“Whoever
hears these sayings of Mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who
built his house on a rock. 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.” Matthew 7:24-25 NKJV
Too
many who are led to Christ without being told the whole story soon find
themselves questioning their commitment to a God who allows bad things to
happen. It is a grievous thing to watch so many turn away from the Church
because they had somehow been led to believe The Lord would protect them from
the storms of life, that faith in Jesus would somehow be magically transforming
with no effort on our part.
Jesus
does not even come close to suggesting bad things will never happen to His
followers; and this passage affirms life’s realities. The storms will
come, the flood waters will rise, and the winds of cultural secularism will do
its level best to blow and beat disciples into submission to the belief that
being a “good person” is good enough.
Being
a “good person” is a good start, but how we define “good” is completely
subjective and based on cultural norms. If being “good” is simply the
absence of evil acts, then nearly everyone can be considered “good”. We
should remember, however, that Jesus is wrapping up His Sermon on the
Mount. His “sayings” go much further than to only challenge us to refrain
from being “bad”. Being “good” has a whole other dimension in
“righteousness”; deeds of mercy and acts of justice. It is
not strictly about “getting saved”; it is entirely about being Christ in
the world today.
“Lord,
have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done
many wonders in Your name? [Then Jesus] will declare to you, ‘I never
knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’.” (Mt
7:22-23)
Discipleship
calls forth from us much more than this, but the “more” is expressed not in the
big things (the “wonders”) but in the small things, the personal things that
truly transform lives and lift up those who are down. It is ‘disciples
making disciples who are equipped to make disciples themselves’. It is
about feeding those who are hungry, and caring for those who are sick – yes,
even those we consider our ‘enemies’ – giving them a reason to believe the
“hope that is within us”. “Good” people take great care of those whom
they love, but they will often ignore those who are really hurting.
“Good” people often refrain from “judging” others, but these same “good” people
will not challenge those who are on the road to perdition and hold them
accountable to the reality of discipleship. It is much more important to
“good” persons to be liked and popular than to be faithful to Christ and His
“sayings”.
Claiming
to believe in Jesus as the Son of the Most High God but being almost completely
ignorant about or unconcerned with what Jesus has taught, or being unwilling to
take up the cross, is no belief at all. It is building the proverbial
house upon the shifting sands (Mt 7:26-27) of popularity that will ultimately
cause grief. We will discover that our own ‘goodness’ will not be good
enough if we are not touching and transforming lives by teaching people about
the real Jesus who offered no excuses.
Let
us be diligent about building upon the “Rock” which is Christ, the eternal Word
which will sustain us when the storms of life threaten to overwhelm us.
Blessings,
Michael
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