We are commanded to obey our parents, it made the top 10 list in the Old Testament.  Growing up, there were practical reasons to obey your parents, it saved you from some form of punishment.  In school, if you did what your teachers required (more obedience), you were saved from making bad grades or failing a class.  When you have a job, doing what your boss asks you to do will keep you from getting fired.

There’s a common theme here, obedience provides protection, and disobedience leads to consequences.  Seems pretty straightforward, and most of us have a pretty good handle on how that applies to our life.  The disconnect seems to come in our attempt to follow and know Christ.  Praise and worship, church attendance, bible study, those usually make our list.  Somehow, obedience (real, true, no matter what the cost obedience) is far down our list.  Here’s the problem, without obedience, all the rest of those things won’t matter.

In Luke 6:46-49, Christ talks about the man who hears what His words and puts them into practice.  He is like a man who builds a house and digs a deep foundation on rock.  When the flood comes, the house is not shaken.  But the man who hears Christ’s words and does not put them into practice is like a man building a house without a foundation.  When the flood strikes, the house collapses and is  destroyed.

The key verse for us is the first one, verse 46.  Christ says “why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?”  Without obedience, we can work (build) our whole lives, and have it wiped out in a moment.  Christ does not say “if” a flood comes, He says “when” a flood comes.  If you haven’t had one yet, trust me, a flood will come in your life.  And the difference between being “unshaken” and being completely destroyed, is obedience.

A couple of things to think about.  Both men build a house, and the house is completely functional.  Nothing is different about the houses, until the flood.  Life is going along, both men are living life, then a flood comes along, and that flood can come in many different ways – job loss, death, divorce, sickness, poverty, wealth, and more.  Then the two houses look nothing alike, because one house is simply gone.  There were two houses, now there is one.  Luke 6:49 says “its destruction was complete.”

What has Christ asked you to do?  What God dream sits quietly waiting for you to act?  What burns in your core, what calls you with a pull when you are still and quiet?  What has Christ laid on you that makes no worldly sense, that you have no idea how to accomplish, what scares you the moment you stop and reflect on it?  More than likely, that’s exactly where Christ is calling you into obedience.  He is calling you to build on the rock.  To trust His words, to trust His call, to let go of the illusion of well being, and to dig deep, to dig all the way to foundational rock.  There’s an old song I used to sing in church called Trust and Obey.  It may be time in your life to start do stop a few things, and start to obey.  Grace and peace in the journey.

Know Him.  Make Him known.