Matthew 7:24
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

In the late 1990’s I had the privilege, or burden, of being in charge of overseeing the construction of two public buildings. It was a great learning experience. Somehow, before this experience, I thought if you were going to build a house or building you just hired a backhoe and went to digging and, once you dug a trench of maybe two foot deep, then you filled it with concrete and started your building. Well, that’s not the way it is, especially if you have engineers and architects involved. One of the buildings was located in a place that had been filled in previously with fill dirt that was unacceptable for a foundation because it was too soft. That dirt had to be totally removed, 12 foot deep for a specified perimeter of the outside of the building sight. Then, approved dirt had to be hauled in to fill the void. As the dirt was being filled in, a heavy compactor had to roll back and forth over the new dirt. When the hole was completely filled a test had to be done to make sure it met a certain compaction standard. All this was done to insure that the building was on solid ground.

Genesis 2:17
but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

The Genesis story of the Garden of Eden tells about the original sin of man. This is the time that God the Creator became separated from His Creation. Before the sin, Adam and God had conversations, went for walks, and worked on Creation’s business. God had Adam to name every animal and species on the planet. Adam and Eve had clear instruction of their boundaries. They basically had free reign of the garden except for one tree, the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This tree was different than any other tree mentioned in the Genesis account. This was the only tree to bare two fruits “good and evil”. The lie of the serpent was that if they would partake of the fruit they would become as God, having full knowledge. Up until this point, Adam and Eve only knew the truth; no deceptions, no lies, just facts based on truth. Then deception was presented by the serpent, Eve took the bait, ate the fruit and Adam followed. Then, in that one act of disobedience, sin separated man from a sinless Holy God. Adam and Eve, realizing their spiritual completeness had disappeared, were now physically naked. Being ashamed, they hid from God.

Proverbs 8: 1- 11
Does not wisdom call out?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
On the heights along the way,
where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrances, she cries aloud:
“To you, O men, I call out;
I raise my voice to all mankind.
You who are simple, gain prudence;
you who are foolish, gain understanding.
Listen, for I have worthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right.
My mouth speaks what is true,
for my lips detest wickedness.
All the words of my mouth are just;
none of them is crooked or perverse.
To the discerning all of them are right; they are faultless to those who have knowledge.
Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.

As we grow up we are given information by our parents, teachers, peers and all the other influences that effect our lives. It takes us a while to filter through all the information. I think its called maturity. At some point we figure out, that if we step on a crack, it will not break our mother’s back. Also, we usually discover that Santa does not keep up with our sleeping habits. The older we get the more we filter and understand what is true and what is not. When we go through school we are given information from our teachers and professors. We read text books and we do reports on all types of topics. Every idea is presented as fact, and we are considered backward or ignorant if we challenge any information.

There are thousands of books full of theories and hypothesis that are built on half-truths and lies. Some man-made ideas hide the truth of a Creator and deny the existence of design in our world. Art points to an artist and music points to a composer. If there is a design, a creative Being had to design it. I love to watch nature shows, but I always hate the propaganda that comes with it. The narrator usually tells how a species randomly evolved over billions of years to make it to this point, then in the next sentence, they will tell about the efficiency of the design. Men are still hiding from their Creator through deceptive means and blind theories.

Diamonds and oil are just two examples of some of the deceptions in our world. We are told that diamonds are very rare, but in reality, they are not that rare. They are just controlled. A handful of people only allow a limited number of diamonds on the market each year so this keeps the prices inflated. We are also sold as fact, that oil is running out; yet research shows the earth produces it naturally, deep in the earth and under the oceans. The God that creates life has also provided the resources and energy to sustain that life. Man, for the purpose of greed, profit and power, manipulates those resources through deception.

If we look at the sources we listen to and read such as TV, magazines and the internet, we are absorbing a vast amount of information every day. Do we ever stop and think about the motivation of the sources of these articles or who or what can we trust? We usually gravitate to the sources that present articles or news that we agree with, but does that make it truth? Since Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, our spiritual completeness is overridden by our physical desires, and our filters of good and evil are distorted. All of our beliefs are based on something. Does that something pass the compaction test or do we need to dig it out and replace it with Truth?

Philippians 2:12
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

The Bible and Godly wisdom should be the only ingredients that make up the foundation of our belief system. But, even some of the things we have been told about the Bible can be distorted. We all come to the Bible with some type of mindset. There are around 2000 different religions or denominations in the world, each with a particular intention or prejudice about the Bible. Out of those 2000 different faiths, someone has to be getting it wrong. We can not solely base our beliefs on a religion, denomination or preacher. We can not simply believe just what “mama and them” believe. We have to base our belief and understanding on the actual Word of God, without prejudice. We can’t treat the Bible like an “all you can eat buffet” to just pick and choose the truths we like.

In a perfect world it would be great if we never had to apply any filters or, if we could trust each source to deliver the truth. We have to do the hard analysis, look at our life and consider the information (fill dirt) we have accepted in the past, as we built our life’s foundation (it may be too soft). We may have to dig it out through repentance and refill the void with material that will compact and hold up through life’s struggles. Jesus told the parable of building on the rock, not just so children could sing about it in Sunday school, but so we would build our lives on it.

The Rock = Truth
Truth = God’s Word (Bible)
God’s Word was made flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ the Messiah.