“Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” - Romans 8:24-26
There are elements of God’s kingdom which must be found at some level in God’s people.We know that all of God’s children have an undeniable love that will be manifest in their lives.It is faith which is the beginning of our journey in Christ, the sustaining of that same journey, and the depositor of us in the climax of our journey.And then there is hope.What a strong and motivating force is our hope in Jesus Christ.It is hope that tells us that we have already won the absolute victory and that, in the realm of time and space, that victory is being actualized.Hope shouts down the enemy when he accuses us loudly.Hope is the voice we hear when circumstances swallow and people provoke.Hope cushions and comforts when loss ambushes us and plunders.Hope laughs when the world demands we wearily weep.Hope allows us to remain silent when unbelief demands an explanation or evidence for why we should go on another day.Hope is a strengthening friend, one without whom we could not make it.
I begin preaching a Christmas series this morning at Meadow.Mary is visited by Gabriel who announces to the targeted teen that she will bear the Son of God into this world.Six months prior, an old man named Gabriel had received this same heavenly messenger who told Zechariah that his elderly wife would bear a son named John.Zechariah was stunned and questioned Gabriel in unbelief.Somewhere along the way, it seemed that the old priest had turned loose of hope.When the answer came to his many years of prayer for a son, he had no container in his heart to deposit the affirmation.Time had robbed him of his hope.He let go too soon.Contrasted with the Jewish juvenile, Mary, we find that the younger of these two embraced the word from Heaven in humble, submissive faith.For thousands of years Jewish women had hoped to be the mother of their Messiah.Each announcement of a man-child being brought into the world stirred the longings of Hebrew hearts that, perhaps, this boy would become the long awaited Deliverer.The Sovereign God of Heaven had etched out the time, predetermined the place and handpicked the lass who would nurse the One who would feed the world as the Bread of Life.Mary was the one among all women who was chosen to be so supremely blessed.The Hope of the nations had arrived.
I’m not old by any stretch of the imagination, but I am older.I look back over my years with Christ and can denote clear growth.I have gained experience in the corridor of time and opportunity.By God’s grace, I have received some wisdom along the way.I have been purified in motive and method.Yes, there has been growth.
But I also acknowledge that there has been loss. I am too often in danger of allowing Zechariah's unbelief to replace Mary's simplicity.
I wonder this morning if I (perhaps you also?) are in danger of allowing time and age to sap us of the simplicity that should result in walking in the promises of God.Zechariah was a priest – and a faithful one at that.Yet, when the answer to his prayers arrived he was in no shape to believe.Mary, much younger and less immersed in the religious atmosphere of her day, received the message from Gabriel in humble submission which eventually turned into a song of unbridled joy.If you remember, Zechariah was not even permitted to speak because of his unbelief.So I ponder this morning…songs of joy or judgment of silence?Wherein is Christ more glorified?We know the answer so let us pray earnestly this morning that, when the sun sets this evening, it will have cast its rays upon a very real hope being manifest in our lives.Let hose without Christ live today in the eclipse of hopelessness.Let us laugh with confidence at the voices of denial.May we raise up the banner in front of the castle of our hearts which signifies the King to be in residence.Let us dare to be quiet – even silent – until the accuser of the brethren tires of our steadfastness and moves along to other ventures.Yes, hope is alive because Jesus is our Hope.May we emulate Mary and pity Zechariah who had incrementally loosened his grip until he ultimately lost it.May the reality of a Savior within be the message we send to a desperate world at Christmastime.
This week on the calendar is usually my favorite each year. Amy and I celebrate our wedding anniversary and somehow manage to sequester a little time away together every year. This year we went to the North Georgia mountains and have enjoyed some peace and quiet and fresh mountain air. We come back and spend some quality time as a family with the kids out of school, eventually landing with Amy's family for some time together to celebrate Thanksgiving. Yep, it's a simple week each year but one that brings great refreshment to the soul.
