THE WORD IN ADVENT - First Thursday
December 5, 2019: Isaiah 26:1-6; Matthew 7: 21,24-27
Are you familiar with baseball rules... what is it called when you finish one full round after you leave your initial base? A Home Run! In the military parlance, a person who goes on an air raid for example is said to 'touch the base' when he or she returns after the mission or a part of it is accomplished, for now! Keeping these imageries at the back of our mind, look at the images given in the Word today.
A strong city, a house built on a rock - these are the images we are given to contemplate today. A city with its walls, bulwarks and ramparts signify the strength that each one possesses. The house built on rock signifies the security and the assurance of safety that everyone looks for. After all the battering and the hard work, after all the running and the risks, one looks forward to enter that secure gates of home, to get that home run, to touch base!
In contrast we have the house built on sand which is quick to ruin itself, assailed by the least of the batterings; a city that is unguarded which has all the possibility of attack from within, from outside and from all unprecedented quarters. Just imagine, if this is all that awaits us! The Lord has something secure, strong, firm prepared for us. But it depends if we choose that or not!
The person that we are, the choices that we make, the priorities we have, the criteria we act on, the principles we stand by... these determine whether we choose the strength and the security that the Lord can provide! When these choices, priorities, criteria and principles are all founded on the Lord and the Lord's Word, we enter a city well guarded and a house firmly built on rock.
That is where the Lord invites us: It's time to check our choices and priorities, get them right and Return! and make a home run, touch the base!
In contrast we have the house built on sand which is quick to ruin itself, assailed by the least of the batterings; a city that is unguarded which has all the possibility of attack from within, from outside and from all unprecedented quarters. Just imagine, if this is all that awaits us! The Lord has something secure, strong, firm prepared for us. But it depends if we choose that or not!
The person that we are, the choices that we make, the priorities we have, the criteria we act on, the principles we stand by... these determine whether we choose the strength and the security that the Lord can provide! When these choices, priorities, criteria and principles are all founded on the Lord and the Lord's Word, we enter a city well guarded and a house firmly built on rock.
That is where the Lord invites us: It's time to check our choices and priorities, get them right and Return! and make a home run, touch the base!