Is Jesus your Lord?

According to him, not unless you do what he tells you. (Luke 6:46)

Do you want Jesus to be your Lord?

He tells you how to make this possible: Come to him, hear his words, act on them. (Luke 6:46,47)

He goes on to describe what this looks like.

1. Desire a well-built house; one that is safe, secure, trustworthy and lovely to inhabit.  Jack and I lived through the big earthquake that struck San Francisco in 1989. My home was in Laurel Heights, built on the solid bedrock on a SF hill, his was in the Marina, built on landfill poured into the bay to extend the build-able land-space. My house stood secure, the earthquake hardly noticeable; his shook like beads in a baby rattle and  experienced 100K of damage. It makes a difference where you choose to build your house. “Come to me,” says Jesus, “abide in my love.”

1. Dig deeply. Clearing land to build a home is hard and extensive work. It is not sufficient to just cut down the trees, you must dig down and remove their roots as well. Jesus says, “Hear my words.” Let the word of God enter and excavate the soil of your soul.

1. Lay a solid foundation. Jesus is the cornerstone and the only solid rock worth building your life upon. Choose Jesus and let all the other stones that make up your life align with him. “Act on the word you hear.” Choosing obedience to the word God speaks to you is the way to lay your foundation on the rock.

We all want a life that bears the storms that come our way. So let’s get practical.

Take a minute for prayer; ask Jesus to speak a word of truth to you about your life of discipleship. Let the Holy Spirit dig around in your soul and show you something that needs to be excavated, one little stone that hinders the love of Jesus from being experienced. Let’s start with this one obedience. Letting Jesus be Lord of this one area will cause the rest of the stones of your life to rearrange themselves. Admittedly, this is a long and sometimes painful process, but a house that stands against the floods is worth the effort.