Thinking on the objects of my gratitude over the last few days I realized that I could easily fill up pages worth of material. I'm a blessed man and feel like God has graced me to value greatly the vast majority of what is in my life. My salvation always tops the list because, without this, I'm a dead man living a doomed life. Every other blessing in my life flows out from the gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ my Lord. My family is next - Amy (my love), Alicia (my joy) & Landon (my hope). I am looking at the kids right now as I type and realize the preciousness of those two little souls wrapped in Lyle DNA. Amy and I have never been closer and I am so greatly sustained by her when so much of life is beyond my ability on a day-to-day basis. My Lord and my family - so much more than I had ever hoped.
One other thing I'd like to add to the list of things I'm grateful for is You (and people like you). The fact that you are reading this reminds me that God has given me the privilege of exercising a portioned influence in His kingdom. Believing that He has worked enough grace into my life so that it results in an outflow into yours brings me great happiness. I love to utilize words to speak of the King and His kingdom. He is my chief delight and I know that, when people deepen in their knowledge and experience of Him, they will also be enlarged in their love for Him. To slow down and think that God has opened a door for me to be one of those who participates in the proclaiming of His glory is a humbling yet exhilarating thought. Thank you for being willing to be on the receiving end because Jesus teaches us that we are mightily blessed when we give; how could I be blessed in giving if you were not willing to receive?
May His high and holy hand rest on you today, transmitting the best of His blessings, perfectly chosen by Omniscience precisely for you - the object of His amazing love.
Just wanted to let you know that I'm alive and well. This week has been a monster and has not allowed me time to write like I desire. I'm on vacation next week for my and Amy's 12th wedding anniversary and then the Thanksgiving Holiday. I may be able to blog a few thoughts over the next several days but, more than likely, you won't hear much from me until after Thanksgiving week. May the Lord Jesus bless you mightily as He reveals Himself in you, to you, and through you. People are looking for Him, just in the wrong places. May His sovereign hand lead us to the looking, that we may lead the looking to our Lord.
“I thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for the promise whereon Thou hast given me to rest.Give me all the needed strength of body, wisdom of mind, grace of soul to do this thy so great work.”Hudson Taylor; Sunday, January 27, 1874
God graced me to celebrate my seventh anniversary as Meadow’s pastor yesterday.The church family was kind and so very encouraging.I believe many knew that this year has been especially testing for the Meadow family and that their pastor had not been excluded from the challenges, so the sweet words were right on time for me.The church is growing spiritually and numerically; I cannot remember a recent week gone by when someone was not saved or did not unite with the Meadow family.It is also true that I cannot recall a week in many months when there was not a significant problem facing us as a local church.What do we do when we wake daily and find ourselves in the proverbial “best of times and worst of times”?I’ll tell you what we do:we abide faithfully as we look to God with expectancy.
If you happen to be involved in Christian ministry I hope you will listen to what I write this morning.The service of the King is no place for the fainthearted.If you’ve not progressed beyond the crib of your own wants and wishes then I predict your service for the Lord will be shallow and short-lived.On the other hand, if you have already renounced self and all the adornments of low living then you have the key ingredient for a life which will be radiant for Jesus.I think regularly about the sad state of affairs in the American church.The WWII generation is no longer in leadership in our local assemblies; even the children of that amazing generation of Americans have gotten older and are looking to pass the torch to their children’s generation (the generation of which I am a part).In many instances as the Gospel-torch is sought to be passed there is no hand extended which is willing to receive it.Those hands are full of other things – trinkets, contracts, demands, wish-lists, degrees, pointy fingers which accuse, and white flags of surrender to a culture which promises comfort but only delivers confusion.The above quote from Hudson Taylor was penned more than 125 years ago and he was approximately the same age as me.He had no demands, no presumptions, no complaints and no time to whine. Mr. Taylor had long since discovered the fundamental need of forgetting self and finding Christ. He was too occupied with Kingdom work to shed tears for his own losses (he buried children and a wife in his ministry in China).He had hands empty of things and a heart full of Jesus.Hudson Taylor made a difference.So must we.
