foundations

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.  Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  The rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell – and great was its fall.”

            When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

                                                Matthew 7:24-29

I love this little passage.  It’s so convicting in its simplicity.  In it, Jesus talks about two different men:  the one who has heard His Word and built his house upon a firm foundation of stone, and the other who hears but foolishly builds his house in a place of temporal, sandy convenience.  When storms come and winds buffet, as Jesus assures us they will, the man whose house is built on stone survives because his foundation is firm.  It isn’t because he’s a good man or because he’s been smart of has done a bunch of super nice things, but it’s because of the foundation on his house.  The guy who built his house on the sandy place doesn’t fare so well.  The wind is able to rip his place right out of its sandy moorings.  His foundation doesn’t do such a great job of holding things in place.

I’ve been foolish lately.  Maybe I haven’t been looking like the world so much, but I haven’t been looking much like Jesus ether.  I’ve been looking like the gaggle of lukewarm Christians who surround me, and it makes me sad and apathetic because Jesus didn’t save me to be lukewarm and apathetic, going with the flow and pandering to the “good enough for me” mentality of an academic world.  But today I’m reminded of the foundation that was built for me when God plucked me up out of a life of sound and fury.  He began this walk for me and built this foundation so that I wouldn’t have to live like this.  I’m reminded today that even though I feel like parts of the building in which I’m living have slipped away from their fastness, the foundation that I started out with remains firm underneath me.  Maybe I’ve let the insides of the house get a little messy, but that’s nothing a good, diligent, washing with the Word can’t fix, right?

There are many houses all around me, with many different foundations, and I find that I’m so tired of trying to look into their windows in order to determine for myself what their condition is, to know if they’ll be a good or a bad house to play with.  From now on, I think I’ll just get back to basics – God, me, and my own foundation on His Word.  The rest, discernment and wisdom, and the grace and mercy that He’s given me as His child, will flow naturally out of that.

It doesn’t have to be this way any more.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, not idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the Kingdom of God.  Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

                                    1 Corinthians 6:9-11