Solid Rock or Sinking Sand

Matthew 7:24-27 -- The Message (MSG) 

24-25 “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. 

26-27 “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”

Years ago a local farm near my home was sold to a developer and turned into a subdivision where more than 1600 houses and apartment units were built.  The same family had owned that farm for two hundred years.  It is unlikely that any of the dwellings built there will still be standing in another 50 or 75 years.

I say that because of the experience of one of the home buyers.  He decided to stop by one evening to visit the building site and was amazed to find the foundation already complete.  But when he pushed against one of the walls it collapsed.

If he hadn't been there to test the strength of that foundation, the builder would have filled in the trenches to the top of the cinder blocks and completed the construction of an outwardly beautiful but internally unstable house.

Though the foundation remains covered and unseen, it is the most important part of the construction of a solid building or a solid life. 

The Apostle Paul understood the importance of building on a solid foundation.  He had spent years trying to build a solid life on things like determination, manipulation, aggression and intimidation.  But until his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul was an angry, hateful, unlovable man.

Paul finally found solid ground when he build his life on the words and the ways of Jesus.  He offers these words of wisdom to anyone who wants to build a solid life:

"Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely" (I Corinthians 3:10-15).

Let's build something that will still be around for our children's children.  Let's build on the reliable words and solid ways of Jesus, the Rock of our Salvation.