Solid as a rock!

About ten years ago, the acronym, WWJD, became part of our cultural lexicon. Remember it? What Would Jesus Do. The intent is to get people to integrate the message of Jesus Christ into their daily decisions. It is easy to begin to think, "this is for Sunday, that is for Monday." Some things we naturally think of as 'spiritual,' others as 'secular.' Just because it happens so naturally doesn't make it right. God is just as concerned about your financial decisions as He is in the relationships you have with others.

Does the name Bernie Ebbers mean anything to you? In March he was convicted of fraud in the WorldCom financial collapse. Ebbers is a church-going, Sunday School teaching guy at a Bible believing church. Yet, somehow he allowed himself to be part very questionable, and ultimately illegal business practices. How did that happen? Well, my guess is that in Ebber's mind there came to be a division between what he heard in church and the decisions he made in the board room. Perhaps it was a conscious choice, but more likely, he just compartmentalized Monday from Sunday without much thought at all.

Separating Sunday's sermons from daily living is nothing new. In 1896, Charles Sheldon wrote a book that millions of Christians have read in the century since its publication. That book is called, In His Steps. The author asked people to try to think, what would Jesus do in the situations they encountered. As a entire town grasped this concept, transformation reached from top to bottom of society.

I think an even better acronym would be WWJHMD- What would Jesus have me do? Is that simple or easy? Of course not. Life is filled with complex choices that involve many layers of ethical implications. For instance, what choice does a wife and mother make about staying with a cruel and abusive husband? Believers understand that God holds us to a high level of commitment to our marriage covenant. God also wants us to forgive those who do wrong to us. And, yes, too, there is a responsibility to protect children and to lovingly confront those who do wrong. See where it gets complicated? That is true in just about every area of our lives. Simplistic thinking will often cause us to make silly decisions. Christians are often mocked, deservingly, for having easy answers and bumper sticker philosophies that ignore the complexities of the world of which they are part. We, as Kingdom Builders, will not influence the world for Christ if we live in unconscious hypocrisy, or in the grip of simplistic expressions of Scriptural truth.

We must think deeply, carefully, and lovingly about what we say, how we live. Every day we need to pray that our lives line up with what we profess to believe, as we discern the will of God for each turn. Hard? Yes! Impossible? No! The promise of God is that the Holy Spirit will work with us to help us to know how to live. Jesus promised, "...when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you." (John 16:13-14, The Message)

Paul says it in different words, "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." (Galatians 5:25, NIV) Here is the way that it reads in The Message: "Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives."

The person who integrates the Bible's teaching into his life finds stability that is solid as a rock. Jesus says, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 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 rock." (Matthew 7:24-25, NLT)
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My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' Name.

On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand.
All other ground is sinking sand.