May 18, 2013 … Building on THE Rock

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2013 - Day 138

Passage of the Day: Matthew 7: 24-26 [NLT] …  
24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse, because it is built on rock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will fall with a mighty crash.”
============
 Contextual Study for today’s passage: Matthew, Chapter 7 [NLT] … Go to this link … 
============

Reference Passage #1: Luke 6: 46-48 : [Building on the solid ROCK.] …[NLT] …  
46 “So why do you call me ‘Lord,’ when you won’t obey me? 47 I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then obeys me. 48 It is like a person who builds a house on a strong foundation laid upon the underlying rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against the house, it stands firm because it is well built. 49 But anyone who listens and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will crumble into a heap of ruins.”

  Reference Passage #2: 1st Peter 2: 4-5a : [Yes, Jesus is our cornerstone.] …[NLT] …  
4 Come to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by the people, but He is precious to God who chose Him. 5And now God is building you, as living stones, into His spiritual temple. 

My Journal for Today: I’m always amazed at the stories of how people in Southern California build multi-million dollar homes on the sides of hills, overlooking the beaches, … where, when the storms come, the houses come tumbling down the hillsides, because the homes are not built on solid ground but rather on sandy soil which cannot support the structure in the wet weather. When you see reports like that, don’t you want to say, “What were they thinking?”

Well that’s the word picture of Jesus’ teaching in both Matthew 7 and Luke 6 where the powerful “Sermon on the Mount” was reported by these two authors. In this famous teaching, Jesus was warning the people about a standard of living way beyond anything they had ever heard before. And they heard about how believers should live and how they would one day live together in glory.

 However, one of the most practical lessons Jesus taught the people during this sermon was a wake-up call to how they were living their lives; and the word picture “The Master” used in teaching this lesson was related by pictures of how someone should build their houses. And, most certainly, the picture was a clear one, wasn’t it? Because anyone hearing the teaching would (or should) see that it’s stupid, well, at least very foolish, to build one’s home knowingly on unstable sand, which would be subject to collapse in bad weather. No, … when one is building a home to last (or a life), we should build a solid foundation on solid rock, shouldn’t we?

And as Jesus was teaching then, just as He is teaching through His word to us right now, the following questions should resonate for us, to which I quote Os Hillman’s devotional entry for today: "Many of us find that we have given only lip service to God’s commands. We are faced with the reality that our foundations are not strong enough to weather life’s storms. How do we react when the trials come? Do we fret and worry? Do we take life into our hands? Do we respond inappropriately when we don’t get what we want? The Lord uses these times to help us recognize whether our foundations are sand or rock. Ask the Lord today if you have built on His rock. If so, you can be comforted to know that you can weather any storm that may come your way."

I’ll leave you to ponder these challenging thoughts and to evaluate how the foundation and structure of your life, as God’s Temple, is being built. Because we now know that only building our lives on the living Cornerstone, i.e., Jesus Himself, will provide us with the solid foundation upon which our temple must be built (see 1st Peter 2: 4-5a copied above).

 My Prayer for Today … Lord, I take the building plans from Your Word and build my life, knowing that I’m building on THE ROCK. …

Amen Audio PS: Take a few moments, if you’re at your computer, and be linked to a wonderful Gaither rendition of Vestel Goodman and others singing the old classic, Rock of Ages, which certainly applies to worship God as our Rock forevermore – Here’s the link to God Tube to listen and worship.