Paul and I are contemplating our tenth construction project in our thirty-five years of marriage. We’ve built two houses from the ground up and we’ve renovated others, two in several phases. One we lived in with three preschool children during the entire process. Nine months living with us while they build their own home across the street has prompted my son’s wife to ask, “Why would you willingly go through this again? Haven’t you had enough?”
Transparently, it has taken me a bit of time to square with the idea of building again each time, especially when it meant a major move. Twice I’ve moved our family, planning to retire in the same space. Our kids books and toys were stowed away to be enjoyed by the next generation, only to be packed and stored again for another move. I have arranged storage and rentals for up to two year intervals and learned to live with only the necessities for a time.
This honestly begs the question. How much do we really need? Several times, I parted with entire boxes of kitchen items and decorations. I reasoned that if I had not needed them for two years, why find a place to store them? My children were either especially generous or largely unattached to their childhood possessions because given the choice, they shared most of what I had saved until they had kids of their own with ministries like Connie Maxwell. I was proud of and grateful for their generosity either way.
Jesus taught about our relationship to our stuff on several occasions. Just because most of us don’t tear down barns to build bigger ones to store grain or keep our wealth in gold or silver hidden in the ground doesn’t mean we can check our brains at the door as we read our Bibles. All of God’s Word is relevant for all of life. God has revealed exactly what we need for living a godly life, and what’s more, He empowers our obedience by His own indwelling Spirit so we are without excuse. Our own unwillingness is the only thing standing in the way of our walking by faith and not by sight.
During His sermon on the mount, Jesus told a parable, an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, about two builders, one wise and the other foolish. What distinguished one from the other? Jesus does not leave us to guess the answer. He sets up the story by talking about fruit.
“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.
A tree is identified by its fruit.
Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes.
A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.
What you say flows from what is in your heart.”
Luke 6:43-45 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.6.43-45.NLT
I have a little experience with figs. Two trees, two different varieties of fig, grow in the mulch bed separating my house from my neighbor’s. One was planted the year we moved into our house so it is six years old. The second has been in the ground for three years. The first has given us five abundant harvests. The second took two years to grow to any size and only produced scarce fruit late in the season so that it failed to ripen before the first frost. This year, the second tree tripled in height and plenteous fruit appeared early on its branches. Still it was later ripening and the fruit we tried paled in comparison to the original tree.
“Then Jesus told this story: “A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed.
Finally, he said to his gardener, ‘I’ve waited three years, and there hasn’t been a single fig!
Cut it down.
It’s just taking up space in the garden.’
“The gardener answered, ‘Sir, give it one more chance.
Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer.
If we get figs next year, fine.
If not, then you can cut it down.’””
Luke 13:6-9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.13.6-9.NLT
While Jesus’s listeners were busy creating a hierarchy of sins, assuming someone to whom something bad happened must be on the receiving end of God’s judgment, Jesus warned them to tend to their own houses and be ready for the Lord’s coming. (Luke 12:35-48, 13:1-5)
“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?
I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it.
It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock.
When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built.
But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house right on the ground, without a foundation.
When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.”
Luke 6:46-49 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.6.46-49.NLT
“And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God.
No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”
Luke 13:3, 5 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.13.3-5.NLT
We watched as the crew framing up the form for the concrete foundation of our son’s family’s new house worked. Three men, one obviously the foreman, framed, squared, and compacted the footprint for the entire house. The lead man sprang in and out of a mini skid steer like a grasshopper, alternately compressing red clay at top speed within inches of the others and barking commands to his two helpers. This was obviously not their first rodeo. Within hours, a tight framework with sharp lines and angles was ready to receive the concrete. The house is built on a solid foundation for sure and it won’t be long before they can begin moving their belongings into their new home but first, the construction manager will complete a walk through marking items for a punch list. When he and the county are satisfied, my son will receive a certificate of occupancy. The house will have been pronounced safe for habitation. The closer they get to their move, the more excited they feel!
“But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.
And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.”
Philippians 3:20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/php.3.20.NLT
“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.
Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.
For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.
And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.
Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.
Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you.
Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.
And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.
For as members of one body you are called to live in peace.
And always be thankful.
And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.”
Colossians 3:1-4, 10, 12-15, 17 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/col.3.4-17.NLT
“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’s blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’s name.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.”(Edward Mote, 1863)
(In The Secret) I Want To Know You (Hidden Track 3:03 Transcript below) ~SONICFLOOD https://youtu.be/7lOzAHSzPlY?is=82WEaY0TW5RFXF-J
“Foundations can’t be moved without destroying a building.
If the foundation of this building we’re in right now were moved, what would happen to the building?
It’d collapse.
Now you can move the building and put it on another foundation, but that foundation it’s there.
Because foundations are secure.
Because this nation, we know what the foundation is.
It’s all over the Constitution, it’s all over the walls of the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial.
It’s written throughout history.
Regardless of what the politicians believe, regardless of what you and I attest to, truth is truth.
The founding fathers built on the truth of the word of God.
Everything about the laws were taken from the Scripture, from the Old Testament.
They were right from the Old Testament books of the law.
And so, you can’t move away from that foundation without destroying the nation.
And so this whole debate and argument over what’s truth and what’s not truth, the only truth that founded this nation-we left a country of tyranny for religious freedom to worship.
And God’s not afraid of who or how you worship, because He knows, sooner or later, if you’re truly seeking, you’ll see Him.
God’s not insecure.
He’s confident.
And so we need to come to Him, see Him as He is, and that’s true worship.
Because in the midst of that, all securities are being clear and all fears are relieved.”
