"From
Judah will come the cornerstone, the tent peg,
the bow for battle, and all the rulers. - Zechariah 10:04
How are you building your Christian life? Is your
foundation secure?
The
dictionary reads: "a
foundation is a prepared base on which a structure will rest".
Jesus Christ
prepared His foundation for all by paying for our sins over two
thousand years ago. If we have trust and faith in Him,
that foundation stands ready for all believers to start building
their eternities through an unshakeable conviction that He is the
only way to salvation.
He
gives each of us His master blueprint for working out our lives according
to His explicit instructions.
If I ignore
Jesus Christ and stand on my own desires and wants,
I am building my life on a faulty support that is temporary. In my self-righteous
state I may not realize I am building on perilous sand. But if I follow as He
directs me, I
will build my life
with loving vigilance. Any
foundation other than that of Christ is a shallow
marsh which will swallow me up into regrettable behavior making my work
worthless to God. My surety comes from choosing to build on the
support I
know is solid, and that is Jesus Christ. When we listen with our hearts to
what He wants
from us as His followers, we
do not worry like the wicked whose houses will one day
disintegrate because their foundation is makeshift and will not
support what we build. No
matter how beautifully constructed, no building can stand
without a secure base.
Even though I make mistakes and build wrongly, with His help I can always start over with God's grace
because one of His vital promises is forgiveness. Not one
of us is perfect but we depend on the goodness of the Heavenly
Father Who gives "second chances" to amend our lives and begin
again. As long as there is life within us, God will give
His forgiveness if we ask for it and repent of wrongdoing. But if my
faith foundation is
imperfect,
nothing
I build upon can ever be made right unless I, through strong
faith, exchange it for 'the real thing".
Jesus tells us of the
parable in Matthew 7: 25-27: "And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and
it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that
hears these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be
likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand:
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew,
and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of
it."
There is a story about
a very wise man who called one of his faithful workmen and said
to him, "Go into the far country and build a house for me. I am
giving you the plans for the foundation. This is most
important. Use them exactly as I have written. The decisions
of planning and of actual construction will be yours for I know
you do excellent work. But remember, I shall come to inspect
your work very carefully because this house is for a very
special friend of mine and is my gift to him. Do not stint on
the materials but buy the very best so build using your talent
and the guidelines that I have given to you.
And so the workman
departed with a light heart for his field of labor. Material of
all kinds was plentiful here, but the workman looked around and
took note of the prices.
"Surely,"
he thought, "I know my business. I can use a bit of inferior
materials for the foundation here and cheat on my workmanship a
little there, and still make the finished work look good. Only
I will know that what I have built has weaknesses. and I can
have a little money left over to enjoy myself. My employer will
never know because the house will look good".
And so, at last the
work was completed and the workman reported back to the wise man
that the house was finished.
"Very good.
From what you are showing me, everything looks great," he said. "Now remember that I wanted
you to use only the finest materials for the foundation and
craftsmanship in this house because I wanted it to be a present
to a faithful and an honest worker. He reached into his pocket
and pulled out a shiny new key. I knew I could trust you with
this job. "My friend," the man continued, "you are the one I
had you build it for. It is yours!"
The worker's face fell
in disgrace and regret. He endured the praise heaped upon him
because he knew he could not tell his employer what he had
done. What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was
building his own house, he would have done it all so
differently. Now he would live in a home he had built none too
well.
Think
of yourself as the carpenter. Think about what you are
building, about how you are living your life.
Stone by stone, brick
by brick, you construct your eternity.
Your life tomorrow will be the
result of the choices you make today. Each
day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall you are
choosing how you will spend your eternity. The plaque on
your wall may say, "Life is a do-it-yourself
project." but added to that should be, "A project that was
built on the rock of Jesus Christ"
St. Paul tell us in 1
Corinthians 3:11-14: "For no one can lay any foundation
other than the one we already have - Jesus Christ. Anyone
who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials -
gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the
judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder
has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any
value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a
reward."
One
day the Overseer will inspect
my work as I stand facing Him. Will I cringe in sorrow as He
surveys my lack of effort? Will He shake His head in
disappointment when He sees how I built my life? Will He
look with regret and sadness at all the inferior work I have
done in my lifetime? I know He will see
the times I turned away from what He taught in order to live my
own way. He will look deep inside my heart and see the
shoddy choice of materials I used for my own personal
satisfaction.
Apocalypse 20: 12-13 also
says "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the
presence of the throne, and the books were opened; and another
book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were
judged by those things which were written in the books,
according to their works." Our Lord Jesus
Christ will be the one who will test the foundation upon which
we built our lives and the solidness and the structure of
our buildings. Everything we have ever done, both good and evil
will be revealed to us on that day. If we have rejected Jesus
as the true foundation,
the whole house will tumble and fall. But if I have built my
life on His solid
doctrine with Christ as my foundation,
I will be called into His eternal kingdom.
I am the builder of my
own eternity. Every deed I do in my Savior's name is added
to what I am building on His precious foundation. For me, "The
Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, and
my strength in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my
salvation, and my high tower" (Psalms 18:2 ). I can
choose to build on
the rock Jesus laid down using the blueprints He gives me
or I can choose to build on the crumbling sands of sin. I, alone,
make this choice. But on the morning of my resurrection I will
have to live with what I have built... forever and forever.
"Together
we are His house, built on the foundation of the apostles and
the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus Himself."
- Ephesians 2:20