As we rapidly approach the consummation of time we must resist the urge to doddle with things that have little profit.Do you have complainers around you?Don’t join them - nobody likes their song.Does the glitter in the gutter beckon you?To obtain it you will have to sully your hands.Is the road with Jesus involving unanticipated terrain which tires your soul?The next mile on the way is accompanied by a promise of the presence of Christ – so don’t give up the journey.You love Him too much to morph from a worshiper to whiner; to live for self is the way of the transgressor and you have long since absconded from that camp.Let’s expect to rest in eternity but never let the lullaby of personal ease sing us into spiritual slumber.‘The spirit is willing,’ Jesus told the well-intending disciples, ‘but the flesh is weak.’
On this Monday morning I want to encourage you to pray for something:ask God to give you as much passion for His purposes as you might naturally have for your own purposes.Request of Him a trade; lay before Him all that is dear to you and ask Him to take it.Then you may declare that you will wait expectantly for Him to offer back to you what is dear to Him.What He hands you back will most likely be less in number than what you put before Him to take.I expect, however, that what He extends back to you will have a far greater weight.This is faith:surrendering and receiving; letting go and taking up; denying self and welcoming Christ.If you live for earthly reputation then you will forfeit heavenly treasure.With every ill-spoken word and complaint we lose forever the opportunity to have used that same breath for praise and edification.If you are prone to taking swipes at God’s children then you will be too busy to reach out to the lost.If your song has been soured then your spirit has been sunk.Like Elisha’s miracle which caused the iron to swim, God can bring your victory back to the surface for you to lay hold upon and get back to His work (2 Kings 6:4-7).But you first must recognize that you've flung your work-tool away. Stop hammering with the wooden handle on ask the King of Kings to aid you. Nobody can or will do this for you.It will be you and Jesus Christ if it is going to ever be.He has looked to you and asks what you and He will make of this day.No excuses.No substitutes.No delaying.What will you become for Christ beginning this day?
“Thy never-failing providence orders every event, sweetens every fear, reveals evil’s presence lurking in seeming good, brings real good out of seeming evil, makes unsatisfactory what I set my heart upon, to show me what a short-sighted creature I am, and to teach me to live by faith upon Thy blessed Self…Help me to love Thee as Thy child, and to walk worthy of my heavenly pedigree.” – The Valley Of Vision
What would any of us do today were we not absolutely certain that God is always and only good?Could you imagine waking to a world that is full of violence, deceit, hatred and lust without the bedrock confidence that a good and holy God is in control?The heathen have been raging for millennia – I used to rage among them – and yet the Sovereign God of Heaven still holds a plan intact which has not been budged one-trillionth of a millimeter from its original course.He that is seated upon the throne takes the very evil that man hurls at Him and turns it into a cog upon His eternal wheel.There may be things of which I am uncertain this morning, but as to whether or not God can be supremely trusted is not among them.
We Christians have a heavenly pedigree that will inevitably be reflected in how we live.Our lights will eventually shine and the lack thereof is simply a token of the truth that one’s soul has never been ignited in the first place.When I wrestle with the Old Man who refuses to willingly vacate the premises of my life, I do so with the belief that he fights me with fading strength.Each hold he tries to bring me under is one that has been attempted before and the Holy Spirit has taught me to master this tenacious foe.The Old Man seeks to contain me in a headlock of Bad Temper; my head has been oiled with grace and I’m able to free myself.He then goes for the choke-hold of Pride, hoping to suffocate my praise of God.As I bow forward to kneel humbly before the throne, the Old Man is thrown forward from my back, over my shoulder, and falls upon his own bony spine as I pray to God for quietness in my soul.He then seeks to gouge out my eyes with Lust so I cannot behold the True Beauty of my Lord.He fails here because those eyes have already been closed tight in prayer as I call on God to make Job’s covenant with his eyes to become my own commitment for the day.The Old Man takes one last attempt to deafen me by shoving Hurtful Words in my ears so that I know longer hear the affirming voice of my Savior.In the end he does not succeed here either because my hearing has been attuned to recognize only the voice of the Good Shepherd and any other those ears will not acknowledge.The battle is exhausting, but the King has made me to win.
