"Therefore
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; yet it did not fall, because it had its
foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put
them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came
down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house,
and it fell with a great crash."
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,
because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law."
Matthew 7:24-29 (NIV)
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; yet it did not fall, because it had its
foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put
them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came
down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house,
and it fell with a great crash."
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,
because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law."
Matthew 7:24-29 (NIV)
C.S.
Lewis helps us to understand the interactions of faith, doubt, and reason in his
comments which follow.
“Just
as the Christian has his moments when the clamor of this visible and audible
world is so persistent and the whisper of the spiritual world so faint that
faith and reason can hardly stick to their guns, so, as I well remember, the
atheist too has his moments of shuddering misgiving, of an all but irresistible
suspicion that old tales may after all be true, that something or someone from
outside may at any moment break into his neat, explicable, mechanical universe.
Believe in God and you will have to face hours when it seems obvious that
this material world is the only reality; disbelieve in Him and you must face
hours when this material world seems to shout at you that it is not all.
No
conviction, religious or irreligious, will, of itself, end once and for all this
fifth-columnist in the soul. Only the practice of Faith resulting in the habit
of Faith will gradually do that . . . .
When
we exhort people to Faith as a virtue, to the settled intention of continuing to
believe certain things, we are not exhorting them to fight against reason. The
intention of continuing to believe is required because, though Reason is divine,
human reasoners are not. When once passion takes part in the game, the human
reason, unassisted by Grace, has about as much chance of retaining its hold on
truths already gained as a snowflake has of retaining its consistency in the
mouth of a blast furnace. The sort of arguments against Christianity which our
reason can be persuaded to accept at the moment of yielding to temptation are
often preposterous. Reason may win truths; without Faith she will retain them
just so long as Satan pleases. There is nothing we cannot be made to believe or
disbelieve.
If
we wish to be rational, not now and then, but constantly, we must pray for the
gift of Faith, for the power to go on believing not in the teeth of reason but
in the teeth of lust and terror and jealousy and boredom and indifference that
which reason, authority, or experience, or all three, have once delivered to us
for truth.1
“Lord,
thank you for teaching me how to live the Life of God.
I’m terrible at it now but I want, really want to be better at living
out all you’ve taught me. You
once summarized your sermon with the words, “Love God and love others”.
As I seek to do so, remind me over and over again how every word of your
Sermon on the Mount elaborates on those two powerful directives for living.
You’re amazing. Amen”
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