FOUNDATIONS - Psalm 11:3

I’m hung up on a word lately…Foundations. And maybe you know where I am going with this, so I appreciate you humoring me by reading along. A foundation is something of vital importance so as to be able to be built upon solidly. Anything built on an insecure foundation will fall, not "might" fall, but WILL fall. I challenged my son the other day to see who could build a taller “card house” using those square restaurant coasters. I quickly managed two stories, as did he, and we were both using the same number of building pieces. OK, I had one less, but I’m Dad, so I let him have the extra, figuring I’d beat him anyway.

I thought the contest was over, as nothing had been erected for a time, and then he looked at me with joy in showing me his three-story winner. A simple design, and when I tried to duplicate it, I failed repeatedly. He then showed me how he did it, and he emphasized the importance of a very stable first level, or foundation. After a few tries, I, too was able to reach three stories. A simple illustration, I know, and it makes the point so very clear. If you don’t start with a solid foundation, what can you really build on top? And secondarily, when one understands the foundational basics, he needs to share and pass knowledge along.

In construction, you really don’t see the foundation, but it has to be there and be secure for a building to last. And if that foundation is not settled and is likely to move and shift, then the stability of anything built upon it will be short-lived.

So I’d like to take a few days to discuss the foundations we as Christians must build upon. Psalm 11:3 says “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” And what is meant here by “destroyed” is essentially the equivalent of thrown away, torn down, or broken down. In all we will discuss, the ultimate foundation is the Word of God, not even debatable. And we know that God’s Word, The Word Himself, will endure forever, so it will never, ever be destroyed. So think of it this way, the base foundation, like the ground (or think bedrock) is used to build the next level foundation, such as pillars. But it may not be clear enough to say that God’s Word is that which all of life is built upon, as true as that it. 1 Peter 1:3 tells us that God’s Word is completely sufficient for all aspects of faith and practice, so I hope to examine those aspects of faith and practice which rest upon the sheer authority of God’s Word.

A main point along the way is that we as humans have so many other options to use for foundational “building material”. Our challenge then as Christians is to seek and use that which has eternal value, not just earthly value, since we realize that this world will someday pass to make way for that new creation of Revelation 21.

I hope I have whet your appetite to follow along, and I pray that we will all be encourage to study His Word along the way. Think on the foundations that we can find in the Bible. There are several, so where should we start? How about the beginning?