Building houses on rocks.

Even the right concept can be disastrous when taken from the wrong perspective.

Today, President Obama said something about our economy that sounded good on the surface.  Here’s one report from USAToday:

In the prepared excerpts, Obama says steps taken so far are starting to show signs of progress but there is a hard road ahead. He cites a parable from the Sermon on the Mount about a man who built his house on a pile of sand and another who built his house on a rock.

The first man’s house “was destroyed as soon as the storm hit,” Obama says in the excerpts, and adds: “We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock.”

It sounds great on the surface, but the key is the tiny little next-to-last word.  He says we must build our house upon “A” rock.  The parable he refers to was not about ‘a’ rock, but about building our lives upon THE rock,  Jesus.  If you use just any old rock the storms will still knock down your walls – but The rock protects us from any and all attacks from the enemy and storms of life, that aren’t necessarily from any enemy.

By the way, President Obama describes his rock as 5 economic pillars such as “new rules for Wall Street.”  I don’t have any faith in Wall Street, the economy, the brightest minds of man (which are as fools before God) or even our President to save us.  The world can’t do it… even in mundane things like finance.  Our country is financially great when we honor God and should we as a whole ever stop that we will be ruined.

As an aside, it really bothers me when people allude to the Bible and God’s Kingdom without any evidence of believing in it other than “putting in their time” one service a week.  My pastor says something along these lines – “If you are going to act like the world, please don’t tell people you are a Christian.”  That fakery is picked up in a heartbeat and spoils the character of God in the eyes of those who are on the fringe, ready to go either way.  Let’s be real and not push people over the edge with our words and/or actions.

It’s all about perspective so build on THE rock Jesus and not just ‘a’ rock.