Day by Day

[Soldier4Christ]

"A New Symbol"

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 2:18-19
   

It was the kind of story that the news service would only carry around Easter. On April 2nd, Reuters News Service told how a New Zealand environmental group wanted to find a new symbol for Easter. That’s right, they wanted to dump the Easter bunny.

It seems the rabbits originally brought to New Zealand to begin an unsuccessful fur trade had been multiplying like, well, like rabbits. A spokesman for the group said the bunnies were “an environmental curse” destroying sparse vegetation, which created perfect conditions for widespread erosion. The group hopes that a new symbol for Easter will enable people to change their thinking about rabbits by replacing words like cute and cuddly with (to their way of thinking) the more descriptive words, disastrous and damaging.

In years past, the group has proposed other alternative symbols like the Easter Kiwi (the chicken sized bird, not the fruit). Somehow, the idea of an Easter Kiwi hopping down the Kiwi trail didn’t catch on.

I’m not surprised.

So what do you think would be a better symbol for Easter than a bunny? Over the centuries the brilliant artists of Christendom have come up with a few. Let’s see, there’s the beautiful butterfly that breaks free of its death-like cocoon. It’s easy to understand why the butterfly has often been a symbol of resurrection. Then, of course, there is the familiar symbol of the chicken that comes out of its hard-shelled confinement. The non-hardboiled egg manages to appropriately convey Easter’s concept of life-out-of-death.

Can anyone think of a symbol that best represents Easter?

I’ve got one. How about the Savior’s empty tomb? That grave, better than anything else I can think of, points to Jesus who IS Easter. The empty grave is the first symbol that speaks of a living, Lord Jesus Christ, the Defeater-of-death who comes to us with His gift of peace. The vacant sepulcher lets us know that Jesus Christ, the Conqueror of the grave, stands before us and assures us that our sins are forgiven, our debts our paid, and ‘because He lives, we shall live also.’ (John 14:19)

Do you want a sign or a symbol for Easter? May I suggest, for your consideration, the Savior’s borrowed and ever-empty grave?

[Soldier4Christ]

"When Facts Are Camouflaged"

"Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and fight against them with the sword of My mouth." Revelation 2:16
   

The Canary Islands off northwestern Africa can be a beauty-versus-beast setting. We think of yellow songbirds and the sweet Madeira wine made there. However, the name comes from the Latin "canis," a dog, because of the large dogs the early owners kept to control the plantation workers.

Names can hide grim facts. Nain was a town meaning beauty because of its site in the Mount Hermon vicinity. The birds sang there. But the cruel hounds of death came there, too, for a certain woman. First her husband was taken, and then her only son, whom Jesus raised from the dead (see Luke 7:11-15).

For the third temptation in the wilderness Satan showed Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor" (Matthew 4:. You could visualize beautiful palaces, pleasure gardens, and whatever appeals to human ambition. But it was a deluding picture, a sample of satanic magic. To receive all this, Jesus would have to bow down and worship the devil. And that would have been the end of our salvation. No paradise with beautiful birds, only the realm of the hounds of hell, would have awaited us.

We next go to Pergamum to which Saint John wrote one of his seven letters in the book of Revelation (see Revelation 2:12-17). Satan was there with his human agents: the Balaamites and the Nicolaitans. Both put on a religious front camouflaging their advocacy of sexual immorality. The second group said that the way to subdue the sinful flesh was to exhaust it. People were led to believe that sainthood comes through sinning, through the misuse of sex. We are right back on the Canary Islands. What was offered as sweet Madeira wine was in fact a deadly poison.

The same Saint John writes: "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God" (1 John 4:1). Those who plainly teach and confess that Jesus Christ is God's true Son, who came to die for our sins and then rose again, are telling the truth. These friends we follow.

[Soldier4Christ]

"Bad Nights, Good Nights"

The LORD will keep you from all harm--He will watch over your life. Psalm 121:7
   

Many a story promising an eventful plot has begun with the line, "It was a dark and stormy night." The Bible narrates many night events, all relating to God's story of our salvation.

It was a dark and eventful night that the trembling Jesus spent in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed fervently, was strengthened by an angel, and bravely yielded Himself to His enemies to begin His suffering for our salvation.

Previously Jesus had at times carried on his healing and teaching ministry at night. In Capernaum He healed the sick and the demon-possessed "that evening after sunset" (Mark 1:32). It was a dark but revealing night when He conversed with Nicodemus concerning His kingdom, bringing His teaching to a climax with the Gospel in a nutshell: "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

The apostle Paul did much of his teaching and testifying at night. It was a dark and painful night when he and Silas, with their backs beaten and their feet in stocks, sang hymns in a Philippian prison. It was a dark but enlightening night when the apostle "kept on talking until midnight" (Acts 20:7) to assembled Christians at Troas. There the young man Eutychus, sitting in a window, went to sleep and fell to the ground. Saint Paul brought him back to life. It was a dark and tearful night--but one filled with love--when he met with the elders of Ephesus, who "wept as they embraced him and kissed him" (Acts 20:37), knowing they would not see him again.

