City Life Starter

Written by Paul Lane

The Word

²⁴ “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: ²⁵ 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.

²⁶ “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: ²⁷ and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

²⁸ And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, ²⁹ for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Matthew 7:24-29

²² So Samuel said: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

1st Samuel 15:22

Reflection

When I was in design school, my professors would have certain lectures that they knew would be serious and drive home the point of how serious our jobs would be.  My structures professor liked to tell us about his conversations with his doctor friends.  He would tell them that they were lucky, because if they lost a patient, they would lose only one.  But if we, as airplane designers, lose one plane, we would lose 500 in the air and 500 on the ground.  And of course, he would follow it with an encouragement to leave the program if you were not going to be serious about the work.  We would leave the class afraid that we might kill people.

I think Jesus has a similar seriousness here as he delivers this message.  Leading into this parable, Jesus tells the crowd that there will be many who think they are in the kingdom of heaven, but He will tell them that He never knew them.  He said that they practiced lawlessness.  The real accusation here is that the Lord would tell them to do something, but they were too busy, or too dull, or too ________ (fill in the blank), to follow Jesus’ instructions.  In all their (our) busyness, they found purpose in doing things, but not in being with the Lord and following His instructions.  These are the sheep that are unwilling to hear the Lord’s voice.  This is a fundamental issue.

I’ve thought about this parable for some time, and I’m not sure if Jesus is talking about salvation (the question of someone going to heaven vs hell) or sanctification (the cleansing of one’s soul.)  However, accepting Jesus as Lord and faithfully following His voice will accomplish both salvation and sanctification in a person’s life, and they will find that they have built a life and a faith on the rock with fruits returning forty, sixty, and hundred-fold.  However, rejecting Jesus’ voice continually will result in a person closing themselves off to God, and others, and they will find themselves having built a life and faith on sand with their works burning up in the fire like wood hay and stubble.

Application

Find a pen.  If you can only find a pencil, fine, but imagine that it doesn’t have an eraser.  Now think about it.  With this writing instrument you could write the most precious song ever written, or works that surpass Shakespeare, laws that create a more perfect government, or a letter that changes the heart of the most hard-hearted person.  All the possibilities are available to the pen, it just needs someone to move it along.  When you first start moving the pen, it might just look like scribbles, but listen to the Master and He will instruct you.  Before you know it, it will not only be useful, but it will be beautiful.  Just stay faithful to His voice.

Remember that it is much better to obey the voice of the Lord than to come up with some sacrifice that seems to fit the bill.  To obey the Lord, you must also trust Him to faithfully lead you and to faithfully judge your work.

Prayer

Dear Lord, how blessed is it to take on the tasks that You lay before me, for I know that You know me and what I am capable of.  You know my faults, and the places in which I need to grow.  So, I will be faithful to follow Your leading, and will work to not get ahead of You, or to fall behind.  I will quiet my spirit and attune my heart to Your voice, that my efforts may not be in vain and that I might, ultimately, attend Your holy presence always.  Amen.