Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Nov/79

Contributor - Sandy Hekhuis

Title - The Solid Rock

Topic -

I would like to begin our devotional time this morning with a prayer by Eugene Clark who has learned that nothing is impossible. Blind and bedridden with crippling arthritis since 1963, he has not allowed his handicaps to diminish his service for God. He still composes and arranges music by dictating each song, note by note, into a dictating machine. Clark has written three cantatas and nearly 200 songs, most of them during his illness. His works are regularly heard on the Back to the Bible Broadcast, where he serves as, music director. His well-known song Nothing is Impossible, has related his wonderful testimony to millions by its use in the Billy Graham crusades.

WE THANK THEE FOR THY WORD

We thank Thee for Thy Word, 0 God

Upon this rock we stand;

It's truth and wisdom shall not fail, All else is sinking sand.

We seek Thee in Thy Holy Word 0 help us Lord to see Thy greatness, power, love and might Thy grace and majesty.

Lord, speak from Thy eternal Word Reveal Thyself, we pray;

And from its pages give us light To guide us on our way.

0 gentle Holy Spirit, come Reveal Thy truth we pray;

That from its precepts we may learn

To walk with Thee each day. Amen

God's Word is truly the rock upon which we stand and as David says over and over again in his -psalms, "You are my Father, my God, and my rock of salvation."

There are over 100 references to rocks in the Bible, to say nothing of references made to mountains and stones. I have chosen 4 of these selections to read to you at this time.

1. Hannah's prayer as found in I Samuel 2:1-2

2. David's song as found in II Samuel Ch. 22, selected verses 1-3, 32-34, 47.

3. Matt. 7:24-27.

4. 1 Peter 2:4-10

Little boys love rocks, big girls enjoy rocks too. Don't we? Especially those we wear on our fingers, around our necks, or on our clothes. Nothing fascinates our two little boys quite as much as rocks unless it's mud. Our street was torn up most of the summer. Scarcely a day went by that a rock was not brought in for me to admire, and some they thought were so lovely that they have kept them. Another one of their favourite activities is throwing rocks into the water. They are happy doing this for really long periods of time. As I watch them enjoying rocks with the enthusiasm that only children can exhibit, I cannot help but pray that they and children like them will as they grow show the same enthusiasm for He who is the Rock of My Faith and I hope the Rock of yours as well.

Perhaps you've never thought about how important stones and rocks are to our everyday life. A stone called coal provides us with heat, lava is used to clean our kitchen sinks, asbestos is important on our roads and food tastes better because of a rock called salt. We are also able to write because of a rock called graphite, and ground rocks called talc and borax help keep us fresh and clean. We use cooked rocks in pennies, pans and cans.

We can revel in the beauty of our big rocks called mountains and in Arizona we can visit a beautiful park where trees have turned to rocks.

Rocks are important to our way of life, but remember what Peter says of Christ "He is the carefully chosen precious cornerstone." Yes he is very precious to you who believe and to those who stumble over the Rock and fail to obey His word punishment will follow. Perhaps today would be a good day for us to re-evaluate our priorities to see whether Christ is really the cornerstone of our lives and is truly very very precious to us.

Rocks come in all sorts of assorted sizes, shapes and even colors and they serve many different purposes. We to each have our individual appearances and have our varied ways of being used by God for service in His kingdom.

Rocks can become useful as they are placed into the hands of someone who knows how to put them to a beneficial use. The Master Craftsman too can make us useful as we allow Him to chip away at those rough edges and smooth out those places that might harm or hurt. Rocks can do great bodily harm as we know from Bible passages such as the stoning of Steven, and unless we allow Him who is the Rock to completely transform us, we too can hurt the furthering of the Gospel here on earth. We must realize that even though we are all rather rough stones spiritually, Christ accepts us unconditionally and it is He alone who can smooth out some of our rough edges to that we neither hurt nor harm with our witness.

Sand is the tiniest form of a rock and was once part of a big rock. Heat and cold caused cracks in the big rocks and wind and water chipped away at them. As Scripture tells us we would not want to build our houses on sand, nor would we want to plant our gardens on sand, yet think what pleasure those lovely small granules gives to us on a warm sunny day at the beach. Sometimes in order to be pleasing to God and to others we have to have some cracks made in our self-sufficient, all knowing attitude and get tossed around a bit by the storms of life. Then we are often better able to glorify God and give pleasure and joy to others. When swimming I much prefer a sandy bottom to a rocky one. I'm grateful that some of those big rocks have become sand, I'm also grateful for countless Christians who like John the Baptist have decreased the importance of self so that he might increase in their lives. According to the world's standards such persons may be but small grains of sand, but in the eyes of God they are huge boulders, for they have strongly and faithfully served him and have been a positive influence for Christ on those with whom they have contact. We are told that we must become as little children to enter his kingdom. The Lord must at times literally cut us down to size in order for us to become useful to him.

