Directional Living

We are naturally inclined to the relationships we have with other people, whether family or friends. We are naturally inclined to seek our satisfaction in such relationships. We are naturally inclined to make more of these relationships than they can bear. We need to reconsider our directional living.

Directional Living

How easy it is to live horizontally,
Forgetting the vertical,
Stretching out rather than up,
Yammering frustration rather than
Offering praise,
Seeking in each other what
Only God can provide.
In the cross,
vertical and horizontal meet,
God and man greet
In the One Incarnate,
Wholly holy God and man,
Freely giving His immaculate life
To end the strife sin wreaks
Between God and man,
Between man and man.
Only a right vertical relationship
Can make any right horizontal relationship possible.
Only in Christ crucified do vertical and horizontal connect
In perfection.
Only in Christ crucified do we have reconciliation with
God by faith alone, in Christ alone and grace alone--
Grace that is greater,
Grace that is saving,
Grace that is sanctifying,
Grace that makes the 66 books we call the Bible
Clear to us and
Dear to us;
The Word Incarnate and the Word in print,
The greatest treasure for this life and the life to come,
To be treasured above all for all time.
Life up your eyes, lift up your heart to
Biblical, directional living.

In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus says, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell--and great was its fall."

This is more than a story that has been turned into a children's song, complete with motions. This is a warning regarding our response to Jesus. The circumstances of life were the same for both men--rain, floods, winds--but the outcome very different because of the responses made. The consequences would not necessarily be obvious immediately, but some day the foundation, or lack thereof, would be obvious to all.