Home Building

"Rainbow" by Alexandrea Sias (used with permission).

For prints visit the Autism Society of America, or click on this link: 

http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=art_exhibit

Phase Two: 

The Proper Ground and the Individual Members

       Matthew 7:24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”

     Jesus is the steady rock on which our lives are built.  Any other element that we use to build our homes on will be as sand by which our inner lives will crumble.  A man can have all the money and status in the world but that money cannot buy him life filled stability within.  It can only offer him a temporary haven that will crumble with the shaking of the ground beneath his feet.  One can also bank their happiness and stability on God given talents and gifts, but the foolishness of investing in the product in place of the source will prove to be disasterous. The product should be an outflow of the life within.  A branch that springs forth from the life of the root.  Severed from its root it will lose its source of life, wither, and die. 

     If the family unit is to be a safe and steady environment, it must be built on Jesus-our way, our truth, and our life as appointed by Father God.  And that process begins with the individual units being firmly grounded in his life so that each unit is not tossed around by its ever changing environment.  A home united in Jesus will stand the test of time. 

     There are many times we go about on our own trying to establish unity within the individual members of a home.  This can lead to friction and conflict.  We need to realize the building starts with the individual units then as an outflow, extends to the whole.

     And until the time the love of God is fully manifested in our lives God has provided us with a framework, a blue print for our lives.  And we know a framework is just that, not the steady ground that holds life in place.  We build on our solid Rock from the ground up, not on the framework.  On its own the framework cannot offer stability from within during diverse situations.  None that leads to life.  And its purposes are not meant to bind but to provide a guide as we come together by the glue of God's love.  

     Throughout scripture one can see this framework that has been put in place, not only in the family structure but in society as a whole.   Husband to wife, parent to child, master to servant, to name just a few.  That framework will totally depart once the Kingdom of God has been fully manifested upon the Earth.  Yet until the time its seed planted in the Earth has fully developed, the framework continues to be a guide within society as a whole.   It will no longer be applicable when all the pieces have  come under their covering in Jesus and that starts with the individual life.  The believer that is "in Christ" has transcended beyond frameworks.  I am not advocating the framework as a guide in the individual believer's life, that role has been legally transfered to Jesus.  I speak of society as a whole that has not come under his covering.  That framework continues its purposes until the Kingdom of God is fully manifested in the Earth.   

     It is important to remember that the framework is not the answer, but a temporary measure in our journey into unity in Christ.  If the framework is looked upon as the answer instead of trusting in Jesus to get us there, the family as a whole will stumble over the great Rock in their path.  

Colossians 1:

   15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
      He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

 16 for through him God created everything
      in the heavenly realms and on earth.
   He made the things we can see
      and the things we can’t see—
   such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
      Everything was created through him and for him.
 17 He existed before anything else,
      and he holds all creation together.
 18 Christ is also the head of the church,
      which is his body.
   He is the beginning,
      supreme over all who rise from the dead.

      So he is first in everything.
 19 For God in all his fullness
      was pleased to live in Christ,
 20 and through him God reconciled
      everything to himself.
   He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
      by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.