RUIN

RUIN!

2 Chron 28:22-23

22 And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord: this is that king Ahaz.

23 For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.

Luke 6:48-49

48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.

49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

           Ruin! It is a horrible word! In our Old Testament portion it indicates “a tottering or a weakness of the knees.” In Luke it refers to “something torn; a fragment; a shard of some precious piece of pottery.”

           Warren Wiersbe comments on the actions of Ahaz in Second Chronicles and quotes A. W. Tozer in the process. Here is what he had to say: “All of this is a picture of what often happens in Christian ministries today: somebody sees something out in the world that would "fit" into the Lord's work, and the church starts to imitate the world. Moses was commanded to make the tabernacle according to what God showed him on the mount (Ex 25:40; 26:30; Heb 8:5), and likewise the temple was constructed according to the plans God gave to David (1 Chron 28:11,12,19). The Jews didn't appoint a building committee and vote on the design. But today, the church is becoming so like the world that it's getting difficult to tell them apart.

A. W. Tozer wrote, “Aside from a few of the grosser sins, the sins of the unregenerated world are now approved by a shocking number of professedly "born-again" Christians, and copied eagerly. Young Christians take as their models the rankest kind of worldlings and try to be as much like them as possible. Religious leaders have adopted the techniques of the advertisers: boasting, baiting, and shameless exaggeration are now carried on as a normal procedure in church work. The moral climate is not that of the New Testament but that of Hollywood and Broadway.” (from The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament © 2001-2004 by Warren W. Wiersbe. All rights reserved.)

           The stream will beat vehemently upon your house! You can’t keep that from happening. Ruinous circumstances will come. The only variable we see in Luke chapter 6 is the foundation. Is your house (your life and your future) solidly founded upon the Rock (Jesus)?

Dear Lord, the circumstances of life threaten to ruin us. Let the troubles you allow only serve to purge away the sin in our lives. Let us stand without ruin upon the solid rock. AMEN