matthew 7:24-27 – “everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against the house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

over the month of january i read the sermon on the mount every day. it was a great discipline for me, and i learned many things about the gospel. one thing that continually stuck out to me was the way Jesus ends the sermon. ‘if you hear and do the things i just said, you will not fall. if you hear, but don’t do the things i just said, you will fall, and fall real hard.’

i must admit that i can see the truth of this in my own life. the times when i have hated, judged, called people fools or treated people like i would never want to be treated i have felt the weight of the world all over me.

the burden that Jesus came to take away by teaching us to love our enemies, walk the extra mile and give grace to those who we think don’t deserve it is placed right back on us when we ignore the words we have heard him speak.

although i hate it, i drift closer and closer to cheap grace every day that i neglect the teachings of Christ. cheap grace is the faulty foundation. we know what he said, but believe we are ok because he died for us. we have heard, but we do not do.

Jesus didn’t die so that we can live the way we want. he died to free us from the burden of judging ourselves and others, from hating our enemies and from taking the man’s eye for the eye he plucked from me.

with those burdens no longer keeping us strapped to the way of the world, the storms will come, but we will stand. pray for me that i remember that as life goes by like a hurricane.

-dave-