On Christ We Stand
July 9, 2012 • By Ed Wrather
07.09.12
For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. - 1 Corinthians 10:4.
Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall. - Matthew 7:24-27.
Three people looking for a place to pitch their tent ignored a few warning signs, drove around barriers, and found what they thought was the perfect campsite. Now why would someone put up warning signs and road barriers to prevent access to an area? In this particular situation, the restricted area happens to be on the Swedish military Älvdalen Firing Range. The range was being used by an amphibious regiment practicing firing grenade launchers. The live fire exercise was ongoing when the campers arrived, but thankfully for them, it was discontinued until they could be removed from the restricted area. The Swedish military is said to be planning to sue the campers for $4,200 for the cost of the disruption of the exercise. (The Local, Sweden's News in English - May 14, 2014)
I love the old hymn, "The Solid Rock." Some of the words of the hymn are:
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand
Thinking of the clueless Swedish campers, their choice of campsites is a picture of the "all other ground" of the hymn. It is also a good example of the "sand" foundation of Matthew 7.
What was the reasoning of these campers? How did they arrive at the conclusion that, in spite of the warnings and barricades that it would be okay for them to camp in that area? I was intrigued by one of the comments posted on the article: "If the campers really were 'from (a city in Sweden*)' they probably thought quite reasonably for (residents of that city) that the military exercise should be postponed until they had finished camping - nothing should get in the way of what a 'resident of that city' wants to do." Now I don't know anything about people who live in that city; however, a sense of entitlement could explain their disregard for the warnings. (*Name of the city in comment about article has been omitted.)
Some people appear to have a sense of entitlement when it comes to doing whatever they may want. Why should they do what some archaic book called the Bible says they should do when they are rich, or famous, or powerful, or whatever? Because of their "status" they believe they have a right to sin.
In addition to the sense of entitlement view toward authority, there is another method that some use in justifying their actions. They somehow think that if they ignore what authority says that; therefore, those rules promulgated by those authorities do not apply to them. Ignore God, ignore the Bible, ignore what is right, ignore the warning signs, ignore the barriers, and somehow in their minds those things do not exist.
Just because through some warped thinking you can somehow justify doing what God says is wrong; does not make it right. Build your life on sinking sand, on ground other than the solid rock of Christ, and your house, your life will fall.
Let us drink of that spiritual Rock, let us build our lives on that spiritual Rock; because Christ is the only foundation that a life can be safely built upon. On Christ we stand!
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