Who is Jesus? #166

The Foundation Doesn't Move

(More Thoughts from I Corinthians 3:11)

There is a lot of home building going on in our community. It is not unusual to see homes in several different stages of completion; from the preparation of the ground to the final coat of paint.

Once the foundation is completed it then is time to raise the walls and begin to build the roof. As the walls are completed and raised, they are attached with strong anchors or bolts to the foundation. This step secures the house to the foundation and pretty much insures, except maybe in extreme cases, that the house will not leave its foundation.

It’s one thing to establish the foundation. It is another thing to merely set the walls and structure on the foundation. It is still quite another thing to secure the structure to the foundation.

There’s got to be a lesson here. It is one thing to read about Jesus. It is another thing to acknowledge Jesus as the greatest of teachers. It is still quite another thing to anchor one’s life on what He said and to let Him be the example and guide for our lives.

Colossians 1:22-23

22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you   holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation — 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

The strong winds of hurricanes and tornadoes have torn houses off of their foundations even if anchored.

However the storms of life do not have to tear us from our foundation, Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:38-39

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Have we lost our anchor? I know the foundation didn’t move. Wonder if we have?

Who is Jesus? # 165

The Only Foundation

I Corinthians 3:11

What does a foundation do? Is it merely a solid surface on top of which you build a structure, perhaps a house? Jesus uses this metaphor concerning those who hear and obey his teachings (like building a house on a solid foundation) and those who hear and do not obey (like building a house without a foundation).

In Paul’s teaching in I Corinthians it is Jesus who is the foundation. Paul goes on to make a strong statement. This is the only foundation and another one cannot be laid in its place.

Now that doesn’t mean that we don’t try from time to time to build our lives on some other foundation; money, pride, family, etc. Even Christians have to grapple with this idea of building another foundation that tries to push Jesus out of the way. Satan is at work there.

But we can always come back to the original. We can get refocused. In our part of the country we have to tend to the foundation of our homes or it may develop some serious problems. Mostly that involves moistening the ground around it and keeping an eye on it.

I think those two strategies work in a spiritual sense, too. Keeping your eyes on Jesus helps us to stay on that foundation and continue to build our lives. We stay focused on Him not because we are looking for cracks in Him, but to keep the cracks in our lives at a minimum and once discovered, fix them. Staying focused on Jesus keeps us from being distracted by anyone or anything that might try to be the replacement foundation.

As we water around our foundation to allow the foundation to settle and not crack, we need to keep massaging our relationship with Jesus to get the most out of we can. Our foundation always has more to give.

           “The eye has not seen and the ear has not heard

            And the heart of man has not received

            All that God has prepared for those who love him.
           (I Cor. 2:9, NIV)”

In reality, we are not maintaining our foundation, but maintaining and growing our relationship to the foundation. We discover that more and more we depend on the foundation and we learn that it has been there all along. “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ, (NIV).”