Storm Survivors are Doers of the Word

Everybody who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise builder who built a house on bedrock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It didn’t fall because it was firmly set on bedrock.

These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.

-Matthew 7:24-25 (CEB, MSG)

The Rock in our lives is Christ.

The way that we build our lives in Christ and through Christ is to do what he says to do. To practice his words in our lives is to have our lives built in him who is the rock. We can not just hear his words. We can not just know his words, or think we know them or study to know them. We must do the words. Doing his words is to live the life. It is to be faithful to his words

Jesus did not come with a new law to be followed that he articulated.

The center of Christianity is Christ, The Lord Jesus Christ. We follow that person. Following him is to do what he said. Following him is also to learn forgiveness, to be forgiven and to forgive others. Following him is also to learn to be loved and to love.

Following Jesus is not just an intellectual pursuit.

It is intellectual, but not just that. Following Jesus is practical, a practice. We think, we process with our minds, we are mindful, and we do. We do as we are faithful to a person. Knowing Jesus and growing in Jesus and having him built up in our lives is found in the practice of Jesus words, in doing them.

A quest to know God's word:

The greatest book ever written is the Bible. It is a wonderful pursuit it is to study the Bible, to attend Bible studies and to go to classes and to hear the Bible taught. What a wonderful pursuit it is to have a quest to know God's word. This has been very important to me since God got a hold of me and changed my life.

But one day I really saw these words: "Everybody who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise builder who built a house on bedrock."

Someone in my life, a man who God sent to disciple me; a father, brother, and friend, asked me who was the one at the end of the sermon on the mount, who Jesus said was like a builder who built a house on rock that survived the storm. I answered, without looking, that it was the person who heard his words. I had not seen or gotten the doing part. I had thought that we needed to hear Jesus words (read them, study them) and know them, as in memorizing them and have them firmly set in out minds, so that we understand them and can speak them to others and have knowledge of them.

"Just Do It"

I wanted to be a person who did the stuff Jesus did but I subtly embraced a belief that the follower of Jesus is a listener and a "know-er", but what he said was that it's the doer that is build on rock. Knowers and hearers that don't do are building on the sand along with those who don't listen and don't know. Doing it is much harder than knowing it and doing is what produces fruit and growth. Fruitfulness comes from doing, not knowing. The meat is in the street and the meet is also in the street. Nothing is wrong with meeting to know the word. Nothing is wrong with meeting to hear the word. I could go on and on. Jesus point was that all the information, all the knowledge is worthless; like sand, if you do not do his words.
Jesus said that a storm will come and the one who has not built on the rock through doing will be washed away. Storms are coming. Simply doing Jesus words will build your life on a rock that will not be washed away in the coming storm. It's simple, but Jesus gave this stern warning because some people will choose to not do his words.


-The photo above of a man standing by genuine bedrock is John Shawn-Rimmington. website