Meaningful Truth

Why didn’t I pay attention when my uncles and Daddy talked about World War II?  When the men gathered at our house to visit, the ladies were visiting or cooking, and the kids were playing outside or washing dishes and doing chores. Everyone had his or her own interest and mine was either reading or playing the piano. Guns, war, and history meant nothing to me.

I’ll never forget in the mid-1980s when my husband and Dad were talking about WWII and they mentioned the bombing of Nagasaki. I must have looked puzzled when I asked, “Where is Nagasaki?” because they both looked at me astonished. Dad said, “Surely you don’t mean you’ve never heard of the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan?” I said, “I’ve heard of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.” And he then told me about the bombing of Nagasaki following the bombing of Hiroshima, ending the war in the Pacific.

The only excuse I have is that no one grabbed my attention in a way that was meaningful to me, so whatever I was supposed to learn went right over my head.

This reminds me of the stories of people who have attended Sunday School and church all their lives and never learned the spiritual truth of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Perhaps they heard the story of Jesus and considered it a nice story, but never recognized their need of a savior. Many people think that they haven’t done anything so terribly wrong in their life, so there’s nothing from which to be saved. Maybe she has been a very good person, and had given to charities. Perhaps he had always paid his bills and been a friend to all.

However in Romans 3: 23 in The Living Bible, “Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal yet now God declares us “not guilty” of offending him if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in his kindness freely takes away our sins.”

Yes, everyone is a sinner, but everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved.

 

The Shaking

 

Several years ago cracks developed in our walls and at the doorways and windows, and in the exterior brick. To preserve the value of our home, we called a company that repairs foundations and after a hefty amount of money was exchanged, our home was fitted with 14 piers, buried in the earth at certain places around the perimeter of the house.

These piers were screwed into the ground until they hit bedrock, about 14 feet down and they now hold our house level, which is guaranteed as long as the house stands.

The workers dug up my plants and shrubs all around the house, dug holes as deep as a man is tall, to place the piers. They were to replace the shrubs just as they found them, but one hibiscus disappeared, one or two shrubs were planted too close to foundation, and a couple were almost sticking out of the dirt. I was so glad to have that job finished, I let it go.

Our world is going through a shaking. The sandy foundations that we have built upon have allowed cracks to develop in our walls. It isn’t just the natural world, which is experiencing earthquakes; or the financial world where the solid companies of our past have fallen; or the political world where changes are happening. There are also major changes in the religious world.

It would be really easy to be shaken in our faith. Maybe you have been planted in a different spot and it is uncomfortable. Maybe your roots are sticking out. Maybe some of you have been lost in the re-planting. Wherever you are, you must not dry up and die. You must dig your roots back into the soil, even if it isn’t the place where you previously were planted. If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, you belong to the kingdom of God that cannot be shaken.

Hebrews 12:28 says, “Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably, with reverence and awe.”

You must drill down to the bedrock, to the Rock of Ages, the solid Rock of Jesus Christ.