May the God of all grace entrust the appropriate difficulties to you today.Don't seek to not wrestle, seek to wrestle and triumph against what assails you. May these thorns succeed in pricking your pride so that it deflates completely.May any tears you shed acts as a cleansing agent which floods out the remaining impurities in your heart.Do you have only groaning?May they become as songs in the throne room of Heaven to the One whose heart has already harmonized with your burden!Then, when the process is just beginning to be realized in your heart, when you see Him as your Master who sometimes instructs with the hard-edged textbook of Trouble, when the fear melts away as His face draws close…listen to Him whisper to you again, “I love you, little one.I will never, ever leave you.I could never forsake you.You are Mine forever and this brings Me great and glorious joy.”
What do we do when we are opposed?Each of us has faced difficulty that is beyond our ability to manage.We’ve all come face to face with resistance, confrontation, conflict and strife; what does God expect of us?From an unlikely individual comes our answer:Gamaliel was not a Christian.In fact, this man was part of a group that fiercely withstood Jesus Christ and His followers.Gamaliel was an educated man, astute and respected, religious and polished.He was the type of man who, when he spoke, everyone hushed and became eager to hear.Interestingly, one of his pupils would later become the greatest witness for Christ who ever lived, the Apostle Paul.The counsel of Gamaliel in Acts 5:34-39 speaks to me this morning as if reading it for the first time.His words are seasoned with the wisdom of experience and are recorded by Dr. Luke as he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.These words instruct us concerning how to handle human opposition.
“Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” {ESV}
Gamaliel was wise enough to employ the light-handed touch to his opponents.He looked at these Christians, full of God’s Spirit, who opposed everything he and his comrades stood for.Something seemed to gnaw at Gamaliel, telling him that he should be cautious of being hasty in his approach concerning the disciples of Christ.He gave two case-studies which reminded those in the audience that man’s movements, protests, coups, and rebellions have a natural course and eventually lose steam (Theudas and Judas).He indicated that sometimes even drastic situations arise which bring a swift end to those who oppose.He additionally taught that, if God was showing favor to those who oppose, then we are in very sad shape because to fight the opposition is then equal to fighting God Himself.What was his end-all application of his wisdom?Leave it alone.Don’t fight the flesh with flesh.Don’t presume your opponent is worthy of your energy and time in fighting them.Let God fight your battle or else risk the possibility of opposing God yourself.
This is sound counsel for all of us in days of turmoil in America.To decide when to fight and when to wait is a precarious process.It takes patient wisdom which seeks God above all things, even at the risk of allowing those who oppose to seemingly get the upper hand.There is nothing holy about resisting those who oppose you in the energy of your flesh.Even if they are toppled by your own ingenuity or strength, you can never be sure that your fighting back was of God.However, when you take those same energies and direct them into seeking Christ in the midst of the storm, you will ultimately find that the very waves you walk upon are the same waves which drown your opposition.Let us be wise concerning whom we classify as enemies.Nobody in God’s family is your enemy; they are your brother or sister.They are objects of Divine Love and one never wins when striking out against what God loves.At worst, the children of God sometimes can be opponents over a certain issue or cause, but let it never be said that they are our enemies.God chastises His children when we go astray – mark it down, rebellion of the heart always produces the raising of God’s hand.He will wear us out when we choose the street of self-will.I’ve learned that the hard way.May we instead stick to His narrow way where there is just enough room for two to walk side-by-side.Let us ensure that the One at our side is Christ and not another.It makes the journey much safer and joyous.
