I just want to say thank you for
the privilege of being here.
Of course, I don't feel comfortable in the
front, but it is a privilege and I
pray that God will bless us and I
want to say thank you to everybody who
decorated our little place and all the goodies
and the sweets which we have all tucked
into already.
So thank you very much.
I'm going to do something different today.
I'm going to just start off by teaching
you Afrikaans children's song, seeing we've got so
many children here.
So is, can we all stand up?
Can we all stand up?
Okay, we're going to sing.
Now, I haven't got a singing voice, so
you'll have to excuse my voice, but I
think you will and you'll just follow, you'll
get the words as I sing it.
One of the essential things for us as
Christians is to read our Bibles and what
we have to do, pray every day.
So, Lees jouw Bibel, bid elke dag, bid
elke dag, bid elke dag.
Lees jouw Bibel, bid elke dag, en jij
groei, groei, groei.
En jij groei, groei, groei.
Lees jouw Bibel, bid elke dag, en jij
groei, groei, groei.
Verwaarloes jouw Bibel, vergeet om te bid, vergeet
om te bid, vergeet om te bid.
Verwaarloes jouw Bibel, vergeet om te bid, en
jij krim, krim, krim.
En jij krim, krim, krim.
Verwaarloes jouw Bibel, vergeet om te bid, en
jij krim, krim, krim.
All right, I'll just do one, so we
can all sit down and I think we'll
all be awake now.
Let's just have a word of prayer before
we share.
Dear Father, I thank Thee for Thy presence.
Where two or three are gathered together in
Thy name, there art Thou in the midst
of them.
Thank you, Father that Thou art here, and
we look to Thee to speak to us,
to reach our hearts, and to bless us,
Father.
Help us to have open ears and obedient
hearts to Thy word, in Jesus' name, amen.
Well, my subject for today is a dilapidated
house, a dilapidated house.
And recently I was paging through my father,
who died a year ago, through his Afrikaans
Bible, and I found a little paper, and
on this paper a few ideas were written,
and amongst them were these three words, een
vervolle huis, a dilapidated house.
And these three words arrested my attention.
They followed me, they confronted me, and they
challenged me.
A dilapidated house.
I seemed to see this dilapidated house in
my mind's eye.
It danced before me in my moments of
quietness.
I saw this house from all angles, and
the more I looked at this house, the
more lessons sprang out of the windows and
doors towards me.
It spoke to my heart.
And I realized, as never before, in that
simple statement in my daddy's Afrikaans Bible, it's
possible to have a house solidly built on
the rock, begun the right way.
But with the passage of time, neglect has
come in.
The house has not been preserved, not looked
after.
The necessary repair has not been implemented.
The repair that is so vital, the confession
of faults and sin, and cracks have appeared.
The wind and the rain have taken their
toll, and the house has become dilapidated.
It's a blot on the landscape.
The first glory has disappeared.
It's no longer treasured and cared for, the
testimony.
It's no longer protected against damage.
What a sad picture, that dilapidated house.
And today we're going to speak and challenge
every one of us, what does your house
look like?
When people see your house, is God telling
you that there's urgent repair needed in your
house?
Let's look at a few scriptures that deal
with the word house or home.
In Psalm 127 verse 1, it says, Except
the Lord build the house, they labor in
vain that build it.
Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman
waketh but in vain.
Matthew 7, 24 to 27, we all know
that verse.
Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and
doeth them, I will liken him unto a
wise man that built his house upon a
rock.
Ecclesiastics 10 verse 18 says, By much slothfulness
the building decayeth, and through idleness of the
hands the house droppeth through.
Ezekiel 3 verse 27 speaks of a rebellious
house.
The kind of house when you pass, you
put your hands over your ears.
Things have gone out of control.
God is not feared anymore.
His outstretched hand of protection and repair and
maintenance has been pushed away.
A rebellious house.
Dilapidation can be on the inside and on
the outside.
Recently, I went with somebody.
They were interested in buying a house.
They wanted to sell their house and buy
another house.
