Psalm 18:2 “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
Matthew 7:24-27 24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Do you remember the story of The Three Little Pigs?
In The Three Little Pigs, each pig builds a house.
The first pig builds a house of straw. When the big, bad wolf comes along and huffs and puffs, the pig’s house is blown down and the wolf gets in.
The second pig builds a house of sticks. When the big, bad wolf comes knocking on the door and huffs and puffs, the house comes tumbling down. The wolf again can get in.
The third pig takes time and builds a house out of bricks. When the big, bad wolf shows up, he huffs and he puffs until he cannot huff and puff anymore. He is not able to knock down the house made of bricks.
In a way, The Three Little Pigs is similar to this story in the Bible Jesus tells about two men building their lives on the sand or on the rock.
In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus tells this parable or story about building our house on a firm foundation. Two men are each building a house. Jesus says one is foolish and the other one is wise. The foolish man builds his house on the sand. The wise man builds his house on the rock. When the rains and storms come, the house that is built on the rock stands. The house built on the sand falls apart. It falls with a great crash.
What are you building your life on?
Is it going to be able to stand when a life storm shows up or when the enemy comes knocking at your door?
In life, we may not build an actual house on the sand, but we might try to build our lives on the things of this world that will not last. This could be things like money or power or popularity or anything else besides God. The things of this world will fall apart when the storms of life come crashing in. We can try to fill our lives with such things, but they will never add up to who God is.
Jesus is the rock to build our lives upon.
The things of this life will fall apart or let us down, but the things of God last forever.
Christ is the solid rock to build our lives upon. God’s faithfulness and love endures from generation to generation. Christ is our anchor of hope in every season. When the storms of life come, we can hang onto the hope we have in Jesus.
Build your life on the rock of Christ Jesus!
H.O.G. -Hold Onto God- everyday!
(Revised message from the KMA Hog Days Community Worship Service)
Rev. Haley Hausman
Pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Kewanee
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The Kewanee Voice.
***This column is sponsored by the Kewanee Ministerial Association