“Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain,” Psalm 127:1

I have been invited to two weddings scheduled for the last weeks of summer.  During the same weeks, I attended a funeral for a dear saint of God, 96 years old, who went to heaven to be with her Savior.  As I pondered over these events, I realized that all parties were starting a new adventure, some on earth and one in heaven.

Weddings are a time for celebration, a beautiful bride and a handsome groom!  Everyone smiling and happy!  It’s a blessed time!  Lots of planning and work go into a wedding, but by the end of the evening, it will be a beautiful memory.  Memories and pictures will last, but the wedding will be in the past.

There’s more to a marriage than a wedding!  A marriage is for a lifetime and there are many challenges.  Some of those challenges may rock your foundation and test your commitment to one another.  The crucial test is going to rest on whether the Lord Jesus is the One who builds the house and whether the bride and groom trust Him and His Word.  The most important part of a house is the foundation.  Jesus told a parable in Matthew 7 about two houses, one built on the rock and one built on the sand.  “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; and yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”  Matthew 7:24-27. 

We have a choice on the kind of foundation we build on.  One man built on the rock and one man chose the sand.  Building on the rock is the choice to have Jesus at the center of your marriage, to read and trust His Word and apply it in all aspects of your marriage.  God has a lot to say about marriage since He invented it!  Building on the rock takes longer, harder to do and takes effort.  But it stands the storms of life!  We invest our lives to follow God by reading our Bible, going to church and obeying what He says!

Building on the sand implies a foolish person who takes shortcuts, who is careless and ignores the possibility of storms.  Storms WILL come!  They come the same way in both houses.  Trials, struggles, conflicts and disasters happen to homes and marriages of both committed Christians and careless Christians.  Financial problems, loss of a job, illness to you or your children, cancer and other struggles will come.  Building on the sand is fast, buildings go up quickly with little effort, but when storms come, they crash.

The wise couple hears and puts God’s Word into practice.  To build a strong house, founded on God’s Word will take commitment.  You might be an expert on building houses on rock, you might conduct seminars on it.  You might talk about it all day long and know more about rock building than anyone around, but unless you DO IT, when the storms come, your house will fall!

Marriage is a great adventure!  Couples can have a home that is warm, characterized by love that lights up the neighborhood and reaches out to everyone!  Make your house a light upon a hill that witnesses to everyone who sees it!  Be a living demonstration of Christ’s love by showing the world His family and His model for marriage! My 96 year old friend, Betty started on a different kind of marriage, hers is also a great adventure, at home with her Bridegroom!

Your friend, Jean