“Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.”
Luke 6:47-48
Those who regard Christ’s words as the ultimate authority and the final court of appeal will not be utterly destroyed when battered by the storms of life. A believer who receives hard news from a doctor may be troubled, but he will not be utterly devastated. Even if his sickness ends in physical death, he has confidence in his Lord who declared, “Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19). On the authority of the word of God, the believer knows that one day death will be swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54). A believer who is facing joblessness may be anxious, but he will not lapse into total despair. He remembers the Lord’s promise that he will supply all his need (Philippians 4:19). The believer knows and loves the Lord who redeemed him, and this love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18). Non-Christians can never experience the peace and joy that we do when we take God at His word, when we interpret the world through the lens of Scripture and order our thinking and conduct in accordance with it. No other competing faith system, even on its own terms, can grant the certainty and the comfort we enjoy when we recognize the supreme authority of God’s special revelation. The Lord does tell us, however, that finding His word and discovering its true interpretation and proper application will require some effort on our part; the man in the parable had to “dig deep” in order to find something solid. We too are compelled to study (2 Timothy 2:15), to labor in the word and doctrine (1 Timothy 5:17), searching the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11) in order to come to a solid understanding of God’s word. Then we will find ourselves both steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in meaningful, God-honoring work, knowing that our labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).
God bless you, dear child of God
Pastor John
English