Is It Level? - Memory Monday

Is it level?

A friend of mine, Jesse, is helping me build a nice storage building in my backyard. I'm one of those people who thinks he can do anything (except play football) and Jesse is a guy who built buildings all over Iraq with the help of some of his Army buddies. So we make a pretty good team.

The biggest challenge - and the part that seems to take a whole lot more time than we wanted it to - is making sure the foundation is level.

We also had some help from some of the grandchildren. Here's Jesse and Elam checking to see if this corner block is level.

There's an important part to getting your foundation level - and you have to make yourself do it.

You can't trust your eyes.

If you take a quick look at this layout of the bottom boards you'll think we are way off of being level. Look how high up the back blocks are. There are three of them - 7" tall each - stacked on top of each other. The opposite corner has just one block but it is buried 7" deep!

But we checked and doubled checked. Our foundation is level!

So what does that have to do with Memory Monday? (Haha. I told Jesse there was a sermon illustration in this whole leveling and building deal.)

Our spiritual lives are the same. We need to have a level foundation in our lives but we have to have a way to check level. Jesse and I have talked about some of the crazy things some people believe. He and I are going through the Bible study "Experiencing God" together. In it we have seen how God speaks to people and how He wants a relationship with each of us. I think one of the most important things we've seen in this study is the importance of scripture. A lot of people say, "God told me this." But how do you know if God really told you or someone else something? You have to look at it in the light of scripture. God won't say anything to you or me or anyone else that contradicts scripture.

The Bible is your level. That's why Memory Monday is important. A person has to have scripture in his mind and in his heart so when he "hears" something and thinks it is from God he has something to check it against. 

Our eyes and our own hearts can deceive us. The world has a way of distorting our view. We see things so much we begin to think they are straight (level) when in fact thy are way off. The only thing we have to tell us God's thoughts and God's heart are His words found in scripture.

So here's this week's Memory Monday verse.

2 Timothy 3:16.All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness ;

17.so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
 
The New International Version translates "inspired" as "God-breathed."
 
So... make sure your life is level with God's word. To do that, you have to read it. You have to spend time in it. You have to know it, memorize it, meditate on it, live it, breathe it, be transformed by it...