We all have nights that may be described as "dark and stormy," as certainly Saint Peter had when he denied his Lord. But God is with us in dark nights, just as He is on calm, sunlit days, as Psalm 121 declares. He gives hope and joy. The closing lines of a hymn say it well: "And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of joy."

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"The Correct 'Grammar' of Faith"

Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ. Galatians 1:7
   

A mother wanted to teach her son the correct use of the verb "see" when used in the past tense. She said he could either say "I saw" or "I have seen." But the boy didn't get it. He was next heard to say, "I have saw."

Some people have trouble with the "grammar" of Christian teaching. They fail to distinguish between salvation by faith and salvation by good works. They try to combine the two, like the boy did with "have saw." They end up with salvation by faith and good works. This mistake was once for all corrected by Saint Paul: "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). But then he goes on in the next verse to say that God wants us to do good works, not to be saved but because we are saved. God works are the fruit of faith.

Another case of mixed-up doctrinal "grammar" pertains to the nature of Christ's kingdom. Is it temporal-social-political or is it spiritual? Even the apostles had trouble with this, asking Jesus shortly before His ascension, "Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). Thanks to the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the apostles correctly understood that the kingdom Jesus came to establish by His death and resurrection was basically spiritual; it dealt with the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life.

Already in the first century some people got the articles of faith mixed up mostly because they had not studied God's Word. So the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews tells his readers that they "are slow to learn." He goes on, "Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!" (Hebrews 5:11-12).

When we diligently study the Scriptures and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth, we will have the correct "grammar" of the Christian religion.

[Soldier4Christ]

"IN but Not OF the World"

Do not love the world or anything in the world. 1 John 2:15
   

Two persons can say or write practically the same thing but have altogether different reasons for doing so.

In 1759 the French satirist Voltaire wrote the short novel "Candide" in which his main character by the same name found out how corrupt the world was (at a time when the church itself was corrupt). His purpose was to ridicule Christianity. The apostle John also states that the world is evil, but for a different reason: to keep Christians from participating in the evil ways of the world.

What is there to think or say about the surrounding world of our time? Is it as evil as many say it is? Many concerned people are of the opinion that moral conditions are getting worse. One thing to keep in mind is that the news media nowadays are more frank to report what people do in their private lives, especially public figures.

Allowing for this greater openness, the world of our time is still evil. We have no reason to disagree with the 12th-century hymn, "The World is Very Evil." Going back still farther, we have to agree with the red alert of Saint John: "Do not love the world or anything in the world." The world is what composite human nature is. The apostle tells us what its marks are: "the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes and the boasting of what he has" (1 John 2:16). Human nature is still that way today.

How do we as Christians show concern? In His High Priestly Prayer in John 17 Jesus tells the Father to leave His disciples in the world. He does not want them to flee from the world, for they are to be His witnesses in it. They are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. They are to proclaim the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins through Christ and to back up their proclamation with Christian living.

Christians are IN the world but not OF the world. This, in short, indicates our role.

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"Being What We Are"

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. Philippians 3:4
   

A St. Louis, Missouri, man, who gave music lessons, left the impression that he was poor. He wore shabby clothes; he went to places where he could get free food. After his death it was revealed that he was a wealthy man. On the good side, he gave a large sum of money for a public library.

The world is a stage where people play roles. Some are genuine performers, while others put on an act. Some who are rich pretend to be poor and vice versa. They are hypocrites. The word comes from the Greek "Hypokrites" and means one who plays a part, an actor, a pretender.

Jesus was aware of people who pretended to be what they were not. In Matthew 23 He upbraids the Pharisees, calling them hypocrites and pronouncing seven woes on them. He was especially critical of the outwardness of their religion. "Everything they do is for men to see," He declared (Matthew 23:5).

The apostle Paul had been a Pharisee, and not a run-of-the-mill kind but a very zealous one. As a former insider he could--and did--speak very authoritatively about self-righteousness, which is a form of pride and pretense. He urged the readers of his epistles to avoid sham, declaring: "Do what is right in the eyes of everybody" (Romans 12:17). Again, "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime" (Romans 13:13).

An opponent of self-righteousness, Saint Paul tells the Philippians how true righteousness is attained, and that is "not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ" (Philippians 3:9). Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law in our stead. He endured the penalty for our sins, which is death, by dying on the cross and then rising again.

Now there are no grounds for sham, hypocrisy, or self-righteousness. We can be what we are: Sinners declared righteous in the sight of God because of faith in Christ. We are clothed in the splendid robe of Christ's righteousness.

