Read
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
Matthew 7:24
Reflect
The White House means a lot of things to a lot of people. To some, it’s the symbol of the strength of our country. To others, it’s a symbol of oppression of a government they don’t feel represents them. But one thing is certain — the building itself is pretty resilient.
Over the years, people have used the White House to make statements and get attention. People have shot at the building, scaled the fence, gotten onto the grounds and even made it into the house without permission. One man landed a stolen Army helicopter on the lawn. And during the War of 1812, the British Army laid siege to Washington, D.C., and set both the Capitol and the White House on fire.
Yet, today the White House still stands. And part of its strength is a solid foundation that allowed the damaged building to be repaired. The cornerstone of that foundation was laid by George Washington on October 13, 1797 — 227 years ago.
Jesus recognized the importance of a strong foundation, and He used that as an example for His followers. One of His parables compares a weak foundation (built on sand) and a strong foundation (built on rock) to people who refuse to listen to the words of Christ and those who accept His teachings. And the reason that this example is so perfect is that the rock at the center of the teaching was Jesus himself.
In 1 Peter 2:7, Peter reminds us of a verse in Psalms that says, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” No stone was rejected more than Jesus, but He is absolutely the cornerstone of our faith. The more that we place Him at the center of all that we do, the stronger that our faith will be. And as in Jesus’s parable, we know that storms will come and winds will blow. The structures in our lives will be attacked and challenged. We may even see all that we have set on fire and potentially destroyed. But if we have a solid foundation, we can always come back from life’s fires, winds and storms.
Reflection copyright © 2024 Doug DeBolt.
