What Foundation?

One of the pains of living in Texas was a lack of rain coupled with extreme heat, which made for very rocky soil. This combination make it extremely common for foundations to need repair. Homes would crack, settle, and even split. It was also a not-so-rare item to appear as "deficient" in an inspection report. When we bought two older homes in Texas, it wasn't a question of "if" the foundation would need repair, but "how bad" it would be.

One of these 100+ year old homes would be the home we lived in. It was in horrible condition, needing 17 new windows, many new floor joist, new electrical, new plumbing, a new kitchen, new bathroom, new doors, new siding, and new roof among other things. The floors, walls and ceilings, were the only things we simply had to refinish instead of completely replace. For about two and half years that is exactly what we did; but at the time of purchase, the immediate concern with the home was simply getting the home livable.

We gutted the home, getting to work on making it functional. Bathroom no longer terrifying. Bedrooms & living rooms, well livable. Kitchen cookable, maybe not sanitary, but holes in the walls can allow for new flavors. Windows closable, and new, with all the panes intact. Then we called the foundation expert.

Honestly, I should have called him first, but foundations were an area I hadn't tackled before. Sure, I could replace a joist, had to replace five rotted ones in the bathroom, but I had no clue how to pour a new foundation pier or replace a beam. After crawling under the house for a while, the foundation expert shared his not so good news as expected. He told us, "I can't fix your foundation." What do you mean? I thought. We've bought this house and already put a good amount of money into it, hopefully he can do something. He told me "I can stabilize it, I can replace the beams that are bad and pour new piers as needed, and stabilize it, but I cannot completely fix your foundation. If I were to completely fix it and get the foundation level, your new kitchen cabinets would more than likely bust, your new tile would crack, and your windows would break. You should have called me first. It would have made everything else a lot easier for you too."

He wasn't wrong. I feel as if I spent twice as much time customizing every cabinet, closet, wall, door, window, etc. to make it level, because I didn't start with a firm, secure, level, and stable foundation. We lived with manageable, stabilized, ok foundations. It made everything, ya know, workable, or I should say twice-as-much-work-able.

I believe in our faith we do something very similar. We come to church, hoping for the brokenness of our lives to be made livable. We want a better marriage, we want to no longer be bound by addiction, we want our kids to grow to be good people, we want to be a good person our selves, and we definitely do not want to die and go to hell. So we go to church, read our Bible, pray, sing songs, bring food to the luncheon, serve on a team, attend a group, put some money in the offering, and generally feel better. It's workable. Workable is tangible. Workable can be good, great even.

But the problem we have failed to address is the one which is most crucial. In fact, if we don't address this one problem, everything else is in jeopardy. When we don't address this most important problem first we end us doing twice as much work along the way. As problems arise we work more, pray more, do more, read more, because the solution we've settled for us to work more, rather than fix the foundation. As life continues to get more challenging we muster our power to "Lock in. Double down. Keep Going. Press On. Persevere. Endure. Work harder." We will then filter scriptures through our experience to justify why life is so hard. We become stressed out and exhausted, then assume the answer we need is greater motivation and will power. So we motivate ourselves to do more and do better, so we can be better christians, and our lives can get sorted out how we wanted them to be when we started everything.

With all this activity, we feel more stabilized. We justify our hard work, late nights, exhausted-energy-drink-filled-achievements, to help us ignore the actual problem. Many of us have done this so long that we assume it's the normal Christian experience.

Don't get me wrong, following Jesus is not easy. But Jesus never said do more, work harder, and then I'll give you rest. He said fix the problem of you constantly being the solution to your life. Don't settle for faith that results in broken marriages, broken relationships, a broken spirit, and a broken life. Don't settle for a faith that requires twice-as-much-work-works to make up for a faulty cracking, uneven, shifting, foundation.

My advice. Completely fix the foundation. Everything else gets easier from there. Trust Christ fully. Take old thoughts about Jesus and replace them with Jesus' actual words. Take every trust in man or yourself and place it upon Christ alone. Dive into the words of Jesus. Spend time in prayer. Hold God's word as more precious than anything else. Renew your mind by thinking about him constantly. Write scripture on sticky notes around your house. Make it a background for your phone. Renew your mind with God's word. Pray. Pray again. Pray daily. Pray in the spirit. Serve. Give. Not to make someone happy. Not to fulfill an obligation, but because you read about what Jesus did, so you want to live like him.

Scripture memorization, prayer, God-exalting worship, and a faith community build on foundation. But the foundation must first be set on Christ alone.

So where do you start? Below are some scriptures to meditate on. My challenge to you, pray over them. Ask the Lord to reveal to you if there are areas of your foundation which you have settled for personal knowledge, personal ability, more work, or the comfort of worldly wisdom rather than the truth of Christ. If so, repent. Knock out the old, replace it with Christ. Then alone Jesus to transform your life, by living through every challenge, every win, every adversity, every celebration with the truth of Christ as the foundation of your life.

Take time today, and spend time each day this week meditating and praying over the following scriptures, allowing Christ to be your foundation.

For all of your salvation, Christ must be the center most focus. Apart from Christ, we have nothing to offer. Apart from Christ we have nothing to bring. Apart from Christ we have no plea to make to God.

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:11

I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. John 10:9

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus 1 Timothy 2:5

Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

We must make a personal, private, and public declaration of Jesus. It must be a personal revelation of the character, power, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It must be a private declaration to God of surrender in every area of your life, including the hidden things. It must be a bold life-long public proclamation of who Christ is, what he has done, what he is doing in your life everywhere to everyone.

Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:16-18

Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:3

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. Luke 9:26

There is not salvation or sanctification apart from obedience. We are saved by the obedience of Christ and we are sanctified by obedience to Christ.

Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22

But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? Luke 6:46

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 1 John 5:3

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct 1 Peter 1:13-15

This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus. Revelation 14:12

To stand in greek is to "to continue, endure, or persist." We do not stand by personal effort, but upon the foundation Christ, His power, His work, and His authority. We must stand in Him no matter the storms of life. We must stand in Him rather follow the haste of our emotions. We must stand in His righteousness by leaving our old life. We must stand in His power by believing and living in His power to free us from sin, by trusting in His strength to deliver us from evil, and resting in His peace to sustain us, provision to give us all we need, and His Spirit to produce new life within us.

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Matthew 7:24-27

Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily. Isaiah 28:16

Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” Luke 9:26

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free...Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8:31-4,35-36

A foundation in Christ comes with the gift of each other, "His body." So we can continue to be built up together IN Christ.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22

Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 1 Corinthians 12:27

Do not entertain a teaching other than Christ alone. Jesus + anything = nothing. Jesus + nothing = everything. It's Christ alone.

To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. Colossians 1:27-29

According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 1 Corinthians 3:10

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. John 10:1-2

I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed...But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Galatians 1:6-9,11-12

I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. 1 Corinthians 15:1-9