“You cannot be your own Savior, either in whole or in part.” – Hudson Taylor
“On Him then reckon, to Him look, on Him depend: and be assured that if you walk with Him, look to Him and expect help from Him, He will never fail you.God has never failed me.In the greatest difficulties, in the heaviest trials, in the deepest poverty and necessities, He has never failed me; but because I was enabled by His grace to trust in Him, He has always appeared for my help.I delight in speaking well of His name.”George Muller
Men of yesterday have words which are much needed for today.Taylor reminds us all that it is no glory to God to praise Him for saving our very soul and then, later, for us to try to redeem the stubborn parts of ourselves by the energy of our flesh.To spiritually scrub our stains in the power of human wisdom and determination is like trying to move Kilimanjaro one spoonful at a time.Someone greater must do this immense work and we have only the high call to receive the hunger that it be done in us and the obedience to make ourselves small so we do not get in the way.Do you have rebellious components in that heart of yours that you keep trying to slap down only to find that they’ve not even flinched in the face of your withstanding?I also know this weariness.Call on the hand of omnipotence to come in and give the slap.Believe that He can.Believe that He will.Are we not His own property, after all?Do you not wish to keep clean that which belongs to you?We shine our cars but neglect to believe that God polishes His saints when He notes a spot?Friends, let us put away our soft-cloth of good intentions and will-powered disciplines and replace them with nails and timber.Our flesh is not to be sanctified, but crucified.May grace from on high enable the death that precedes the life.There is no resurrection unless there has been a crucifixion.Are you fully tired of that remaining stronghold in your life?Then expend the last of your energy in the challenging, exhausting task of loudly confessing that you cannot storm that castle so that the One who can will arise and do it on your behalf.He rides the horse called Grace and there is not a citadel in the human soul that can withstand Him.
George Muller fed thousands of orphans with resources which flowed from a life of prayer.Many said he had no real plan to do this but discerning minds applaud that he had the greatest plan of all.He constantly reminded himself, others and God that it was God’s responsibility to provide the resources for His own work.Muller refused to worry and weary himself by giving useless thought to the “how-when-where” aspects of his life work.He received instruction and boldly assumed that he would receive provision.God smiled on the man and the work He entrusted to him.He used a phrase in the above quote which some readers may wish to pray for in their own lives today:
“I was enabled by His grace to trust Him.”
Hmmmm...don't we tend to think that we are supposed to ratchet up our trust into a frenzy and then, just as it hits its peak, we are to pull the trigger and take our next step?Mark this: those who take the first step according to that principle typically fall face-first on the second step.Yes, we are called to live by faith but never by borrowed faith.There comes a time in our lives where we must rest in the grace of God to bring into reality the very ability to trust Him at all.He has to rearrange us in some mysterious way that breeds in us a genuine sense of trusting, not only in His heart, but also for His hand.We need to experience, at times, a specific shifting that lends itself to a confidence in God that has eluded us previously.We cannot create it on our own because it melts like wax fruit under the heat of testing circumstances.The phony smile softens and then droops into a frown when our self-created feeling of confidence leaves us.Muller realized that he could not even take credit for the very faith he lived with.We look to him as our great example and, when we look closely enough, we see him with his left hand pointed up to the sky and his right hand wagging a denying finger at us.He seems to say, “Stop crediting me with such great faith.Know you not that I received it from Him above so that I might fix it upon Him in the first place?”
What am I trying to write this morning?The tone is the same as most of my blogs.We are very small and God is very great.Our subtle pride lies to us and tells us that so much depends on what we bring to the table.We’ve been taught to be capable and confident.If we seek to be so and find ourselves wanting we choose a crutch – or two – or two hundred – and prop ourselves up in a show of strength.We believe that we must be fit to wrestle the pressures that are finding us today.Listen to what Hudson Taylor said about your pressures:
“It doesn’t matter, really, how great the pressure is.It only matters where the pressure lies.See that it never comes between you and the Lord – then, the greater the pressure, the more it presses you to His breast.”
I’ve counted backwards today and this all began sixteen months ago; Amy and I were speaking over the weekend and concluded that there had only been about ten days when I was not in the midst of dealing with some significant problem or need.I wish I could say that I have shined in every moment of these divinely deposited difficulties, but those of you who know me would recognize the folly of that assertion.I will say this, however: I am the better for all of it and would not change a thing.I would also declare with no hesitation that these days have been the most profitable of my entire Christian journey.I have learned the joy of powerlessness, when no shred of wisdom or experience can sustain the present set of crashing waves.I have learned to be quiet when my words are normally employed in my battles.I have learned to welcome God to be my soul defense when the bullseye rested upon me.I have seen my own sin and found it dreadful – much more so than anyone who has opposed me.I have learned an aspect of prayer which had never been afforded me in easier days.And being still in patient waiting upon God has now become a friend to me rather than an unwelcome guest. God has kept me as His own pupil and that now predominates my alternate role as a leader of people.I will tell you that the trouble has been graciously and gloriously good. No need to ask Him for a round of it for yourself, it's probably already here or on the way.