As lovely as sand is to children in a sandbox and to everyone at the beach, there is a dangerous kind of sand called quicksand. Jeremy loves to pretend that sand is often quicksand. He thinks there is quicksand out in the Camp Shalom pond. It's exciting and adventuresome to a child, but if we do not ground ourselves in God's word, seek his presence and try to live a life of obedience and love we too can find ourselves caught in the quicksand of Satan and the world, and its very easy to sink quickly. We must lay a solid, firm foundation against spiritual quicksand.

Many times throughout the Bible rocks are thought of as places of protection strength and refuge, but regardless of how secure a place may have appeared to be, none could have been a strong and unchanging as He who is our rock. The Lord is a refuge as none other can be. Caves and mountains may be changed with the passage of time and due to weather and environmental changes, but God changes not. His guidance strength and protection have been available to past generations, just as they are to us and will be to all succeeding ones until His return. How thankful we should all be not just at Thanksgiving, but always for this marvelous, protecting care.

Rocks were sometimes instruments of the miraculous in the Bible such as when Moses struck the rock and brought forth water and when David slew Goliath with a stone and a slingshot. The Rock of our lives wants very much to perform the miraculous in each of us. He Performs the greatest of all miracles when He saves persons and brings them to a knowledge of Himself, but other miracles lie ahead for each of us as we completely trust Him to perform them.

Another definition of rock is as the dictionary says to move to and fro in a soothing calming manner. A rocking chair is a favourite piece of furniture for our 21/2 year old. Rocking does have a soothing calming effect on children, and on busy mothers too. It's a quiet time alone with the Lord and the baby. Many times during our busy days it is God alone who seems to put his arm around us to kind of rock and soothe us. He provides that calming effect which we need emotionally and spiritually, just as a comfortable rocking chair can refresh and rest us physically. One of Darren's favourite expressions is, 'more wock, mom". The time comes however when he has to be put down. So too as the Lord revives our spirits he sometimes says to us , "I've calmed and soothed you, now it's time to get going and do something for others through me."

Six years ago today I faced the biggest crisis of my life. A little infant who was born 6 weeks early and with a severe respiratory problem came into our family ... for 72 hours. We did not know whether or not he would live and for the first 48 hours medically he was given less than 50% chance for survival.

We had marvelous doctors whom I will never, never forget and an even more marvelous God whom I try not to forget but sometimes do. During the night of his birth while lying awake, visibly before my eyes the words to a familiar hymn kept flashing brightly before me. It was a most unusual experience. I'm sure it was the Lord's very unique way of saying to me, "Trust Me". Those words helped me get through the night and even if tonight we would not be celebrating a birthday as we intend to do, I know He would have seen me through for He is the solid rock-the sure foundation.

Three weeks ago, a dear cousin of mine who has been like a sister to me lost her 39 year old husband in a truck accident. She is left with a 10 and a 7 year old. Right now for Joanie the climb looks difficult and full of boulders, but I know the depth of her character and I feel assured that the Lord will make of her life something more beautiful than ever before.

Many times we are all asked to climb the mountains of sorrow, loneliness, disappointment and discouragement, but we do not climb alone. He has climbed it all before. He faced death alone, he was disappointed by others so very often, but the Lord was never completely cast down and He has promised to those whose faith is in Him they shall not be either.

The climb may be difficult, the way rugged, we may stumble at times over the rocks, but the view from the top will be glorious. The rocks along the way will be nothing compared to the glory of seeing Him. May we never give up the rough way for the seemingly easier paved smooth road of the world. Annie Johnson Flint has written in her poem Foundation Stones:

I would not lose the hard things from my life

The rocks O'er which I stumbled long ago,

The grief and fears, the failures and mistakes

That tried and tested faith and patience so.

I need them now; they make the deep laid wall,

The firm foundation-stones on which I raise-

To mount therein from stair to higher stair-

The lofty towers of my House of Praise.

Soft was the roadside turf to weary feet,

And cool the meadows where I fain had trod,

And sweet beneath 'he trees to lie at rest

And breathe the incense of the flower starred sod.

But not on these might I securely build

Nor sand no sod withstand the earthquake shock

I need the rough, hard boulders of the hills

To set my house on everlasting rock.

Most of the beautiful gems we enjoy are inside hard rock. If the stone cutter never got inside we'd never see the inner beauty. Since my little boy heard this mentioned in a book, he wants me to cut open every rock to check for gems. He's trying hard to make us instantly rich. I explained to him that if every rock contained a gem, they would no longer be valuable, how different with God. We are all precious in his sight God desires that none should perish. May He who is the

Cornerstone of our faith make of each of our lives a very precious jewel for his kingdom and may we be truly living stones very much alive to the leading of God's Spirit within each of us. As living stones we are called to show to others God's wonderful love. May each of us do this and as we do we have the promise of Romans 9:33 1 have put a rock in the path of the Jews and many will stumble over Him (meaning Jesus). But those who believe in Him will never be disappointed and as our Scripture from Peter says, He will never fail you. How marvelous.

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