Devotional: The Old Mansion of My Childhood

Note: I am pulling the next seven devotionals out of the barrel (as my dad used to say). Recently the old mansion was put on the market again and I began reminiscing about it.  So I decided to share these devotionals again for those who perhaps did not see them years ago when I first wrote them. 

The Old Mansion of My Childhood

Matthew 7:24-26 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.


As a child my dad bought a big old abandoned mansion that sat on a cliff over-looking the bay in Bellingham, WA. He got it real cheap. I remember we all thought he had taken leave of his mind when we saw it. It had an ugly gray/brown paint that was peeling and weathered. The roof was covered with moss. The insides looked as if the previous occupants had left in a huge hurry. Stuff was strewn all over the floor in some rooms and everything was covered with a layer of dust. It looked like a haunted house. My dad removed 15 utility trailer loads of stuff and took it to the dump before he could even begin to make the place livable.


When we moved in I remember the kitchen sagged something awful. You could set a ball at one end of the room and it would roll down the floor to the other end of the room without even having to push it. The house sat on a sandstone foundation that was crumbling beneath it. I remember my dad spent hours jacking the house up so he could remove the sandstone and replace it with cement block.


One of the results of the sandstone foundation was that as the foundation crumbled, the house would shift and the plaster walls would crack and crumble. Of course it didn't help any that the trains below the cliff would switch cars and the banging around that resulted from that would also help to crumble the foundation and walls.


I remember one night we were eating dinner when suddenly over head we heard a tremendous crash. Upon investigation we discovered all the plaster had fallen off the walls and ceiling of the closet upstairs! Oh the joys of living in a mansion with a crumbling foundation.


This illustration brings home what Jesus was saying in the verses above. When we read and hear what Jesus says in the Bible, but we fail to put it into practice, we are like the house built on sand. When the assaults of the world come against us we will crumble and fall. To withstand the assaults of the world, the flesh and the Devil, we MUST have a solid Biblical foundation.


How is your foundation? Is it a solid one built on the Word of God or is it a sandstone one built on the changing doctrines and teachings of this world?