The Psalmist wrote that “vain is the help from man”.How true in so much of life.A man can make you a sandwich but he cannot remove your hungers.A man can build you a roof but he cannot produce your sense of safety.A man can give you advice but he cannot cause you to become wise.A man can make you sincere promises but he cannot tell you that they will be forever, for time is not his to determine.Most people mean well, but our ultimate trust can never rest upon people.God sovereignly ordains phases of life to be so fashioned that we recognize at some point that the aid of other people is absolutely insufficient.Who can comfort the grieving heart?We can only console one another, not bring comfort.How often we turn to people with our wide eyes and deep longings, expecting to receive something of them to sustain us.We then find that the answer or help we seek is too large to fit into their human hands as they themselves realize that they have nothing to suffice us.Then we turn our attention to the One we have never seen.Typically we look for answers we can see, people we can hear, and friends we can embrace.Only after we discover our help is not to be found with them do we urgently cry out to the Invisible One who has all which will help us.Yes, vain is the help of man.If it were not so, how many of us would see our desperate need for Him?If our fellow-man could meet all of our needs, would he not then become our god?
So the Psalmist concludes in a different place: “And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.” {9:10}. We know Him and therefore we willfully place our trust and confidence upon Him.We not only know the name of God but we know the God behind the name.We find ourselves seeking Him, needing Him, hoping upon Him, waiting for Him, breaking before Him.Some days we sense Him powerfully.Other moments we wonder if He remembers us at all.Elevated days of the nearness of His presence strangely warm our hearts and reassure our minds; at distinctly different times He seems cold and unfeeling, distant and disinterested.Were it not for our clarity that He is perfectly righteous we would succumb to the devil’s seed-plant suspicion that God may very well be toying with us.Then we are reminded that “for Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.”How enriched with hope is the reminder that He will be found by those who seek.If you are seeking Him, then He is with you – more properly, you are with Him.Is your valley dark?He is the Light of the world.Is your path blocked?Jesus said that He is the Way.How fearful have your unknowns grown?I Am The Truth, He reminds us.No, friend, man’s help has been exposed as being vain . . . but our right-on-time Sovereign has never said, “Oops!”
Matthew 7:24-29 – “Therefore whosoever hears 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 hears 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.And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”
If God allows, I will be heading down to Atlanta tonight with some of the Meadow family.We plan to minister to the homeless men at the Atlanta City Baptist Rescue Mission.These men will be fed and sheltered for the night and will attend a service that the people of Meadow will have the privilege of leading.The above passage in Matthew 7 will be my text and I thought it might be good to jot down some thoughts in today’s blog.You’re starting your work-week and it might be good to inspect your foundation before you hit the ground running.
Jesus Introduces Two People
There is a faithful man and a foolish man that Jesus speaks of.The faithful man is described as hearing the words of Jesus.He listens to divine counsel from the Son of God.His actions prove that this man also believes what Jesus speaks.He goes from hearing to believing to obeying; true faith always results in a life of obedience.A disobedient life is a degenerate life.The foolish man also hears the teaching of Jesus.The words are understood at face value as the mouth of God the Son shares divine wisdom.We do not know if the foolish man believed or not. If he believed not, he is proud.If he happened to believe the words of Christ but failed to obey, he is a rebel.
Jesus Explores Two Philosophies
Our Lord describes a firm foundation for life when He speaks of the man who built his house upon a rock.The life built upon the faithful hearing, believing, and obeying of God’s Word is fixed upon a simple (but strong) foundation.Faith and loyalty to Jesus Christ is the only solid rock which one can build a flourishing life.Another philosophy for life is introduced to us by the Master: a faulty foundation for life.Jesus unapologetically calls the man a fool who builds his life upon the shifting sand.If faith and loyalty to Jesus Christ qualifies a life built upon the rock, what then is the sand?Two-word-answer: ANYTHING ELSE.
