Thought of the Day !!

"Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though 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 bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash."
                                                                      Matthew 7:24-27 (NLT)

The sand along the Sea of Galilee would become very hard during the hot summer months.  But a wise builder wouldn’t be fooled by this and would dig down…sometimes as much as ten feet…to find bedrock.  This is what Jesus was talking about when he spoke of the wise person building on solid rock.

Picture this image in your mind.  The storm is coming. Long hours have been spent on the strengthening the Levees to handle the floods.  But alas, too little too late.  The levy breaks.  The sandbags do little against the massive push of water, which makes its way down street after street until it comes to your house.  It’s vacant because everyone’s been ordered to evacuate.  And the water rises and rises and rises.  Pretty soon all the surrounding areas are under water.

Weeks later you go back to find everything in your house destroyed.  The house is a shambles and must be torn down.  And you know that you will have to start all over from scratch.  Water, though a life-giving agent, can also be a destructive force.  That's why problems in our lives are sometimes referred to things flooding us. 

The rains come on both the wise and the foolish.  God doesn’t shelter Christians from life’s storms (illness, accidents, death, job loss, etc.)  So we must be prepared to live through the storms and tragedies that are common to humankind.  Putting our faith in Jesus and listening to what God has to say to us will make us wise so that we can live through the storms of life.  But Jesus doesn’t only say those who listen will be wise.  He says that those who listen and follow…or those who do…are wise.

How will you choose to live your life; wisely or foolishly?

In the love of Christ,
greg