I went around with them from house to
house.
It's actually a few years ago and we
just couldn't find the right house.
But when I was gone, this person said
to me, a new house came on the
market.
It was a house of substantial size.
It was very presentable on the outside.
It seemed a bargain offer.
And it was just in the right area.
It was unbelievable to think this enormous, beautiful
looking house was such a cheap price.
And they were told there was a homeschooling
family in the house.
So there's lots of room to do schooling.
And this person was a homeschooler.
So what could be more ideal?
All that space.
So she and her husband and the agent
hurried to go look at the house.
But when they got inside of the house,
they were shocked to see the rooms, the
walls, the built-in cupboards.
This house that had been nearly built a
few years ago was ruined and pulled apart.
But this lady said when she saw the
face of the mother with all the children
wildly running around, boisterous and unruly, she just
felt so sorry for the mother.
But the tragedy was that the house in
such a short time had lost its value.
It had been pulled apart.
Dear friends, what does your house look like?
What is inside or hidden in your house,
your life?
Ezekiel 9 to 10, I don't know what
chapter this is.
It says, go in and see the wicked
and detestable things they are doing here.
So I went in and looked and I
saw portrayed over all the walls, all kind
of crawling things and unclean animals and all
the idols of Israel.
And then we hear these words.
Then he said unto me, Son of man,
has thou seen what the ancients of the
house of Israel do in the dark?
Every man in the chambers of his imagery.
For they say the Lord seeth us not.
The Lord hath forsaken the earth.
The Lord seeth us not.
What is hidden in the inner chambers of
your life, your house, your heart?
Our subject for today is a dilapidated house.
It's gone to ruin.
It's disintegrated.
It's not holding together anymore.
It's become an eyesore.
Now, it reminds me of years and years
and years ago.
My dad was quite an adventurous man.
He had lots of courage and he always
dreamt of taking land that had never been
worked on, never been tilled, rugged.
They called it virgin soil bush.
And to just work that land into crops
and fertile ground.
So he sold his farm and he bought
a tract of land that was just as
wild as it was since the creation.
And he decided he was going to work
on this land.
No human hand had worked or plowed on
it or sowed crops on it before.
And he knew it would take a lot
of initiative, hard work, and imagination.
But he had vision.
And the vision didn't only include the land.
He would have to build a house from
scratch.
And so, but a beautiful house was built
on the hill.
And the house was really a testimony to
my mom's creative power.
Months before they built the house, my mom
went to auctions.
And he demolished historic buildings.
And she purchased these old stairs and windows
at a low price.
Or she got them for nothing that were
available to the public.
And not everybody realized the beauty that was
underneath.
It was dirty, peeling paint.
Some of it was in pieces.
It was full of grime.
And people said to my mother, what are
you doing with all this rubbish?
But my mother saw the potential in every
piece, every broken piece.
And with effort, love, and sacrifice, she and
the farm workers, as eager as she, made
this transformation.
Every window and door and stair rail was
restored to its former glory.
And my father was always interested in every
project of my mother.
And so, the end result was amazing.
There were gasps of amazement.
It was as if it was a new
Victorian building, house, with high domed windows almost
to the ceiling.
A black slate floor from the neighboring farms
the slate was got.
Yellow wood solid kitchen cupboards.
And the house was a double story with
gables.
They did it themselves with a family friend.
We only stayed in the house for two
years, so I could just tell you how
beautiful it was.
And it was seen from miles away.
It was this enormous house on the hill.
But it wasn't long before hail, storms, flooded
rivers, took the crops that my father had
grown.
And God had to send a buyer in
the nick of time, or they would go
bankrupt.
And God did.
God intervened.
And my dad had to sell the farm
and the beautiful house and start all over
again.
But not so long ago, some of our
family wondered, are we remembering correctly?
Was the house as beautiful and as big
as we remembered from our boarding school days?
And so we decided to go back and
look at the house to see if it
was preserved, if it was still the house
that stood out upon the hill.
