In honor of it being Easter weekend, I'm resurrecting some Little Lessons. This "blast from the past" was written November 2003.
The only day of the week that I get a break from driving is Sunday morning when husband takes the wheel. That's fine with me. I like to look at the scenery, and that's kind of difficult when you're concentrating on staying on the road and not hitting any deer. As we drove along, husband was looking for wildlife and I was admiring the homes along the way. Daughter was sitting in the back seat singing "don't build your house on the sandy land". We passed one house that was beautifully restored. It had obviously been done by someone with some time and money to invest. I glanced up at it, admiring the new siding and windows, the fancy front door, but what really caught my eye was the foundation. It was crumbling. In some places, pieces of the stone lay in heaps on the ground.
What happened with this restoration? Crumbling at it's most important point? It looked beautiful, but it was teetering on the brink of disaster. As I was listening to CB sing in the back seat, the song had a lot more meaning. "Don't build your house on the sandy land, don't build it too near the shore. Cause it might be kinda nice, but you'll have to build it twice, oh you'll have to build your house once more. You'd better build your house upon the rock, with a sure foundation in a solid spot. The storms may come and go, but the peace of God you will know." I'm not sure if I got all of the words right, but you get the idea. We sing about it, but do we really understand it?
Jesus is the rock. He gave His life on the cross so that we could build OUR lives on a solid foundation. He restores us from the inside out. BUT, what happens when we take the restoration out of His hands and start doing our own thing? What happens when we skip the offer of a solid foundation to go ahead and build our lives on something else? All of a sudden, what we thought was going to be a beautiful finished piece begins to crumble. All that we had built on our own starts to fall down. Then we cry, and we complain, and we rant against God. "If there was a God, this wouldn't be happening to me.". There is a God, and IT happens because life is that way, but your "house" would have withstood the storm a whole lot better if it had been built on the Rock, instead of on the sand. While you've been "building your life", Jesus has been sitting over on a bench watching you work. His tools are there on the bench with Him, but He doesn't want to intrude. He wants to be invited in. He's waiting for you to figure out that that blueprint you laid out for your life stinks.
Ohhh. Little light bulb goes on. "Hey, Jesus, didn't I hear something about You being a master builder? A friend told me all I have to do is ask you to come in, and you'll help me with this mess that I've made." And Jesus gets up off of that bench, grabs his tool box, and comes over to you. He gives you a hug, and with a sparkle in His eyes, He lays a blueprint out on your table. Your jaw drops. "Is this what we're building? Wow. That's way better than I could ever imagine!" And you know that sandy foundation you were building on before? It's been replaced with solid rock.
Handing your life over to God is similar to my handing my keys over to my husband on that Sunday drive. It gives you a totally different perspective on life. He didn't die for Himself, He died for YOU. Invite Him in. He's been waiting to hear from You.
Psalm 18: 2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the strength of my salvation, and my stronghold. 3 I will call on the LORD, who is worthy of praise, for he saves me from my enemies. 4 The ropes of death surrounded me; the floods of destruction swept over me. 5 The grave wrapped its ropes around me; death itself stared me in the face. 6 But in my distress I cried out to the LORD; yes, I prayed to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry reached his ears.
Psalm 18: 31 For who is God except the LORD. Who but our God is a solid rock?
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