“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock."
Matthew 7:24-25
We have come to the end of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and now we hear it's all about action. Will we actually DO the things Jesus has spoken of and showed us with his life?
Yesterday in worship we actually built a foundation that helped us look at what Jesus has said to us in this amazing block of teaching:
At the end of worship, this was the challenge: "Choose one—just one—of these foundational words to not just hear this week, but do. Choose not the one that feels easiest to you, but one that you think may be hard. Ask how you can make doing this thing part of the bedrock on which you stand every day, how you can not just hear these words but live them."
Lots of people took home a rock with some of Jesus' words on it to try to live out this week. Look at the big picture and consider: where does your house need to be founded more firmly on the ways of Jesus?
I took home "Keep heart free from cynicism" (my translation of the beatitude "Blessed are the pure in heart"). As I watch election coverage in particular these days, I find it hard to imagine anything good coming out of all our political divisiveness and ridiculousness. I realize that my jadedness can keep me from doing what I can to be a positive voice for the things that matter in Christ's kingdom because I feel like nothing is ever going to change. This week, I'm trying to leave those shifting sands of cynicism behind. But golly it's hard.
Which words did you choose, or would you like to choose? How are things going as you try to live them?