And so we went, but I was terribly
scared because I didn't know how I would
go back to my mom and say, they've
taken out the old-fashioned windows and they've
put new ones in, or the roof has
fallen in.
It's fallen apart.
But we went, and as we rode up
the hill, I didn't even want to open
my eyes to see because I didn't know
what I would see.
Perhaps the house wouldn't be there.
What was our delight and joy?
To see that the house looked as brand
new.
Over the years, the windows and the doors
had been sanded and varnished.
The house had been repainted many times.
The cracks had been repaired.
It was still the house that stood out
upon the hill above others.
And it was wonderful to go back to
my mom and say, Mommy, it looks as
if it was the day we moved in
years ago.
There were no broken windows, no rotten frames,
no cracks in the walls.
The roof was whole and not fallen in.
It was as good as new.
Do you remember the day when God saved
you?
When you were a new creation in Christ?
The house on the rock with the walls
that were white with His righteousness?
You were an advertisement of God's creative power.
What does your house look like now?
Is it dilapidated, neglected, a mess of ruins?
People shake their head and say, can this
be the house on the hill?
Never in our wildest imaginations could we have
dreamt that the person who had such a
bright testimony has landed in this state.
It reminds me a bit of when we
were in New Zealand.
Now, New Zealand is very English.
They do things the English way.
So when you have tea, you have tea
in a pot.
And we went to a little town called
Stratton.
And it was a very Shakespearean town.
The little streets had all the names of
Shakespeare.
And at 12 o'clock, Romeo would come
out of a window in a wax figure
and tell Juliet he loved her.
And she would come out of a window.
And at 12 o'clock, all the people
used to stand in the town and watch
this whole scene from Shakespeare.
Now, Keith and I had to speak to
the ladies and Keith to everybody at a
little school.
And in between, we walked around the block.
Of course, Keith likes me to do exercise.
But I was very curious because the one
block I walked around, there was a very
thick fence of bushes that went the whole
block.
I mean, it was a long block.
And it was just one fence.
And in between the bushes, there was the
most beautiful rusted ironwork that stuck out.
So I said, Keith, look, this long row
of bushes, the ironwork goes all the way.
There must be a building behind this.
So I must admit, we pushed the bushes
aside and we peeped through.
And 100 feet from the fence, there was
the most beautiful building.
Exquisite carvings on the stonework.
The architecture was delightful.
There were cornices and the windows in the
roof.
It was like a make-believe palace.
We couldn't believe what was hidden behind this
fence.
But tragically, that beautiful, magnificent building was ruined
and totally neglected.
No one was in it anymore.
The paint was falling off.
The windows were broken.
There were pieces of cement on the ground.
There were birds' nests in the roof.
Day by day, it went into further disrepair.
No one had lifted up a finger to
save it.
So I said to Keith, well, if I
was a New Zealander and I was a
multimillionaire, this is the kind of house I'd
love to restore to its former glory.
But it's sad to see beauty gone to
the darks.
Are we a dilapidated house?
Ecclesiastics 10 verse 18 says, by much slothfulness
the building decayeth and through idleness of hands
the house droppeth through.
Is the glory of God's presence no longer
there?
The repair that was so vital, that confession
of failings and sin was not done.
Those short accounts, the immediately making right with
God, you neglected to keep your house in
good repair.
Your testimony is damaged.
People click their tongues and shake their heads.
Instead of drawing your friends and loved ones,
your neighbors, your children and acquaintances to God,
you push them away because of the state
of your house.
All who see, see you, know there's a
problem.
It's open to the eye.
Though you've allowed a thick hedge of excuses
and justifications to surround your house, you've grown
a hedge around you.
You say, I'm such a failure because of
tiredness.
Now there is a balance.
The Lord Jesus said to the disciples, come
apart and rest a while.
So we have to address tiredness, but you
can't use tiredness as an excuse for sin.
The hedge of difficult neighbors, my circumstances, the
pressure I'm under, my finances, others attitudes to
me, that hedge has been built around your
house.
Is that so?
God's eyes are on you with great compassion
and tender love.
