24 “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. 25 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. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
-Matthew 7:24-27, NRSV
Last week, I mentioned that our upcoming devotionals will be based on the responses to a question I’ve asked my own friends and family: “If you grew up going to Sunday School… what do you remember learning there?”
Today’s response comes from one of my cousins, who said:
♫“The wise man built his house upon the rock. The wise man built his house upon the rock. The wise man built his house upon the rock and the rains came a-tumblin’ down. The rains came down and the floods came up. The rains came down and the floods came up. The rains came down and the floods came up and the house on the rock stood firm.”♫
Her strongest memory was a musical one! But sometimes the songs of Sunday School are what stay with us the longest.
Do any of you know that song? Did you grow up singing that song? I did. (It’s probably not a surprise — my cousin and I went to the same Sunday School, after all.)
The words of this song are inspired, of course, by the words of Jesus. As Jesus wraps up a series of teachings (known to us and to history as the “Sermon on the Mount”), he provides an illustration to ensure that the people take his words seriously. He tells the crowd that those who listen to his words and put his teachings into action are like a wise man who builds his house on a solid foundation of rock, a house that manages to withstand an onslaught of heavy rains and strong winds. Like the wise man, if the people base their lives on the foundation of Jesus’ sound and solid teachings, they will be able to stand strong amidst the inevitable storms of life.
Storms of life.
If this season of covid-tide isn’t a storm, I don’t know what is.
Blessings,
Pastor Candy
Though storms may rage, friends, remember:
Our God is bigger than coronavirus.
Our vision is bigger than coronavirus, too.
We are people blessing people.
We are Wesley Church.
Want to know more?
- Learn about our church and its ministries: https://wesleychurch.com/
- Make a gift to support our mission: https://wesleychurch.com/giving-2/
- View our recent messages: https://wesleychurch.com/sermon-message-on-video/
- View previous devotionals: https://wesleychurch.com/pastor-candys-devotionals-2/