Jesus Introduces One Storm
Interestingly the two men, having two distinct lives, endure the same exact set of storms.Verses 25 & 27 reveal that life-storms are the lot of both the faithful man and the foolish man.Troubles are unavoidable and these troubles are anything but light.Howling rain, unforgiving floods, relentless winds and a brutal assault on life is described by Jesus.It is not realistic to enter into that state of mind which tells you that you are the only one suffering and being tested.We all have storms, dear friend.Your Heavenly Father designs yours for you in order to give opportunity to you to know Him as you never have before.Whether or not this occurs depends solely upon the foundation of your life.Here is where we see what are lives are being built upon.
Jesus Examines Two Potentials
The triumphant potential is mentioned to us when Jesus tells us that the life built upon the rock outlasted the storm.Notice that the Son of God teaches that the reason this life was able to endure and overcome is found in the foundation.“It was founded upon a rock…” Jesus says.The only reason it overcame the storms in the present was because it had been previously founded upon the solidity of faith in Christ.His words had been heard and believed and obeyed.This faithfulness continued and, when the trouble assaulted that life, it was as an anvil to the hammer, enduring the succession of blows.The tragic potential is mentioned without much fanfare.The house on the sand fell and “great was the fall of it”.This is not rocket science: a life with a faulty foundation must inevitably come crashing down.
Friend, if your life is being stormed right now, please allow me to assert that if your foundation has been secured in Christ then you will persevere and overcome.The storms will pass – they always do.Jesus is pleased with the way you patiently wait for the wind to die, the waters to recede and the rain to dry.He sees your trust at its core where it remains resolute.You feel some fear but you have not bowed to it.You have questions about the future but you have refused to panic.You woke up today looking for the Lord in the storm.You found Him as you searched for Him with all your heart.He was there yesterday.He’s here today.Be convinced that He will be there tomorrow.He will always be there ... but the storm won’t.
“Troubles always come in flocks.” – Charles Spurgeon
Our dear brother had some clear insight into the reality of conflicts.The un-pressured soul lacks density and will be susceptible to being blown about by winds of change.God hard-packs His saints through life’s difficulties and causes them to gain spiritual weight and worth.Many saints ignorantly seek to establish their entire lives in the soil of comfort and ease, only to discover later that soil like that can never keep them rooted.We forget so easily that one of God’s promises to His own elect is that there will be much trouble.This is not an infrequent assertion of Scripture and a casual glance toward our Bibles reminds us that any saint who lived in any significance in the Kingdom had an address on Suffering Street.
I would only add something to Spurgeon’s quote above:If troubles always come in flocks then let us know that relief comes in a single Shepherd.Many troubles are accordingly dealt with by the One who gives His life for (and unto) the sheep.Do we fret over people?God knows precisely how to deal with those who oppose us as we walk His path.Do we fret over fears within - do we fear our anxieties, thus clutching a double-dread?Jesus walks on the waves and stills the winds as He reminds us that storms of dual difficulties have never caused Him a moment’s hesitation.What about the concern over provision for life and ministry?God certainly speaks to this in His Word but let me tell you what our brother, Hudson Taylor, penned in his own journal:
“God’s work, done in God’s way, will never lack God’s supplies.”
On this Lord’s Day I wish to remind us all that the chief aim for troubled believers is to master the delicate art of yielding.There is a fine line between fatalism and confidence in God’s sovereignty.When you are resting in His absolute care fueled by His absolute love and garrisoned by His absolute promises, then you have known the delight of yielding.Matthew Henry said, “Duty belongs to man.Events belong to God.”May we delight in our duty and sleep the sleep of plentiful peace as God times the necessary events necessary for our lives.
When trouble threateningly roars at you, look carefully into its mouth and you will clearly see that it has no teeth.
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