He says, my child, your house is dilapidated.
It's repair is desperately needed.
Repentance is desperately needed.
Examine your house, your walk, your relationships, the
place the world has in your house.
Who walks through your front door?
What goes on behind closed doors?
God calls us, repair your house so that
you don't become a greater disgrace.
If you do not arrest the dilapidation now,
how do we repair a house?
How do we do that?
We need to acknowledge my house needs repair.
I have to call on God to intervene,
to make my house as good as new.
That day when God saved my soul, his
blood to cleanse away all the dirt and
the Holy Spirit to strengthen the tottering walls.
The house sadly neglected.
The walls are cracked and brown.
The windows have been broken and eyesore to
the town.
Birds have lodged in the rooftop.
The front door fallen down behind a thick
fence daily.
People pass with a frown.
Is that how people see me?
A house in disrepair?
That seems to say the owner for each
state does not care.
Temptation often enters.
The door no longer there to stop her
and to borrow.
She creeps in everywhere.
The window panes are broken.
The wind more fierce to me.
Therefore, I rail and complain.
God, thou art cruel to me.
The walls are scrawled with poor marks, no
longer sparkling white, as I let friends persuade
me to choose things far from right.
Dear God, will thou in mercy repair the
house, I pray?
Acknowledging it needs it, I cry to thee
today.
But now let's open a house under the
searchlight of God, under his searching gaze and
ask himself, what needs repair?
What needs intervention?
Now, when I think of a house, I
immediately think of the hidden part, the foundation.
God's eyes can see beneath the ground.
He knows if the house is on the
rock.
Now, I don't know about wooden houses, but
in South Africa, our houses need very deep
foundations.
We have terrible winds where we live and
the house does a bit of a shake,
but I just am very grateful we've got
a deep foundation.
What happens with a deep foundation?
They dig deep ditches, stones and ground is
thrown in and cement to form the foundation
that the house rests upon.
And it reminds me of the deep repentance
that is needed.
Why deep?
Because it has to be an honest confession
of sin.
Why deep?
Because I've got to say to God and
man, I am lost.
Now, I was once, a girl came to
visit me and she said she wanted to
build a house on the rock.
She wanted to get saved.
So if somebody comes to my house, I
immediately offer them some hot tea.
So I offered her tea and I started
questioning her, where this girl was at?
Were there any ditches dug?
And she said to me, eventually in the
conversation, it came to light that she was
in a relationship with a married man and
she still wanted to get saved and carry
on with the relationship.
So I said, no, no, no, no, no.
That will not work.
The house has to be built on the
rock and to reach the rock, repentance are
the ditches that have to be dug for
God's blood to wash it and cement it
firmly onto the rock.
To dig deep is not easy.
It's pain involved.
I have to be honest.
I have to admit I'm a sinner before
God can do the entire and full and
perfect work of perfectly, firmly, unchangeably fixing the
house onto the rock and to keep it
standing when the storms lash.
And what does the scripture say?
Acts 3, 19, repent ye therefore and be
converted that your sins may be blotted out
when the times of refreshing shall come from
the presence of the Lord.
1 John 1 verse 8, if we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and
the truth is not in us.
1 John 1, 9, if we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.
Matthew 7, 24, therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings
of mine and doeth them, I will liken
him unto a wise man who built his
house upon the rock.
Heaven rejoices when the foundation is struck on
the rock of ages.
What does it say in Luke 15 verse
10?
Likewise, I'm saying to you, there is joy
in the presence of the angels of God
over one sinner that repents.
Isn't that wonderful?
But how tragic are ever when only in
eternity we find out that the house wasn't
on the right foundation, it was never on
the rock and therefore we will be sent
to the unquenchable fiery furnace forever and ever
and ever to burn in hell.
Why do I say that?
What does Matthew 7, 22 say?
Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy
name?
And in thy name have cast out devils
and in thy name done many wonderful works.
Verse 23, and then I will I profess
unto them, I never knew you.
Depart from me ye that work iniquity.
