Last Sunday, the worship pastor at my church (Josh Thompson, who is redonkulous guy) spoke for the church while Pastor Gary was away in Phoenix. At one point in his sermon, he brought up something that he has been thinking about (and which he's been having a lot of casual conversations with people about). Here it is:

Hebrews 12:25-27 (NKJV)
²⁵ See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, ²⁶ whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” ²⁷ Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

As I was sitting there, I began to think of some of the things we build. When I was a little kid, I built sand castles, castles, mansions and other house complexes of Lincoln Logs, imperial kingdoms with Legos and houses of cards.

There were times though, when I would build something that took a long time to make. Whether it was a house of cards or a sand castle while hanging on the beach and then in what took a really long time to build, it could be destroyed in an instant.

I can remember building sand castles and having the tide come in and wash it all away. Nature happens. What was even more crushing was to get this ridiculous house of cards going and then someone coming by and hitting the table, blowing on the cards, or the draft of them passing by causing the house of cards to fumble to the ground.

It seems we are in a time where there is a lot of shaking. Whether its our economy, our government, our world or anything else you can think of, there seems to be a lot of shaking. Do you ever get the idea though that what is being shaking is something that really should be standing? I can remember in the last couple of days asking God the question why certain things were being shaken. I can remember questioning why He would choose to shake "that." And the continual response is so that which cannot be shaken will remain.

A lot of times, we rest ourselves in things that are not worth resting in. A lot of times we rely upon things that really shouldn't be relied upon. We put trust in things that prove themselves to be untrustworthy. God is shaking some things.

It's easy to look at the things that are being shaken and like a kid who has constructed a really nice sand castle, banging house of Lincoln Logs or a really elaborate house of cards to ask "why did you do that?" "Didn't you see how long that took me to build?" And it's then that He reminds us that what is being shaken is being shaken so that which cannot be shaken will remain. All that is false will be stripped away and only the things that are true will be left. Enjoy the shaking (as much as possible) because afterward, that which is built is far stronger than what we built on our own.
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Now playing: The Bridge (Band) - Like Nothing Else