Last Sunday wasn’t just one of those usual ones. Call it whatever term you like, “Heavy rainfall, flash flood, cats and dogs, flooding, ponding”; it left not a few of us soaked to the skin. As far as I know, at least one car belonging to one of our faithful worshippers had his car stalled. For the first time, my son pointed to me the lighted battery light indicator in our car, warning us that something is amiss. Our natural reaction was that water must have seeped into the engine compartment.
In our church, water leaked into the Sanctuary at the Grand piano area, resulting in some members mopping away the water while the worship service was going on! Outside the sanctuary, various members were furiously sweeping out water from the heavy pouring rain. All in all, it was an eventful morning.
Thankfully, our church building remained firmly rooted on solid foundation.
Matthew 7:24-27
4 “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because it had been founded on rock. 26 Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, and it collapsed; it was utterly destroyed!” (NET BIBLE)
In the story above, the pouring rain situation was described in exactly the same manner – the rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house. However, the impact was vastly different. For the first house, despite all that happened, it did not collapse. As for the second house, it collapsed. Why? While the first house was founded on solid rock, the second house was built on shifting sand.
Our Lord Jesus describes the wise builders of the first house as representing those who hear His Word and does them, and the foolish builders of the second house as representing those who even though they have heard His Word, does not do them.
Let not last week’s eventful Sunday simply go down as a day to be hidden in the annals of Bethesda Chapel history, perhaps only to haunt us again in 50 years time. Instead, let it be a lesson for us, even as we faithfully come to church Sunday by Sunday, that we do not foolishly stop at hearing. Instead, let us having heard, wisely take heed to the Word of God preached. As a case in point, our take-home lesson from Rom. 11 were the following three points: 1. Do not be arrogant over disobedient Israel. 2. Do not be ignorant of God’s plan. 3. Do not be ashamed of the Gospel.
May we be wise followers of God’s Word.
Elder Richard Lai