That's why we have to be so sure
that we know without doubt that our house
is founded on the rock.
Now historic buildings sometimes have a plaque.
This is the day, this is the time
when the foundation was laid and so too
is unsaved.
We have to come and there's a plaque
in our life and we say that was
the time, that was the day when I
turned from darkness to light, when my house
was cemented onto the rock.
Brand new house, the walls are spotless white
because it's his righteousness, not my righteousness, which
is a gray hue, not the dark black
walls of open unashamed sin, but it's been,
it's white walls that rise up, the other
ones are broken down.
The open furrows of repentance is the admission
that I'm a sinner and those furrows are
filled with God's, the Lord Jesus' blood, his
grace and his forgiveness, a sturdy structure upon
the rock.
You know, I believe when the Lord Jesus
spoke about the wise man built his house
upon the rock and the foolish man, I
believe those two houses look pretty much the
same.
I think the windows were equally beautiful in
the wise man's house and the foolish man's.
I think they look pretty much the same
and when people passed by, they said, oh
well, these two houses look pretty sturdy, they
can withstand the storms.
The only difference was the hidden foundation, the
unseen to the human eyes, which was the
prospect of heaven or hell.
Before we start the repair on our house,
let's make doubly sure that the house is
on the right foundation.
The fool's house rose up before us, beautiful
to the eye.
It seemed that it would weather the storms
that should come nigh.
But when the heavens opened, the clouds poured
forth their rain, the house on the sands
had crumbled, never to rise again.
The wise man dug his trenches open and
deep and wide till he reached the solid
bedrock.
I found it in joy, he cried.
No fear when the hail descended, the wind,
the sleet, the snow.
He had the rock as his anchor.
No storm could bring him low.
Hallelujah.
Now we're gonna hasten and quickly look at
the structure above the foundation.
What that which is seen by passers-by,
by our children, by our parents, by our
brothers, sisters, grandchildren, grandfathers, grandmothers, neighbors, all
who pass by.
What does our house look like?
What about the windows?
Windows are essential to any house.
Without windows, the house is dark.
The sun comes through the windows and gives
warmth.
I remember going with an estate agent, also
with people who were looking for a house
to rent.
And the estate agent was just enthusing about
the big windows.
The sun she enthused goes into every room.
Every room is bright with sunlight.
The windows also expose what is inside the
house.
The bigger the windows, the more open and
the more the sunlight exposes.
Are your windows clean?
Can God's light shine through them?
Is your life open to God's searching gaze?
Psalm 139 verse 23 and 24.
Search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts and see
if there be any wicked way in me
and lead me in the way everlasting.
My heart, my life, everything is open before
thee.
But a window also speaks to me of
relationships with others.
Now, Keith and I like walking and there's
a street that we walk up.
We just walk up the road, Mill Street,
Upper Mill Street and we walk down again
and there's lots of very old-fashioned houses
in that street.
And the windows are open so we can't
help but see as we walk, if you
look right and look left, into the beautiful
interiors of some of these houses.
Is your life open to the scrutiny of
others?
Or do you continually have drawn curtains?
You don't want other people to see what's
inside your life.
You are unapproachable because you're scared that if
they get to know you too well, they'll
discover what you're hiding and secretly busy with.
Now, when I was a child, I was
petrified of going to a certain house.
This was a very old-fashioned house but
it had thick walls and heavy dark maroon
velvet curtains on the windows.
And the rooms were so dark and so
depressing that I used to get scared just
to be in the house.
It was pretty dark.
The curtains were drawn at all times.
Now, are you like that?
Your curtains are drawn at all times.
You're scared to trust people.
Those who are trying to reach out to
you and you're scared to reach out to
other people.
Thick, dark velvet curtains bar the warmth of
friendship.
Contact with people.
You gloomy and you dispel gloom.
What does Ephesians 4.32 say?
And be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even if they do wrong
to you, even as God, for Christ's sake,
hath forgiven you.
