LightGrams
September 6, 2018
Volume 22, Number 32
“A house divided” is a label you could put on the photo. The house in Orlando, Florida may now be considered a duplex – except it’s unlivable. Did an earthquake cause this?
A crane had been hired by a roofing company to unload shingles onto the house, according to reports. It’s a job the crane company has performed many times without any problems. On Tuesday, however, the crane toppled over, and the boom crashed through the upper story of the home, leaving a sizable gash.
The corporate safety director for the crane company speculated that the ground beneath the crane was wet, and therefore unstable.
A similar incident happened in Northeast Tennessee several years ago. A man decided to sleep in his pickup truck one night at a rest area. During the night a semi truck pulled alongside the pickup, and unhitched the trailer. Later in the evening the weight of the trailer caused the wet ground beneath to give way, and it fell on top of the pickup truck, killing the man sleeping inside.
David understood the principle of an unstable foundation. In Psalm 40:2 he wrote, “[The Lord] also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.” A miry bog is no place to take a stand. As the prophet Jeremiah learned when he was imprisoned in a cistern, he “sank in the mire” (Jeremiah 38:6). He would have died there had Ebed-Melech not rescued him.
Jesus warned against building one’s life on unstable footing: “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: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall” (Matthew 7:26,27).
The wise alternative (obviously) is to build one’s house on “the rock”, upon which a house will endure the storms of life. The one who builds wisely, Jesus said, is the one who “hears these sayings of Mine, and does them” (Matthew 7:24).
Some Pharisees once approached Jesus, arguing that it was acceptable to “divide one’s house” by divorcing one’s wife. Jesus responded, “Have you not read …?” (Matthew 19:4). He then pointed to God’s instructions regarding marriage, given in the Garden of Eden. When we move away from “the rock” of God’s will, our marriages rest on unstable footings.
God’s ways are always best for us. As Moses observed long ago, God gave His statutes “for our good always” (Deuteronomy 6:24). Let’s choose the stable foundation!
Come to the light God offers! Study His word, the Bible. Worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:24). Get in touch with us if you’d like to discuss these ideas further.
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Copyright, 2018, Timothy D. Hall. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New King James Version (Copyright, 1990, Thomas Nelson, Inc.).
“LightGrams” is produced by the Central Church of Christ, 2722 Oakland Avenue, Johnson City, Tennessee, 37601, and is written by Tim Hall, minister. It is sent free of charge every Thursday to all who request it. To subscribe or to receive more information, write to “Tim@GraceMine.org” (our E-mail address), to the U.S. mail address above, or call (423) 282-1571.
Permission to reproduce and/or use the messages for noncommercial purposes is freely granted provided the messages are not altered.