The Lord woke me up one morning recently and asked me to
tell Him about concrete. I said to Him that He surely knew what the ingredients
of concrete were, but He said He wanted ME to say them. At first, I didn’t
really understand why. But as I mentioned the ingredients, I suddenly realized
the point of His question.
Concrete is a lot like rock. It’s used for all sorts of
important things like building foundations, roads, bridges—you name it.
Virtually all buildings that are built today have concrete foundations. Why? A
contractor would tell you that there are many good reasons to use concrete. It
doesn’t cost as much to use concrete as it would to use rock. It’s certainly
easier to work with because you can easily shape it to the size or shape you
need by using a form or mold. And because it’s easier to work with, it also
saves a lot of time to use concrete instead of rock—especially if you add
additional ingredients to help expedite the drying time. So it’s cheap, fast,
and easy to work with.
Now consider the ingredients of concrete. Basic concrete is
made from pieces of rock, cement, water, and sand. All pretty much good
ingredients brought together to for a pretty good, pretty strong structural
building material. Take away any one of them and you no longer have concrete—all
the ingredients are necessary. Of course, when working with concrete, you always
use a form, usually made of wood, to shape it and hold it in place until it
hardens. Then, once the concrete has hardened, the form is removed to reveal a
foundation or structure that reflects the form that shaped it.
Life in the Concrete Jungle
The Kingdom of man is like concrete.
You take some rock…
“…and all drank the same
spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed
them; and the rock was Christ.” 1 Corinthians 10:4
Add
some cement…
“…from whom the whole
body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies,
according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of
the body for the building up of itself in love.” Ephesians 4:16
Mix
in some water…
“…but whoever drinks of
the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water
that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to
eternal life.” John 4:14
And
throws in some sand…
“Everyone who hears these
words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his
house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew
and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” Matthew
7:26-27
Then
pour it into a form…
“For men will be lovers of
self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents,
ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without
self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers
of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness,
although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.” 2 Timothy
3:2-5
What you end up with is a perfect casting of a foundation designed by men. You could refer to this structure as religion. Even though it looks like rock, and is hard like rock, and has a lot of really good ingredients, it still isn’t rock…it isn’t the Rock. Concrete will always represent mixture. It might be presented as “just as good as” the Rock, but will never BE Rock. It WILL crumble. Some even try selling a reinforced version, but it’s still not Rock.
Much of what is called “Church” is really just concrete. It looks great, sounds great, but it's nothing more than a beautiful rock casting of concrete. Concrete really represents the ultimate form of pride, with satan making the first batch...
“For you have said in your heart: ’I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’” Isaiah 14:13-14
There will only ever be one Rock and that is Jesus
Christ. If you’ve realized that you’ve been building for the Kingdom with
concrete, then I would encourage you to fall on the Rock and be broken so
that the it doesn’t fall on you and grind you to powder.
“And whoever falls on this
stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” Matthew
21:44
I hear the sound of a jackhammer....