We have an announcement to make, but first, a little quiz on a song you probably know from Sunday school (shortened for brevity):
The wise man built his house upon the _____;
and the rains came down and the floods came _____;
and the house on the rock stood ____.
The foolish man built his house upon the ____;
and the rains came down and the floods came _____;
and the house on the sand went ____.
And naturally, that last phrase begged for great crowd participation.
Here’s the thing about this little song: it never gives you the spiritual application of what made the wise man wise, and what made the foolish man foolish. Unless your Sunday school teacher clued you in, you went away from that song thinking that it’s wise to build on rock, foolish to build on sand—a common sense maxim to remember if you go into a construction career.
The song is, of course, the musical version of Jesus’ conclusion to His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7.
Matthew 7:24-27
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
The wise man was wise because he heard Jesus’ words and did them. The foolish man was foolish because he heard Jesus’ words and did not do them. Curiously, the wise man and the foolish man had one thing in common: they both heard Jesus’ words. The difference is that the wise man let Jesus’ words sink into his heart in a way that changed his behavior. He did Jesus’ words and his foundation withstood the storms. The foolish man heard Jesus’ words, but he did not let them sink into his heart, and his house was destroyed by the storms.
This Scripture has been a backbone verse in the work of InWord. In fact, the point of Jesus’ analogy has been a driving force behind InWord’s calling—creating experiences that invite believers to internalize, metabolize, and do God’s Word, which in turn, builds a rock-solid faith that can endure doubt, disappointment, hurt, pain, loss—the rain, the floods, the howling winds that Jesus described.
This blog post is historic in that it represents a turning point in InWord’s journey. Of InWord’s nearly 30 years of existence, the past 10 years have seen a gradual shift from solely Bible study material for youth ministry, to now include content intended for adults in their personal study—applying InWord’s trademark small-group approach to a “quiet time” setting.. We are committed to creating content that generates the wisdom Jesus described: providing opportunity for believers to sit for a moment with God’s Word, to observe, to ponder, to react, to do. When we take Jesus at His word to hear and do the words of Jesus, we create a foundation that will sustain us when life’s storms come. And…they will come.
And here, finally, is the announcement: We are launching a completely revised website, creating a digital hub to help believers build a solid faith foundation through hearing and doing God’s Word.
A quick glance at what you can expect from InWord:
- Applying inductive study tools to not only Bible engagement and literacy, but also to broader faith formation.
- Creating content that provides the depth God invites us to while accommodating the pace that life gives us.
- Producing material of various formats that utilize many access points into Scripture.
- Curating InWord’s youth ministry materials—there still is nothing quite like InWord’s small-group Bible studies.
At the start of this journey nearly 30 years ago, my late wife Dana and I kept a list that we posted on the fridge in our duplex apartment of possible names for this new ministry that God was calling us to. We brainstormed on names that incorporated the ideas of getting deep into the Word, creating self-feeders of the Word, and having the Word get deep into us. A few years ago, since Dana’s passing, I ran across that list. It was heartwarming to see this refrigerator-door piece of paper from such a formative period of life, but it also helped settle a personal debate between Dana and me: Who had the final, winning idea of the name “InWord”? We had both claimed the win over the years, and alas, the final entry on the list, “InWord,” was in Dana’s handwriting.
The name “InWord” reflects the goal of this ministry: to encourage engagement in Scripture that goes beyond knowledge, setting the table for “Oh, wow!” moments in Scripture that lead to internal and external changes, allowing God to conform us to the image of His son (Romans 8:29) one epiphany at a time.
We invite you to journey with us!
Gratefully and humbly,
Barry Shafer
Founder/Director, InWord Resources