A Solid Foundation

"Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock."

Matthew 7:24


People like options. A shopping trip to Wal-Mart or the local grocery store will quickly prove this point. Take toilet paper for instance. Small rolls. Medium rolls. Big rolls. Giant rolls. "I-accidentally-drank-some-water-on-my-foreign-mission-trip" rolls. Options are everywhere, with every item and every brand. We don't like either-or decisions. Perhaps that is why we struggle so much with the teachings of Jesus. He doesn't hesitate to tell us that life's options are limited; we are either sheep or goats, wheat or tares, light or darkness, seeing or blind, hearing or deaf, trusting or worrying, selfless or selfish, wise or foolish. In this passage, found in its entirety in Matthew 7:24-27, the distinction between wisdom and foolishness is differentiated in Jesus' lesson by way of rock and sand. We are all building on a foundation. Jesus clearly states that we build wisely on rock by acting on his words, or we build foolishly on sand by ignoring them. No other options exist. Ask yourself a simple, either-or question: Where am I building? Rock or sand?

Junkyard Theology with Fred Sanford

Just in case you could use an end-of-the-week laugh, here's one courtesy of Fred Sanford. Fred was instructing his son Lamont in the finer points of the junk trade when he fired off this zinger:
"Remember what the Bible says. He that liveth by the sword...shall be stucketh!"

Spinning Plates with C.J.

"They probably don't have this on TV anymore, but when I was a kid I remember watching variety shows that sometimes included a popular act known as the Plate Spinner-a guy who balanced several plates atop long flexible rods and kept them all spinning. One by one he would carefully position each plate on a rod and give it a furious spin, until the stage was transformed into a small forest of plates, wiggling and swaying on their sticks. By the time eight or ten plates were in motion, the first plate was slowing down and wobbling dangerously. The spinner would rush over and, with remarkably skilled hands, instantly return the plate to top-speed rotation. Then on to rescue another wobbling plate, then another and another...That's a helpful picture of how legalism can hijack a Christian life. The life of a legalist can become as frenetic as the plate spinner's performance. The plates we spin are various spiritual activities-such as Bible reading, prayer, or sharing the gospel-that are good and vital in themselves when pursued for the right reasons. But often without realizing it, we allow a dangerous shift to take place in our mind and heart. We change what God intends as a means of experiencing grace into a means of earning grace."

C.J. Mahaney, Living the Cross Centered Life

Church Camp Prayer Request

"Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us."

Psalm 62:8


I will be preaching and teaching this coming week at the Union Grove Church Camp in Wayne County, Il. Please pray that God will be exalted in all things and that hearts will be changed by the all-sufficient grace of Jesus! Conducting a camp is not an easy task; there are countless people involved in the process. And while we are grateful for these willing hearts, the week will be a futile effort apart from the blessing of God. As you pray this week, please remember this ministry in your personal prayers and please share this petition with others that will intercede on our behalf. Thank you so much.

Rethinking Race via the Gospel

"If we abandon race and emphasize our unity in Adam, even at a pre-Christian level, it changes all of our behavior...We don't know how to live without race, so it scares us to think about it, like a child who will not sleep without a security blanket. Picture yourself walking into a lunchroom. You enter alone. There are two tables in the lunchroom. The table on your left includes a group of people unlike you, some ethnic other. The table on your right includes a group of people ethnically like you. What would you instinctively do? We gravitate toward those we perceive to be like us. What is the mental calculus behind that gravitation? What are the mental mathematics that take place that lead to that impulse? We enter the room; we look at the two tables with the two groups, and at the speed of thought we calculate 'not like me' or 'like me.' Then we think, Like me; therefore safe...Not like me; not safe; no benefit to be gained; no joy to share...When we walk into the lunchroom with differing groups, we want to replace that calculus with this: Descended from Adam-like me. Made in the image of God-like me. Fallen sinners-like me. It's the emphasis on like me-the heritage we share in Adam-that begins to lay for our feet a bridge to cross over 'otherness'...If we find that any of those persons in the lunchroom are Christians, we are able to say, United to Christ-like me. Sharing his Spirit-like me. Received the promises of eternal life and everlasting joy-like me. The scriptures tell us that in Christ we are given everything that pertains to life and godliness. I don't think escaping the problems of race is an exception."

Thabiti Anyabwile


The above excerpt is from the book Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology, which contains a chapter written by Thabiti Anyabwile entitled Bearing the Image. Thabiti is a former Muslim and Black Nationalist whose heart was wonderfully changed by the grace of Jesus. He now serves as the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.

Happy Fourth of July!

As we celebrate the blessing of freedom, let us remember that our "independence" is completely dependent on God! Consider the words of Psalm 33:16,17: "The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue." May we as a nation be grateful for the hope we have in Him.

Help for Bible Study

Here are five questions proposed by Tim Keller that are designed to assist us in understanding and applying the truth of biblical texts. They are proving to be helpful to me; I hope they will serve you in the same way. As we read the Bible, we should ask:

1.)How can I praise him on the basis of this text?

2.)How can I confess my sins on the basis of this text?

3.)If this is really true, what wrong behavior, what harmful emotions, what false attitudes will result when I forget this?

4.)What should I be aspiring to on the basis of this text?

5.)Why is God telling me this today?

Lewis on...Self

"Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."

C.S. Lewis