“The Word of God is a ROCK on which all the ships of man’s philosophy crash and sink. Gary
Consider the lilies of the field… Matt 6:28
Consider the lilies of the field… Matt 6:28
“The Word of God is a ROCK on which all the ships of man’s philosophy crash and sink. Gary
thedailylily.com 
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? KJV
And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
To me the quote above is a strong warning against using our own wisdom to navigate our course. Either we walk in the Spirit by the wisdom of God the Father serving and building upon Jesus Christ the Rock or we are are sunk. There’s a verse from the hymn ‘The Solid Rock’ that says, “‘On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.’
1 Cor. 1:18-21 “18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. 19 As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.” 20 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. 21 Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.”
Colossians 2:8 ” Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.”
God’s Words is the Rock that will stand the test of time. Man’s words can not compare . They will crash, sink and disappear from existence. They will not be forgotten.
My first thought after reading your thought, Gary, is “Rock of Ages.” http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh361.sht
Then I began to sing my thoughts into a joy of hiding myself in The Rock!
“There is none Holy like The Lord, there is none besides Thee; there is no Rock like our God.” (1 Samuel 2:2 RSV)
“my God, my Rock, in Whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my Savior; Thou savest me from violence.” (2 Samuel 22:3 RSV)
“To Thee, O Lord, I call; my Rock” (Psalm 28:1 RSV)
“Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.” (Psalm 89:26 RSV)
“O come, let us sing to The Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation! ” (Psalm 95:1 RSV)
My next thought, it would take a foolish me to take my philosophies up against this Rock! OK, Gary, I agree with you!
OK, CF, you along with MG and Debi, have already spelled out just how foolish I just might be with my ‘high-sounding nonsense.’ What Bible are you reading and preaching to me! It sure spells simple words out to confound the wise!
I love metaphors, therefore, I am having a hard time staying away from this post. Thanks Gary, you have made my morning devotions delightful!
Sara I was reading the NLT.
Interesting that God’s Word is the subject of this blog. I have heard and know that it is our instruction book, for life. And yet, somehow we fret about life’s trials, etc.; instead of looking and studying, for our answers, in the “answer book”?.?. I believe Amos has something to say to us here. Read with me the following verses and footnotes. (Amos 8: 11-13) ” ‘The time is surely coming,’ says the Sovereign Lord, ‘when I will send a famine on the land–not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from border to border searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. Beautiful girls and strong young men will grow faint in that day, thirsting for the Lord’s word.” Footnotes: “The people had no appetite for God’s word when prophets like Amos brought it. Because of their apathy, God said he would take away even the opportunity to hear his word. We have God’s Word, the Bible. But many still look everywhere for answers to life’s problems except in Scripture. You can help them by directing them to the Bible, showing them the parts that speak to their special needs and questions. God’s Word is available to us. Let us help people know it before a time comes when they cannot find it.”
Lord, help us not to become apathetic, when it comes to thirsting, knowing, learning, and applying Your precious Word. Thank you, for leaving Your instruction book, for life. Forgive me, when I may place it on the shelf, and forget that, there in lies all of my answers. In Jesus name, Amen.
How true those footnotes are Needles. Makes us realize the responsibility we have to be good profitable stewards of what God has so freely given us, for if not, “To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.” Matt 25:29
In New International Version it read
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
I John 2: 15 – 17 THE MESSAGE IT READS:
15-17Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.
2 Samuel 22:3 Reads My God, my Rock, in him will I put my faith; my breast plate and the horn of my salvation, my savior, who keeps me safe.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1:14 (NKJV) We know that is JESUS!
Therefor Gary’s quote says to me that God’s Word the rock is never wanting, never failing, full of depth and wisdom and man’s ways and words will never stand up to God’s no matter how much that person or his/her thoughts make them think they are a god. It NEVER will happen. Man’s ways are shallow, bag of wind without energy to even lift off the ground like the lightness and gracefulness of a butterfly. Words without substance.. It is a lost choice that ends in death. Choose the rock and become saturated with God by reading and studying THE WORD, BELIEVING THE WORD, WALKING THE WORD. Or remain a person of no substance and as Wendy puts it crash, sink, and disappear from existence.
Might be good when discouragement, unbelief and fear come up against The Rock! Slam, bang, down it goes. Is that right?
Maybe my above thoughts, ‘unbelief, fear and discouragement’ might not be considered a man’s philosophy by the intellect. But, I think it a good idea if it can go on and crash, slam and bang. Whatever it takes to knock it down!
I would think, Sara, that unbelief, fear and discouragement are a philosophy in the sense of this definition: A system of values by which one lives. If they are the rudder that steers our ship than they are the values we live by because our resultant actions will show it.
The value system of the Rock would be: believe (Mark 9:23,24), fear not (II Tim 1:7), be not discouraged or troubled (Joshua 1:9).
Good, then maybe a crash would help?
Amen!
Definitely…crash, smash, sink, obliterate.
1 Peter 1:23-25 “23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the ETERNAL, LIVING WORD OF GOD. 24 As the Scriptures say, ” People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flowers fades. 25 But the word of the Lord remains forever.” And the word is the Good News that was preached to you.”
We are pretty arrogant to think that our philosophies would contain more wisdom than God’s Word. We are living in denial to think that our thinking could even come close to comparing to God’s thinking. We certainly can’t go over or through the ROCK of God’s Word. As Debi stated above we will definitely crash, smash, sink, obliterate……. We need to understand, the ROCK was here long before we were…. John 1:1-5… and it will remain here long after we are gone….1 Peter 1:25….. Rev. 1:8, Rev. 21:6, Rev. 22:13…..the FIRST and the LAST………
You are right about our philosophy compared to Gods’ wisdom chickenfarmer. God’s wisdom produces definite, tangible, measurable results in people who correctly apply it. I can see that when people understand it, use it and apply it, it effectively solves problems, enhances communication, leads people to Christ, focuses on others instead of self, etc. So it seems to me that if we are not seeing these results in our own lives than we must be using our own philosophies and we need our thinking changed.
You got it Debi. We need our thinking changed OR we will crash and sink.