or they follow their own logic instead of what the Bible says. These people hear the sayings of God, but they reject it in favor of the shifting sand of man's opinion.

Storms come to both types of people. People who obey God and people who do things their own way will both have trouble in their life. When someone who has built their life on the rock faces a storm, they can rejoice knowing that they're going to be standing on the other side. But, when someone who ignores God's Word goes through a storm, everything they've built for themselves will collapse.

How many times have we seen this? Marriages fall apart because the wife won't respect her husband or the husband won't love his wife. Kid's go crazy because they weren't disciplined God's way while they grew up. Churches split in half because the congregation refused to listen to God's warnings on strife and division.

If we want to build anything in this life that lasts – we must learn what God says, and then obey it!

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