My granddaughters love the song, “The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock.” They’re too young to understand what it means to build on a solid foundation, but they enjoy dong the hand motions, and it is instilling into them the need to build their lives on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ.
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The song is based on a portion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This teaching is found in Matthew 7: 24 – 27:
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
My husband is a civil engineer. Recently, a client had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove soil from a building site that would not have properly supported the building and replace it with soil that would compact properly. It was a lot of money for ‘dirt’ and it was painful for the client to write that check. However, in the long run, it will save a lot of money over having to repair a damaged foundation.
Several years ago, the owner of a commercial building being erected near my office made a different, and very costly, decision. He took a chance that the engineer was wrong and poured his foundation on the existing soil. When the building began to be erected, the foundation cracked. The owner was then forced to tear out all the construction that had been done, replace the soil, and start again. He wasted much time and money–much more than if he had done the job properly the first time.
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We make these same type of decisions with our lives. We can build on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ in the beginning and avoid costly mistakes and much heartbreak. Or we can decide to do things our way until our foundation cracks and our world falls apart, before turning to the master builder for help.
Following Jesus does have a cost. We have remove the ‘bad dirt’ of selfish ambitions and worldly pleasures. In exchange, we build our lives on a structure that is strong and doesn’t crumble when the storms of life come our way. Unfortunately, many people don’t want to remove the bad dirt from their lives; they delay the decision to follow Jesus until storms destroy the life that they have build on a weak foundation. Fortunately, Jesus does respond to them when they call out to Him from the rubble of their lives. He cleans away the debris and provides a firm foundation for them to start the rebuilding process. He cannot, however, reverse the clock–time has been wasted and heartache has ensued. Any many times the problem which arose from a weak foundation have implications and cost for the rest of a person’s life.
Have you built your life on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ? If not, I urge you do not delay any further. Only with Jesus as your foundation will you be able to stand firm against the storms of life.
Susan's Reflections 