Matthew 5 speaks in, Let your light so
shine before men, it can't shine unless the
windows are clear, that they may see your
good works and glorify your Father which is
in heaven.
Are our windows transparent to God's eye ever
clear?
His light can shine unhindered.
No curtains drawn with fear.
What about souls around us?
Do we reach out with care?
Or are we wrapped in darkness, the hangings
of despair?
Our home is somber, dismal, shrouded each darkened
room.
We nurse the wrongs we've suffered, perpetuating doom.
Now, another reason which I've mentioned before for
the closed curtains are the hidden things that
are there.
Now, when somebody's arrested by the police, they
usually go to their house and investigate and
find surprising things in the person's house that
explain his behavior.
They find hidden things nobody knew about hidden
in the house.
And so too with our lives.
The curtains are drawn because of the hidden
things that we are busy with, whether it's
in books, internet, wrong relationships.
Then He said unto me, Son of man,
I have seen what the agents of the
house of Israel do in the dark, every
man in the chambers of his imagery.
For they say the Lord seeth us not.
The Lord hath forsaken the earth.
God does see.
Jealousy and pride can also be hidden in
the corners of our house.
God knows about it.
He calls us to draw the curtains aside,
to allow the light of His Word to
expose what is wrong so that His blood
can cleanse it.
How can we think that we can hide
sin from God's piercing gaze?
He sees each hidden corner exposed in full
light blaze.
Windows should always be there to let His
Word shine in, that we can keep the
corners swept clean from any sin.
Now let's quickly look at the front door.
At all times, the front door of our
house should be shut against temptation and sin.
Are your hinges tight?
Is the lock in place?
Is the bar drawn across the door?
Now in our house, there's a very strong
crossbar because people come to our house sometimes
and they try and force their way in
and they bang and they're not good people.
Often they want to do wrong.
And I'm so glad for that very sturdy
crossbar on our house.
Is the bar on your front door against
temptation and sin, held firmly against the intruder?
And what is the bar?
What is the lock?
It's the Word of God that protects us
from sin.
It gives us courage in the onslaught against
our enemies.
We know we're safe in God's hands when
we are resting on the Word.
Just as I thank God for the bar
and lock that held our house against intruders,
me from intruders, so we will be safe
if the Word of God is in place,
the slot is on, carefully kept in good
order, and the nails of obedience are tight.
We don't have to fear temptation or the
foe.
Psalm 119 verse 87, They'd almost consumed me
upon the earth, but I forsook not thy
precepts.
Is the lock firm and in its place,
keeping me safe from sin?
When sin comes knocking at my door, a
quick entrance to win?
God's Word, a lock upon the door that
bids us to stand firm against any intruders
with admonitions stern.
Now, another aspect of the house is the
telephone.
Most houses have a telephone, don't they?
And it's good to have a landline because
the cell phones aren't always reliable.
Now, we battled for months because we fixed
something on the outside of our house and
they cut the landline and it took months
and months and months and months, I think
almost a year before they reconnected it.
And I was so relieved when it was
in working order again.
That line, the line of prayer should be
in working order in our house.
Now, my mom and dad often had problems
with their landline and I remember a time
when my poor dad was in the house
with my mom on the farm still and
my mom had a collapse, she had a
stroke and the landline wasn't working.
And in the middle of the night, he
couldn't call the emergency services.
So in the dark, he had to run
leaving my mother to the neighbors, their phone
was working and they were able to get
the ambulance.
Grateful that the ambulance was on its way.
It reminds me of the tragedy of the
broken line of prayer of the Christian whose
house is founded on the rock.
Things have gone wrong.
The line is not in order.
God is not my immediate refuge, the person
I go to.
Can it be that the line is so
seldom used that I don't even know the
line of prayer is out of order?
Our line must be in order.
It is a tragedy if a prayer is
not our immediate resource in times of trouble.
God is our refuge, a very present help
in trouble.
I will say of the Lord, He is
my refuge and my fortress.
My God, in Him will I trust.
Prayer is what I immediately turn to when
things go wrong.
