“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock.” Matthew 7: 24, 25 (NIV)

Last summer, my daughter Debi and I took a trip from Montreal north up the St. Lawrence River. We stopped to tour a city called Chicoutimi, close to where the river dumps into the Gulf of St. Lawrence before heading into the Atlantic Ocean between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The local guide pointed to a small white house perched atop a hill on one side of the small town.

She told us tourists, “A ferocious flood hit the town some years back. The force of the flood busted the dam that sat just behind this house. Everything was washed away in the dam burst – except this house. “Why?” I asked. “The man who owned this house had drilled into the rock under the house and bolted it into the rock,” she explained. What a tangible picture of the story Jesus told his disciples!

Jesus taught that whoever applies his teaching to their lives is like the person who fastens themselves to the Rock. “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; and yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock” (v 25)--Like the little white house on the hill!

During turmoil, wars, rumors of wars, divisions in the country and Church, hatred, and brokenness all around, I ask, "Am I building on the Rock?" If so, what does it look like to live in total surrender to him and his agenda in place of my own? No more playing church. Wake up, pay attention. Check how I am spending my time and funds. Am I in the Word? Praying in fellowship with believers? Witnessing to people who are lost? Seeking out the widows and orphans who may need my help? Praying for and supporting missionaries in the fields of the world, foreign and domestic?

I hear the call of the Spirit to know the signs of the times, like the tribe of Issachar. Lukewarm will not do. Sin will not do. The Spirit is calling the Church to purity and strength. We are engaged with the spiritual realm. Paul wrote: “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power . . .Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6: 10,12).

I asked my guide, "Have you ever heard the story Jesus told about the house built on a rock"? "No," she replied as we walked back to the tour bus. I shared the story and the truth of Jesus's death and resurrection power. She stopped, looked me in the eye as people boarded her bus: “I have a son who is in his 30s who is lost and has many needs. I have been away from God and need his help. Will you pray for us?”  she asked. Pointing to a large church across the parking lot (the main one in her little town, I suspected), she said as we stepped back on the bus, and she assumed her role as guide. "I must go back.

Tags: church, prayer, jesus, power, word, obedience, teaching, rock, stability, dedicated