Houses on the Rock

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“The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock” was one of the first songs I learned in Sunday School. Though it is a children’s song, its message is crystal clear and very close to the message of Jesus at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.

Therefore, everyone who hears
these words of Mine, and acts on them,
will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 
And the rain fell and the floods came,
and the winds blew and slammed against that house;
and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 
And everyone who hears
these words of Mine, and does not act on them,
will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 
And the rain fell and the floods came,
and the winds blew and slammed against that house;
and it fell—and its collapse was great.
Matthew 7:24-27

Floods were on our minds yesterday. Our weather radio had gone off multiple times during the night. The thunder and lightning were powerful, and the radio woke us again and again about flash flooding. When Ray first looked out the window yesterday morning, he thought maybe he was seeing the typical ribbons of fog. Those ribbons weren’t tiny particles of moisture at all. They were roaring streams coming off the river, and I mean roaring.

Our neighbor’s grassy field beside us looked like this last August.

I wish I had a picture from the exact same angle and from the same time of day, but this one will still give you an idea of the contrast. This is what that field looked like by late morning yesterday.

That water is the river that is normally about 1/8 of a mile from our house. Yesterday it was in the field beside our house. The tree line separates our yard from their field.

Several water mains cracked in our area, so we folks in our county are boiling water until we hear it’s safe to drink it again. We lost power for about six hours, but it’s back on now. By afternoon the water was receding. By evening the field above was green again, albeit very squishy and dotted with large puddles.

Our town is too small to find our rainfall easily, but rainfall measured in Nashville in a 24-hour period this past weekend was the second highest on record.

We got a living picture of Jesus’ parable and of the wise man song yesterday. The rains do fall down and the floods come up. Jesus is kind to warn us of the spiritual reality of that—and to teach us how to build our houses on the Rock.

When Jesus had finished these words,
the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 
for He was teaching them as one who had authority,
and not as their scribes.
Matthew 7:28-29

 

 

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