Author Confessions: A Firm Foundation (Part II)
In my previous post I started musing about the physical building of a home and how that relates primarily to faith and the church. It was too long so I divided it up and am continuing it here. You can go back and read it here if you missed it.
I wrote about how certain things need to be added to a foundation (physical) as well as spiritual to make it solid and firm.
On the flip side, you can’t add things to faith as essential that God didn’t intend. You can’t add things that are not spelled out in Scripture as esssential to salvation. Issues like worship styles or whether you have drums or not are more the decorations in the house than they are the foundation.
We can get so hung up on things that are not essential that we miss the point that the church is to be unified which gives it strength and power to carry out it’s mission on this earth. How you want to dress it up is fine, but when you add to those foundational issues, it can weaken the foundation.
I’m being deliberately vague here because I don’t want to point out what I might perceive as thelogical flaws in some churches or denominations. We are currently searching for a church home, so it is essential for us to focus on the solid theology. Of course, there are a lot of other things that can bring down a home, or a church that have nothing to do with the foundation, and those cracks as it were, or flaws in the building, are not so easily discernable.
We all need wisdom to build our faith, marriage, family and churches. Not just physically but spiritually.
On a lighter note, realize that it is the combination of elements (like Paul talking about parts of the body) that make up a house. We need all the parts. Not just rocks but also gravel and sand. However, even a tiny pebble in your shoe can irritate and cause a blister. A large rock in your path can become a stumbling block.
The church works best when it is bound together, strong and immovable, in Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit binding us together. When we think we can go it alone, we might be doing more damage than good.
So where are the cracks in your personal foundation of faith? How can you work to make that a firm foundation to live from?