This past Sabbath Val and I, along with a few of our friends, went to "A Thousand Steps" beach to enjoy some sunshine and fresh ocean air. There weren't a whole lot of people around (I suppose the name "A thousand steps beach" helps cut the crowds down...) so it was peaceful and refreshing. I climbed up on a overlook to have some time alone and to enjoy the beating of the waves against the shoreline and fresh air upon my face.
Down on the beach not far from where I sat reflecting was an old beach house, tattered, falling apart and with windows broken. It was a perfect picture of disarray and disrepair. "How many of our lives look just like that house!" I thought. "In fact, it's the perfect example of what Jesus talked about in the Bible...The foolish man built his house upon the sand..."
And, just as in the parable from Matthew 7, up on the hill above stood a huge beautiful mansion...it had a hanging garden spilling over the hill and flowers were all around. It truly looked like a beautiful place to live. "And the wise man built his house upon the rock..." I thought as I smiled to myself. "That house should be what our spiritual lives look like with Christ!!"
It's been only 4 days now since our trip to the beach when I encountered the "wise man's house and the foolish man's house." Yet I'm amazed at how true this incredible parable and Sabbath school children's story is in our world today!
Just since this weekend, not only has another cult leader been arrested in Southern New Mexico who called himself the messiah. (What's scary is he use to be a member of the SDA church!) But a massive volcanoe erupted in Chile spewing ash for up to 20 miles into the air, and a Cyclone has ripped into Myanmar Burma killing thousands. In fact, over 60,000 are still missing. The pictures are incredible, and the numbers mind boggling. Yet, how easy is it for me, sitting here curled up in my cozy home, with warm blankets wrapped around my shoulders (yes, mornings are still chilly here in Southern CA) and with plenty of food and water on my shelf... how easy is it for me to just brush the casualties aside. (In fact, initially I did brush them aside!) I first saw the news about the Cyclone on the way to work on Monday when I checked into MSN. I only read the headlines "thousands killed, and thousands more missing." But I was rushed and didn't hardly give it another thought besides "Wow - another disaster, and more sad stories." I checked my e-mail, grabbed my breakfast, and headed off to work in my comfortable car on our clean dry roads. It was just another day in my neighborhood...and another day in my world.
But as I've been off from work the last couple days, and spending some extra time on my knees with friends from Advent Hope as we pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit during "Operation Global Rain," I've thought about it all more, and about the parable of the houses upon the beach. For the scope of the matter is: These disasters may not be imminently affecting my world at the moment, and I may be quite numb to the pain of the thousands lost and struggling just to find a drink of clean water on the opposite side of the world. Yet, it should be shaking my world, and waking me to the urgency of the times is which we live...the urgency to share Christ Jesus with those around me, with the lost masses in my own neighborhood, and beyond. Sometime, someday soon....I too, along with the rest of comfortable America, will be cast into our own crises....bigger than any Hurricane Katrina, and bigger than dozens of Tornadoes! What then? Who will come to our rescue? Will I be able to stand, even when the fierce winds blow and everything I know is under water? What about when someone I thought stood for truth ends up preaching falsehood....will I be able to tell what is the truth?
"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." Matt 7:24-27
So, I am reminded again, and nudged out of my "comfort zone" as I realize, our only safety is in building upon our Rock Christ Jesus...when the storms come and the fierce winds blow, it is only in Him that we can ever hope to stand.
"To the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa 8:20
Most of our world chooses to build their homes and lives upon the sand...the sand of change, of superstition, of pride, of tradition, of selfishness, of vain glory, and of other gods...any god but the God of the Bible. They think they can stand, they think they know what is best. Yet sadly, one by one we can see these homes and lives fall apart. (Just like the house on the sand...and just like the thousands who built their homes upon the sand of Myanmar!)
"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Prov 14:12
Let's make sure we are building upon the ROCK of JESUS CHRIST!!!
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