“In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. All power to him forever! Amen.”
1 Peter 5:10-11 NLT
When we consider the word “foundation” what comes into our minds? A builder will think of the concrete and stone that he is building a wall or house on, a base strong and firm enough to support the weight of the structure above it. And that picture will extend into all manner of activities that we get involved in. So a sportsman or woman will develop a foundation of fitness that will enable them to compete in their sport. Their foundations are built on a regime of the correct muscle-building foods, the long hours spent swimming, or running, or repeating the very process they will go through on the competition day. Paul used the sporting analogy when he wrote this in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, “Don’t you realise that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified”.
A business will develop prosperity based on the skills and knowledge of its workers. In this context we talk about the founders of a company, who put together a few ideas perhaps in a bedroom or garage, and from there became a success story, growing into a large and even multi-national company. A “foundation” is a beginning, a starting point, something solid and tangible. And something essential for the success of whatever is built upon it.
The Apostle Paul was a Pharisee in the days before he met Jesus on the Damascus Road. Not just any Pharisee, however. We read about his Jewish upbringing in Philippians 3:5-6, “I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault”. Paul’s foundation was on the Law of Moses and the plethora of accompanying rules and regulations that made up the lives of Pharisees. But imagine what happened to his foundation when he met Jesus. It took him days to get his mind round the reality that he had built his life on the wrong foundation. Referring to his heritage and pedigree, we read more of his story in Philippians 3:7-8, “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ”.
We pilgrims have built our lives on a true and strong foundation – the person and work, death and resurrection, of Jesus Christ. In fact He is the only way, the truth and the life (John 14:6) that we need. Everything in our lives must be built upon Him. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:20, “Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself”.
There is an old hymn written in 1866 by S J Stone, and the first verse is:
The church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ, her Lord;
she is His new creation,
by water and the word.
From heav’n He came and sought her
to be His holy bride;
with His own blood He bought her,
and for her life He died.
It was a favourite of mine in my early Anglican days, and the truths within it haven’t changed at all in the last 160 years or so. Our faith is truly founded on the Chief Cornerstone – Jesus Himself. There is no other foundation that will support our lives on Planet Earth and in the life to come.
Dear Lord Jesus. You are there only foundation that will last when all else is destroyed. We build upon You and Your ways, this day and every day. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 