Part Christian (this was drafted on 10/3/05 an just found it!)

I'm in a pondering mood today.

The panic over possibly jeopardising a relationship I really want, has calmed to a peaceful depression now, and I find myself becoming a bit inward looking at the moment.

Today in church we finished off the series on the Beattitudes that we've been looking at since September. (Yes, September!!) I've got an awful lot out of it, too much to go into now, otherwise this post would be at least ten pages long... (Don't worry reader I really won't!)

Today we looked at Luke 6:43 -49:

?Luke 6:46?
?21? “?Not everyone who says to Me, ?r?‘?Lord, Lord,?’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who ?s?does the will of My Father in heaven. ?22? Many will say to Me in that day, ‘?Lord, Lord, have we ?t?not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name??’ ?23? And ?u?then I will declare to them, ‘?I never knew you; ?v?depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!?’

Parable of the Two Builders
?Luke 6:47–49?
?24? “?Therefore ?w?whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: ?25? 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.
?26? “?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: ?27? and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.?”
r ?Hos. 8:2?; ?Matt. 25:11?; ?Luke 6:46?; ?Acts 19:13?
s ?Rom. 2:13?; ?James 1:22?
t ?Num. 24:4?
u ?Matt. 25:12?; ?Luke 13:25?; [?2 Tim. 2:19?]
v ?Ps. 5:5?; ?6:8?; [?Matt. 25:41?]; ?Luke 13:27?
w ?Matt. 7:24–27?; ?Luke 6:47–49?
The New King James Version. 1996, c1982 (Mt 7:21). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Jesus is talking about the two builders, and Will made a brilliant point that opened up the whole passage in a way I'd never thought about before. When Jesus told this parable, he was talking to people who were already following him.

I've always totally missed this. We tend to talk about the wise and foolish builders as a picture of the Christian and Non-Christian. The Christian builds his house on the Rock, and the (in our view) silly Non-Christian builds their house on sand. This in fact, is not what Jesus was emphasizing at all!! He was already talking to people who'd made a decision to follow him, in fact this whole part of his sermon was to ask people HOW they were following him, not IF they were.
As a Christian who's been brought up in the church, I tend to have heard all the sermons before, all the themes, all the point-by-point exegesis (if you want to use the big word!) of each passage, so much so, that the central simple yet profound point loses it's message.

Jesus was saying that as followers of him we need to decide how we will follow him. It's like he's asking the question "What's the essence of following me?". He answers that before he tells the parable by saying that's it not whether we know Him that counts as much as if He knows us. Jesus seems to be saying that following him is about hearing what he says and doing it.

That's it.