Foundational Words
I enjoy the Message version as it put a modern day perspective to the Word. Here's the excerpt: "These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock.25 Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.26 “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach.27 When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”28 When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this."
Jesus' words are not just suggestions for a better life, they are mandatory transformational all-emcompasing mandates for us to live by. It's not just good advice to love your neighbor as yourself, its mandatory and foundational for the believer. All His sayings are the same and if we respectfully treat them that way, we become partners with Him and receive greater favor to represent Him and His kingdom to those He calls us to. If not, then we are like the "stupid carpenter" and those that strut up to Him at the day of Judgement and hear "I didn't know you." He knows us when His word is working in us to transform us into His partners from glory to glory. Let's put it into action as we read it!
Created over 2 years ago
