Jeters Chapel    

I read a story which illustrates this passage of scripture very well.  I've adapted it for this month's devotional. In the early history of our great nation, pioneers and settlers headed west pursuing dreams, riches and a new life for themselves.  When they arrived at the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, there was a stream thought to be too wide and too deep to cross. 

Someone noticed a rock sticking up out of the water and realized the stream was passable if they used the rock to navigate by. As the years passed, one of the pioneers settled along that stream and built a cabin, but the wind kept flapping open the door of his cabin. I have a shed door that flaps in the wind sometimes, it’s irritating. 

       To solve his problem, the man remembered that rock sticking up out of the water, took it home and used it as a doorstop.  More time passed, and a nephew of that man came home from college where he was studying Geology, and wouldn’t you know – he noticed that ugly rock on his uncle’s porch and realized it was more valuable than a doorstop, it was a nugget of gold. 

       That old rock had been there for a long time and everybody saw it in a different light. Some saw it as a way to get to the riches waiting for them in the west. Some saw it as a way to keep the door closed but, the nephew saw for what it really was – gold. 

       Brothers and sisters, the same is true of our faith. To some, faith is a means of getting what they want in life such as wealth and fame. To others, it’s something to set out like a verse on the doorpost or a bible on the coffee table. But to the ones who see it for what it is really is – faith is their most valued possession.  My friends, God is not finished with you yet, He’s building you into a mansion in which He can live.  As we build our lives, let’s remember to build our lives upon the foundation of Jesus Christ and when the storms of life come, we'll stand firm on the rock of our foundation.