parables

Today began my Bible study on the parables of Jesus.  Our first was titled "The Value of the House."

Matthew 7:24-27 (The Message)
"'These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living.  They are foundational words, words to build a life on.  If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who build his house on solid rock.  Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit - but nothing moved that house.  It was fixed to the rock.


But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach.  When a storm rolled in a the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.'"

We had a brilliant conversation, and I was excited to get a variety of "house" ideas.  None of us felt our houses were on solid rock...maybe pebbles, but definitely not sand.  The study book had a few good thoughts that provoked great discussion amongst the members.

"The difference between these two men [the carpenters] is not a difference in ability, of knowledge, or of opporutnity; it is a difference of choice."

"But most of us are optimists enough that we think we're among those who will beat the odds."


"Most of us charge into life as if we were going to be able to develop a who subdivision of lives, so that if this one didn't work out, we'd move into another just down the street.


"When I was a pastor, I was astonished by those persons who responded to the storm by complaining, 'Why should this happen to me?' I found it hard not to reply, 'Why should you be exempt?  Didn't you know that to live on this planet is to meet a storm now and then?'"

I'm truly looking forward to the weekly studies about the parables.