Where Is Your House Built?

 June 4, 2006

By: Brian Manning

    A few days ago Susan, myself and Billy Barrett had the opportunity to take a handful of our seniors (James Bickel, Michelle Chaffin, Adam McKinzie, William Page and Lauren Smith) to Fort Morgan, Alabama for their senior trip.  While we were down there we had the chance to do a lot of fun things as well as worship with a kind congregation in Fort Morgan.  While we were on the beach, we decided to build a giant sand castle.  We started by making a huge mound of sand and packing it down nice and tight.  To see our progress, we took pictures all along the way.  Our castle had a bridge, watch towers, and a wall that surrounded the place.  We were so excited that it turned out as well as it did!

    The next morning we returned to the beach to see our work.  We searched and searched but could not find our massive sculpture.  As a matter of fact, we could not even find signs of where it had been!!  What had taken us all day to construct, was gone in probably a matter of minutes.

    I thought about all of the factors that caused the sand castle to be destroyed, and the truth is that there were a lot of them.  At first, we thought that someone had come along and kicked it in, but if that had happened, we would have at least seen signs of where it had been.  Then we realized that we built it way too close to the ocean.  The tide came in overnight and swept our structure away while we were asleep.

    Immediately, the story of the foolish man who built his house on the sand popped into my mind.  Jesus is trying to explain the importance of building, not your physical house, but your spiritual house on the ROCK.  We built our sand castle out of sand, on the sand, and when the tides came in it was helpless.  When the fury of the water had finished it's rampage, there was nothing left.  As you live your life, if you choose not to build on the foundation of Jesus Christ you will be as strong as our sand castle was when it faced the tide.

    When you face Christ on the judgment day you will have to give an account for everything that you have done in this life.  The kind of life that you lead right now is going to echo on throughout eternity.  When that time comes will you stand before Christ as a person who built his or her life on the ROCK, or will you stand before Him as a person who is built on the sand, waiting for the destruction that is coming?  Please, don't let the tide come in while you are asleep!!  I hope that you decide to build your life on the ROCK so that when judgment comes you can hear "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

 In Christ,

Brian