OUR SOLID ROCK FOUNDATION

“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”  (Psalm 18:2)

          On Christ, the solid Rock I stand,
          All other ground is sinking sand.  – William Bradbury

If you have ever stood on a sandy beach as the waves lapped at your feet, you know that the longer you remain, the further your feet sink into the shifting sands. Eventually, you’ll be up to your ankles! On a rocky coastline, however, you can stand on the shore with wave after wave rushing over your feet and you won’t sink at all. You stand firm on the strength of the boulders beneath you.

Shifting sands don’t make a very good foundation – for our feet or for our faith. We need solid rock – strong and unchanging. Like the wise man who built his house upon a rock (Luke 6:48), we can rest secure in building our faith upon the firm foundation of Jesus Christ. When the winds of change blow and the waves of uncertainty rush over us, we can cling to the immovable, unchanging love of Jesus.

For this we have reason to praise. Christ is the solid rock on which we stand. We can depend upon HIs words, trust in His tender mercies, and praise Him day after day for the grace that has saved us. In Christ our foundation is firm; our salvation is sure. Praise His name! 

-- Adapted from “Change My Heart, Oh God: Daily Devotions from the Greatest Praise and Worship Songs of All Time”

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THE ONLY CONSTANT

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

His faithful love endures forever.

Let all Israel repeat:

“His faithful love endures forever.”

Let Aaron’s descendants, the priests, repeat:

“His faithful love endures forever.”

Let all who fear the Lord repeat:

“His faithful love endures forever.”  (Psalm 118:1-4 NLT)

It would benefit Christians not to dwell on the uncertainty that seems to plague the current world landscape but turn our eyes instead toward Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.

When there is uncertainty, uneasiness and fear often follow. We all long for certainty, but what do we mean by that?

There must be something beyond ourselves that we can lean upon that has the certainty that we crave. All that rests upon us, all that weight that desires to crush us, is far too much for us to handle. We must look outside of ourselves and every vice that we hold onto or use to cope, and recognize that they are merely the illusion of certainty. We must look to the One who holds all things in His hand and never lets go. The One who is the only constant in a universe marked by change.  The One whose “faithful love endures forever.”

-- Adapted from Ray Peters in an article entitled “Certainty in the Midst of Uncertainty”

#4840

THE ‘A’ OF TRUE JOY

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  (Hebrews 13:8 NIV)

There’s a delightful story told about Lloyd Douglas, author of “The Robe.” He enjoyed visiting a little, old, violin teacher in a shabby, small, walk-up room he proudly called his studio.

Douglas liked to drop in on him because he had the kind of lovely wisdom about life that refreshed him. One morning, Douglas stopped by to see the old man. “Well, what’s the good news today?” he asked. Putting down his violin, he stepped  over to a tuning fork suspended from a silk cord. He struck it with a smart blow with a padded mallet. That, my friend, is ‘A.’ It was ‘A’ all day yesterday. It will be ‘A’ all day tomorrow, next week, and for a thousand years.”

That story tunes our minds to the ‘A’ of true joy. Like Christ, who is its only source, joy is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It is artesian, never changes, and is consistent irrespective of people or circumstances. At the same time, joy is not a quality we can find by searching or earn by effort. It comes from something -- really Someone else.

--  Lloyd J. Ogilvie in “If God Cares, Why Do I Still Have Problems?”

#4381

THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS

“For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,  but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,  but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”  (1 Corinthians 1:22-24 RSV)

The message I preach hasn't changed. Circumstances have changed. Problems have changed, but deep inside, [humanbeings have] not changed, and the gospel hasn't changed.

-- Billy Graham

#4283

TRUSTING IN THE LORD

“God, I look to You for help.  I trust in You, Lord.”  (Psalm 141:8)

Don't put your hope into things that can change -- relationships, money, talents, beauty, even health.  Set your sights on the one thing that can never change: trust in your heavenly Father.

-- Max Lucado

#4134

ETERNALLY UNCHANGING

"God also bound Himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that He would never change His mind. So God has given us both His promise and His oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to Him for refuge can take new courage, for we can hold on to His promise with confidence." (Hebrews 6:17-18, NLT)

The perfect and the absolute and the infinite God cannot become anything else but what He is ….

If you remember that, it will help you in the hour of trial. It will help you at the time of death, in the resurrection and in the world to come, to know that all that God ever was, God still is. All that God was and is, God ever will be. His nature and attributes are eternally unchanging. I have preached about the uncreated selfhood of God; I'll never have to change or edit it in any way… I go back over some of my old sermons and articles, and I wonder why I wrote them like that. I could improve them now. But I can't improve on the statement that God is always the same -- He is self-sufficient, self-existent, eternal, omnipresent and immutable. There would be no reason to change that because God changes not. His nature, His attributes, are eternally unchanging.

-- A.W. Tozor in Tozer on the Almighty God

 
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