“All Scripture (The Bible) is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
The term “Bible” comes from the Greek word ‘biblia’ which simply means “books”. It is made up of 66 books and broken up into 2 sections: The Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament has 39 books and the New Testament 27. It was written over the course of 1,500 years, on 3 different continents (Africa, Asia and Europe), in multiple languages (Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic).
There are 40 different authors ranging from kings to fishermen. Yet, it is one cohesive story. It’s the story of God’s rescue of humanity and the restoration of all things. It is our game plan for winning in life.
If you’ve ever seen films like “Any Given Sunday”, “Remember the Titans” or even the aforementioned movie “Miracle”, there is always an iconic “pump up speech” scene. The locker room is dead silent as the coach paces back and forth. The players track the coach’s every movement. Slowly and deliberately he moves as the players anxiously await their marching orders. The coach has a rolled up copy of the lineup in his hand. He raises it like a sword to the sky and then points it at each one of his athletes. The speech that follows would put Churchill or William Wallace to shame. The euphoric team pours onto the court, field or rink and shocks the world. That’s usually how it goes in the movies, but rarely, if ever, does it play out like that in real life. I’ve spent a lot of time in locker rooms and have yet to hear that speech. Actually, they’ve all been pretty anticlimactic and at times kind of funny.
My first year pro, our head coach was a man named Jack ‘Tex’ Evans. He was nominated for coach of the year the previous season. I was so excited to hear his first “pump up speech”. Jack walked through the locker room and in the most monotone voice imaginable mumbled, “Let’s go boys.” And walked out of the room and into the arena. I remember thinking, “That’s it?! That’s the pump up speech?!”
My final season in the NHL, I had a coach that swore every other word. He was a great guy, but had a horrible mouth. His favorite word by far was the “F-bomb”. He managed to use it as an adjective, adverb, noun and proper noun. It was truly impressive. After one pump up speech, I turned and looked at our team’s captain Ray Ferraro. He simply looked back at me and said, “23”. “What do you mean 23?”, I asked. “23 F-bombs”, he replied. We cracked up and promptly proceeded to take to the ice and lose another hockey game. So much for the pump up speech. My coach’s speeches were memorable for all the wrong reasons. Jesus, however, gives one of the most memorable monologues ever recorded in Matthew 5-7. It’s known as the “Sermon on the Mount”. It covers all of life’s bases: how to pray, how to use money, morality, the ‘Golden Rule’, don’t worry and don’t judge others. Jesus ends this historic speech with the big takeaway:
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:24-27)
Jesus says by hearing and doing the Word of God (the Bible), you are literally storm proofing your life. Notice, storms come for ALL of us. But, those who “hear and do” the words of Jesus are building their life on the rock. Whatever life may throw at you, you won’t be shaken, if your life is built on the firm foundation of God’s Word. Conversely, to disregard Jesus’ words, is to build your life on sinking sand. It’s only a matter of time until the storms of life come. Your life built on sand will not withstand the onslaught of life’s storms. Storms are coming. Have you “storm-proofed” your life?
It was October of 2018. Hurricane Michael, a category 5 hurricane, ripped through the Florida panhandle to the tune of 8.1 billion dollars’ worth of damage. Michael literally leveled everything in its path. I should say, almost everything. One home remained standing. It was owned by Dr. LeBron Lackey. He designed the home to answer one question, “What would survive the ‘Big One?'” Every aspect of the home was built above code. He named it, “The Sand Palace”. He should have called it “The Rock”.
Is your life built on the Rock of God’s word?