#79: As Builders...

“But why do you call Me “LORD, LORD,” and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundations on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.” Luke 6:46-49

Sequel to the recent publications on the issues of the heart, where the LORD was bringing to our understanding some intrinsic features in a man’s life that would hinder the Word of God from taking root in his life and making him the fruit bearing tree that the Master desires of such a life, there is another perspective the Spirit of God would love us to view our daily living with our interaction with the Word of God as it graciously meets us daily.

The first and foremost point to note is that we are building day by day. The LORD wants us to cultivate the thinking attitude of a builder. For everything we set our hearts to do, it is as though we are building. We are building our career, our marriage, our home, our education, our ministry. And as a builder, the question will always begin with counting the cost (Luke 14:28) which entails serious deliberations as to whether it worth the effort and cost that you will be investing into the building. Anybody that just woke up from sleep and started doing the work of God is not a serious follower of Christ. Such a person did not count the cost of discipleship, and as such, when the journey becomes stormy, since there was nothing at stake to sacrifice for the gospel he will have something to forsake Christ and fall back to (John 6: 66-69). Since it was easy to follow Christ, it will be as easy to change his mind during the journey. They are the ones that look back after placing their hands on the plough (Luke 9:62).

He is like a man…who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock: It is the beauty of walking with God that those who seek Him, find Him. I see a concerted effort here in this parable. There was a digging. Digging deep into the word of God, waiting on the LORD. I can imagine the builder passed the first layer of earth, he didn’t hear from God, he went further deep and didn’t give up till he found the rock. He did not just stop there; he built on that rock which he found. The builder did not do a half-baked job. He found the rock after digging and went ahead to build on it. We know that this Rock is Christ, and at such, when we read scriptures do we go ahead to see Jesus in it or we read the alphabets and stories? Jesus is the Life. When we meet Him, we are able to live what the scriptures talks about.

And the flood arose: the tone of this statement is not as a surprise. It is as though the storm was meant to come. Could it be that every time we are in the Presence of God and His Word is coming to us, we are in essence implicating ourselves for the storms of life? These storms are the tests and temptations we pass through and the only reason they are allowed to come our way is to test our resilience. Should we fall at such storms, then the Word of God was not rooted in us.

On the other hand the person who hears the Word of God and did nothing is like a man that just built his life on anything he sees, as soon as the floods come, there is no struggle, his house bows in the direction of the wind. May God deliver us from this syndrome. For every step we take, may we always go back to the Word of God and build our steps and actions on it. God does not reveal Himself to careless people, people who after hearing the Word, and don’t give time to meditating and seeking the truth and life in scriptures. There are a lot of hearers in our generation. And when the storms of life comes you begin to wonder whether the word of God your neighbor heard is different from that which you heard. The victorious man is the man that is doing the Word of God-living Christ.

THOUGHT: What are you building your everyday on? Are you living Christ?