Taking Hebron

  The other night my family and I were watching a movie together. One of the main characters had been a famous skier until an injury had cut his career short. He feared his hometown for he felt everyone would be angry with him for having failed their expectations. When he finally admitted his fears to his old coach his coach responded by saying that no one was mad at him. And though he could no longer compete he could coach skiing and his old coach concluded by saying, "You need to trust yourself."  My 11-year-old brother who was sitting near me added quietly, "You need to forgive yourself." Wow! His insight into the situation amazed me. He was right.  How often do I find myself like this downcast skier, hanging my head in shame for not meeting the expectations set before me? But whose expectations are they? More often than not they are my own. I know the Lord loves me unconditionally and forgives me to forgetfulness so why do I still hang my head in shame?  Because...

  “He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. Luke 6:48 I've heard and seen this story played out many times in children's Bible videos and at Sunday school, but I have to admit I never noticed the part that says the man "dug deep" and laid the foundation on the rock. It's not enough to build a wooden hut on top of the rock, the house has to be attached to the rock at its foundation. This lead me to research a little about how you build on solid rock. In one article the writer talked about how his soon-to-be new neighbors were blasting out portions of the rock so they could lay the foundation. These were his comments: "You have to want to build badly if you decide to go to all this trouble to blast solid rock. First and foremost, blasting is expensive. Two previous owners of the lot, which s...