Building a house starts in the ground.
In our small country, piles often have to be driven into the ground to keep a house standing. We all know that if you do not do this, there is a good chance that things will start to sink. A good example of this is the Oldehove, a church tower in Leeuwarden. They did not manage to finish the tower because they were afraid it would fall over.
In the Bible, in Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus compares our lives to building a house. If we build on the rock, it will stand; if we build on loose sand, the house will lean and collapse.
When we live in obedience to Him, obeying His words and putting them into practice in our lives, we are building on a solid foundation.
The words He is referring to are the words that are presented in the passage that precedes this text, the words of the so-called ‘Sermon on the Mount’, presented in chapters 5 to 7 of the Gospel of Matthew. This, of course, is true not only of these few words, but of all the words He spoke, the words of the Bible.
In some countries, when you build a house, once the foundation is in place, you have to get permission from the government to continue building. So the foundation has to be approved first..
So it should be in our lives. Before we tackle the visible things above ground, we should first have God’s approval to determine if the foundation of obedience has been laid in our lives.
The Bible explains how it all works and what is needed. We are also challenged to examine ourselves in this context. This is not a simple story that can be summarised in a few lines. It requires teaching from the Bible.
Topics related to the foundation:
Repentance,
namely of sin and dead works.
Faith,
in God and His work.
Obedience,
namely to Jesus Christ and his Word.
Revelation,
namely, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
Entering into the Kingdom of God,
namely through the narrow gate.
Following Jesus,
namely going down the narrow road.
Baptism in water.
namely saying goodbye to the old man.
Receiving the Holy Spirit.
namely receiving strength and new life
