God Speaking

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious corner stone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.”

(Isaiah 28: 16)

The neighbourhood where I live seems to be in a frenzy of building new apartments and as I go on my daily walk, I can see all the activity and the many builders handling huge cement trucks, big beams huge cranes swinging their long metal arms over tall buildings. I see the progress daily as I walk past, but have noticed that preparing the foundation takes the longest, the digging out of the huge hole that will be filled with cement and then more cement on the top of that, I know nothing about building, but it is obvious even to my eyes that the foundation of any building is very important and doing it carefully will ensure a safe building. 

When God is speaking to the prophet Isaiah, he is telling him to tell the people to choose a sure foundation on which to build their lives. 

I love the parables that Jesus chose to illustrate the point of his teachings, and my favourite one is about the wise and foolish builders. It begins like this:

“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock.” (Matthew 7: 24)

When the storms begin, as they do in any of our lives, the house stood firm, but the next part of the story has a different ending a foolish man built his house on sand and when the storms arrived the house was washed away. 

So, what is the message for us in this parable? What foundations are we building on for our lives. The world shouts at us telling us that money is a good foundation or power, influence charm, but Jesus’ message is far from all these. The only true foundation is Jesus Christ himself.  

Paul when writing to the Ephesians tells them to remember what they have been taught and to build on that

“built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” (Ephesians 2: 20)

When we see what the world says, we can see that money can be washed away, power decreases, influence and charm fade as we age, but Jesus Christ is our rock. 

The sweet little Sunday school song, The Rains Came Down, pictures the story Jesus told. The final verse is not just for children, it is a wonderful lesson for us 

Build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ and as the prayers go up the blessings will come down 

Solomon knew this wisdom all those years ago 

“Unless the Lord builds the house, it’s builders labour in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)