Here is the passage from Luke i referred to in the last post. It is Luke 6:46-49
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
I will be breaking this down into several themes over the next couple posts, but for today i want to look at the flood that came upon the houses. Notice that the flood comes first to the one who built the house well, not the one who didn't. We as Christians often think in a default manner that judgment first comes to "those sinners over there." But here we see that Jesus first points judgment at those that have built well. Even if this didn't happen chronologically it happened first in Jesus' telling of it. In I Peter 4:17 it says, "For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God." The Lord brings the flood, judgment and, yes, even sufferings (if you read on in I Peter 4) not to harm the children of God but to exalt them! "He who humbles himself will be exalted." Luke 18:14. What is more humble than hearing the word of God, and then obeying that word?
If you humble yourself and do what God says, most likely you will have some sort of suffering come your way. This is to test the quality of the materials you are using to build your house. ("If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work." I Corinthians 3:12-13)
If you are suffering, it is time to humble yourself even more. For your exaltation will bring others to knowing God in such a way that they will see how to build their lives on the Rock Himself. No one really wants to suffer, but i believe the mature see that in times of suffering that there is opportunity to see A) what their house is really built on in a certain area of their life and 2) where the Gospel of the Kingdom is really effective in reaching the hearts of others.
Think about it in terms of this really simple example: if i'm in line for lunch and it looks like it's going to be five minutes longer than normal, what is my reaction? Do i complain and moan and make things more miserable for others? If so, the storm has come and revealed that no work of God in the area of my patience has stood. In the area of patience i have built with wood, hay, and straw.
Next, we will talk about this idea of the different areas of our souls going through floods in more detail.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
This is My Home
I picked up a brick for at least the fiftieth time. It was the end of a long day, and i was doing something charitable for those who suffered from the worst hurricane in U.S. history, but i couldn't help but not feel like my efforts were being a little wasted. I was picking up bricks from the destruction of a gateway that led to a gigantic ocean side house that withstood Hurricane Katrina and all of her rage. Meanwhile i knew that there were millions suffering from leveled (or even missing) homes, and here i am cleaning up a really rich man's driveway decoration that told everyone around him his (high) economic status.
The owner would come by every now and then and humbly thank us for doing something so mundane. He had a wheelbarrow and was working pretty hard himself but often seemed distracted. This often led me to believe he was lazy. I soon found out i was horribly, incredibly wrong.
As the man smoked a cigarette and called his golden retriever to him i detected a tear in his eye that escaped the shadow of his shaggy sun-bleached hair. A couple of us started asking some of the typical questions, "How long have you lived here?" "What was the hurricane like for you?"
He began to tell us how the only thing he had left was his dog and his FEMA trailor. I asked him "Well, what about your house over there?" as i pointed to the three story mansion. He gave a half hearted chuckle and said, "Oh, sir. That's not my house, this... THIS is my house."
What he pointed to was nothing. Literally, flat ground that revealed a couple cynder blocks, broken bricks and a barely recognizable foundation. The bricks we were picking up weren't to the driveway of the mansion, but of the walls of a small one story house that got swallowed up by the ocean.
I've never felt so shallow in my whole life. I walked away in shame and refused to even make eye contact with the man as i did my best to pick up even pebble sized portions of brick in honor of this man. And his dog.
I did overhear him say one more thing though before we left.
"This is my home. A lot of people are moving north, fleeing to the hills, looking for a new place to live. But Pass Christian is my home whether i have a house or not."
This man's circumstances did not deter his perseverance. My next blog (i'm attempting to blog on Sunday evenings now, but will be gone next Sunday because of Spring break, so the next one will be in two Sundays) i will go into the passage in Luke where one house stands against the flood and one house falls and what that means for us going forward. But until then, know that there are a few things we must place deep in our hearts for this coming season:
*perseverance can only be found in trying times
*there are no accidents, just opportunities
*no matter what structures stand or fail, know where your true home is
The owner would come by every now and then and humbly thank us for doing something so mundane. He had a wheelbarrow and was working pretty hard himself but often seemed distracted. This often led me to believe he was lazy. I soon found out i was horribly, incredibly wrong.
As the man smoked a cigarette and called his golden retriever to him i detected a tear in his eye that escaped the shadow of his shaggy sun-bleached hair. A couple of us started asking some of the typical questions, "How long have you lived here?" "What was the hurricane like for you?"
He began to tell us how the only thing he had left was his dog and his FEMA trailor. I asked him "Well, what about your house over there?" as i pointed to the three story mansion. He gave a half hearted chuckle and said, "Oh, sir. That's not my house, this... THIS is my house."
What he pointed to was nothing. Literally, flat ground that revealed a couple cynder blocks, broken bricks and a barely recognizable foundation. The bricks we were picking up weren't to the driveway of the mansion, but of the walls of a small one story house that got swallowed up by the ocean.
I've never felt so shallow in my whole life. I walked away in shame and refused to even make eye contact with the man as i did my best to pick up even pebble sized portions of brick in honor of this man. And his dog.
I did overhear him say one more thing though before we left.
"This is my home. A lot of people are moving north, fleeing to the hills, looking for a new place to live. But Pass Christian is my home whether i have a house or not."
This man's circumstances did not deter his perseverance. My next blog (i'm attempting to blog on Sunday evenings now, but will be gone next Sunday because of Spring break, so the next one will be in two Sundays) i will go into the passage in Luke where one house stands against the flood and one house falls and what that means for us going forward. But until then, know that there are a few things we must place deep in our hearts for this coming season:
*perseverance can only be found in trying times
*there are no accidents, just opportunities
*no matter what structures stand or fail, know where your true home is
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