Dear Lord, I must confess that prayer is
not my first resource.
When things go wrong, I'd rather seek other
help, of course.
But things do not get better.
Men could not deal with sin and in
darkness, no light could I from their counsels
win.
Oh, God, I bow in deep shame.
The line, the shame, the line I will
repair with each problem.
I'll seek Thee for help in constant prayer.
And lastly, the roof of the dilapidated house
in New Zealand was full of holes and
in a sorry state.
And that roof speaks to me of our
trust in God.
The roof, after all, is between us and
heaven.
He is wisdom.
He is undertaking what He sends across our
path.
Psalm 18, verse 30 says, As for God,
His way is perfect.
The word of the Lord is tried.
He is a buckler to all those who,
that trust in Him.
Now, my uncle and aunt bought a house,
a beautiful old Tudor house that came with
a farm.
And it was magnificent, but they weren't satisfied
with the roof.
So they decided they would take off the
tin roof and they would replace it with
a new roof.
I don't know what kind of a roof,
probably a Harvey tile.
So what they did is they removed the
whole roof.
And what happened when the roof was removed?
The whole house caved in and they lost
the beautiful house.
All the walls fell in.
Our house will crumble if we question God's
dealings.
What God allows in our life and across
our life.
Let us, like Joseph, trust God, though we
suffer many injustices to find out at last.
Genesis 50, verse 20.
But as for you, you meant evil against
me, but God meant it for good in
order to bring it about as it is
this day to save many people alive.
God meant it for good.
We can safely trust in God.
He knows what he's doing.
He is in his heaven.
We need not fear.
The roof of my house was broken.
I doubted God, his love, questioning all his
dealings that he rules up above.
But now I am ashamed that the roof
was not repaired.
How could I fear the future when I
knew that God cared?
Now today, God has asked each of us,
including me, to examine our house.
What is being exposed under his searchlight?
God is asking you, is the house built
upon the rock?
Have you ever dug those deep trenches of
repentance that the blood of the Lord Jesus
could cleanse, you clean, and fill those trenches
with his grace and forgiveness so that you
are firmly established upon the rock of all
ages?
Is my house built upon the rock or
is it on the sands?
God asks us to be sure that we
know on which it stands.
The house upon the rock is safe in
the storms of life.
It can, through God's enabling, survive sore trials
and strife.
The house upon the sands is a danger
to behold, for it will fall for certain,
damned, as God's word hath told.
What about the windows over your house?
Are they open to God's searching gaze?
Nothing is hid from him.
Are they open to others as you reach
out in love?
Or are your curtains drawn, your blinds to
keep others out?
Your house is dark, like the house I
feared to go in as a child.
You're filled with gloom and you dispel gloom.
What about the front door?
Is the front door locked?
Is the bar, the slot firmly in place
to bar out sin and temptation, even on
the internet?
And the telephone line of prayer, is it
in working order?
Is it often used?
And what about those hidden things in your
house that you think you can hide from
God and man and indulge secret sin in?
God knows all.
And lastly, the roof.
The perfect trust in God, the implicit faith
that he knows best and he knows what
he's doing.
Are there holes in your roof?
Is your life dilapidated, needing repair, immediate repair?
Call on God to help you and restore
your house to its former glory.
The walls that need cleansing, the fallen walls,
the resolutions that have been broken, the cracks
to be repaired.
Call on God.
Acknowledge that perhaps your house is a blot
and not a blessing and let God turn
it into a blessing.
Dear Lord, I stand before thee, a house
in disrepair.
Ashamed, confess, acknowledge.
It's crumbling everywhere.
The roof is full of holes, Lord.
The lock not firm and tight.
The windows dark and gloomy within.
Things far from right.
Thy sin has easy access.
The front door stands ajar.
Thy word that should prevent it no longer
there to bar.
Forgive me, Lord, and cleanse me.
Rebuild, repair the wrong.
The windows will be open.
The door bolted and strong.
A house that is a blessing to all
who comes its way.
For God is honored in it constantly.
Every day.
Amen.