Do You Hear What I Hear?…

Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his home on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against the 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.”

I am not usually the one who thinks ahead and sees the danger. In fact I am more the one who hates those pessimistic mongers out to spoil any and all of my plans. I will always try to see the bright spot in the coming apocalypse. Sometimes I annoy my friends and family (sometimes I intentionally annoy them) with my Pollyanna take on events.

I used to think that God was the Ultimate Spoiler… no matter what I wanted to do or what would have been the most fun… somewhere, someone would find that God had declared it to be sin!

We all know that the wages of sin is death… oh oh… I was lost…

I grew up thinking that there was nothing I could do that would be “good enough”  to earn God’s approval nor was there anything I could, would, should do that would qualify as the right thing to do.

IF, you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t – THEN, anything and everything goes! Oh oh… I was also blind…

Come to find out… it’s true! I am neither wise nor righteous.

It is NOT TRUE, however, that God is the spoiler! Amazing Grace…

Mankind and our religions tend to “naturally” see all things as man being given an opportunity to be god-like (please note that we may not admit to this &/or use other words that mean the same thing). We revert back to our glorious moments in the garden when we were given the command by our Creator to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and every living thing that moves on the earth.” We live with the hope and dream that we can convince God that we are worthy and able (See Dick, see Jane, see Dick and Jane make a touchdown!) to once again be His quarterback in our earthly game.

 

Therefore, when we see a wise man who built his home and a foolish man who built his house, we focus in on… man – building – landscape.

But God focuses the first choice we make which affects the results of every action we take.

Every man, for God does not wish for any to perish, has the same freedom to choose. It isn’t about our building skills or the landscape upon which we live. It is about the FOUNDATION we choose.

Joshua 24:15 If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, (the rock) choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served (the sand) which were beyond the River, or the gods (the sand) of the Amorites in whose land you are living;

Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

I was trained up to believe that it was the building and my building skills that determined my ability to live a good life. With good (religious) actions I can build a proper HOUSE.

But God wants a HOME in me.

So… Jesus, AFTER paying my debt and offering me a place in His Family, sent me… John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” 

The Holy Spirit, the One who IS WISE and RIGHTEOUS, who not only seals me to the family God, but retrains me to focus on the ROCK (the foundation of life)… Jesus. With His wisdom, we are building a HOME. A strong, and safe, and enduring … and might I add… an ABUNDANT place in which I can live the life God has indeed planned for me… one day at a time!

Do you hear what I hear?

Amazing Grace… I once was lost, but now am found… was blind (and deaf), but now I see.

Jesus is the Reason!

**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB  version of the Bible