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"Each Person Counts"

"I know you by name and you have found favor with Me." Exodus 33:12
   

Individual citizens sometimes say, "Why should I go to the polls? My vote, pro or con, doesn't make a difference." But it does! In 1649 King Charles I of England was beheaded on the strength of a 68 to 67 vote of a special high court. In 1869 the impeached President Andrew Johnson escaped being ousted by one vote in the United States Senate. A larger lesson one may draw from this is that not only each vote but also each person counts.

How important is each person in the sight of God? Very important! God told Moses, "I know you by name" (Exodus 33:17). God's awareness of us as individuals is stressed throughout the Bible. According to Genesis, Adam and Eve counted for much, for they were the fountainheads of the human race. They were important to God also after their fall into sin, for He promised them a Savior. In Revelation we read that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God slain for people of all ethnic groups, making the individual believers "priests to serve our God" (Revelation 5:10).

Open Holy Scripture anywhere and you find reference to God's relation to us on an I/you or person-to-person basis. David, in Psalm 139, declares that God knows everything about him--his coming and going, his thoughts and his words. Even stronger testimony in behalf of God's awareness comes from Jeremiah, to whom the Lord said, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5).

As each person was individually created and was individually redeemed with the price of Christ's blood, so each believer is through the Gospel personally called to faith by the Holy Spirit. Each person counts; each Christian has the promise of personal forgiveness and life eternal.

[Soldier4Christ]

"Life’s True Riches"

The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. 1 Timothy 6:10
   

The writings of Saint Paul readily yield one-liners on one’s attitude toward money. “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10), he writes. Further: “If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that” (1 Timothy 6:. As for the dishonest use of money, this: “No one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him” (1 Thessalonians 4:6).

In an interview in the newspaper, James T. Bell, a black ballplayer of years ago who made hundreds while his counterparts today make millions—and was good enough to be belatedly voted into the Hall of Fame—said about his limited income: “I’ve got enough to eat and a roof over my head. I can pay my bills. I don’t care what other people have. I don’t want what other people have.”

We do need money, and we do well to earn it honestly. But instead of doing that, many deceive themselves into thinking that they can get rich quickly through lotteries and other games of chance. One wrong attitude about gambling is that a person wants something he has not earned—money that really belongs to other people. Truly, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”

While there is nothing morally wrong with riches properly and honestly acquired, it is good to bear in mind that material wealth is not life’s highest good. Of far greater worth is our salvation in Jesus Christ. Our Lord divested Himself of His heavenly glory so that we might have it, as the apostle states: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). He refers to such riches as the full and free forgiveness he has earned for us, our place in the fellowship and family of God, our status as heirs of eternal life, our awareness not only of who we are but also whose we are, and inner peace which money cannot buy.

Be thankful if you have that, and never mind what other people have in the line of money!

[Soldier4Christ]

"Patience Sustained by Hope"

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. Hebrews 6:19
   

Sometimes one’s patience reaches a breaking point when failure follows failure. When things continually go wrong in one’s vocation, the following questions are in place: What is God telling me? Does He want me to do something else? Such questions must have occurred to Anthony Young, a major-league baseball pitcher who made the record book by losing 27 straight games. Patience, while it is a virtue that the Bible greatly extols, needs to be practiced with persistence and discretion.

To be sure, Christian patience is in place without qualification in matters where God has clearly spoken. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews makes this point with regard to Abraham, the father of the believers. God had promised him a son from whose offspring would come the Savior of the world. But the possibility of having an offspring seemed remote to Abraham because of the advanced age of both Abraham and Sarah. The son God had promised seemed slow in coming, with Abraham 85 years old and Sarah, 75, when Isaac was born. But Abraham had patience, as Saint Paul observes, “He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised” (Romans 4:20-21).

It is from strong faith that patience and perseverance spring. Faith rests on God’s promises—in our time on the fulfilled promises—that He would send His own dear Son to give His life for the reconciliation of us all. That Son was Jesus of Nazareth. Faith adheres to the Word of God even when one’s outlook on life is dim. What God has promised is sure, for He cannot lie. It is therefore with unswerving patience we grasp and hold fast to the hope of salvation offered us in the Gospel. “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure,” the writer to the Hebrews assures us in chapter 6 verse 19.

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"Signs in the Sun"

"There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars." Luke 21:25
   

On May 10, 1994, people in mid-America, for the first time in 200 years, saw a complete eclipse of the sun over the noon hour. They experienced an eerie feeling as they saw the sun darkened. The mountains on the moon appeared as notches at the edge of the moon as it passed across the sun. In ancient times some people believed that a large giant had bitten a piece out of the sun. Nowadays astronomers can predict when eclipses will appear.

Although eclipses are natural phenomena, they nevertheless are signs with a message to Christians. Jesus said, in this respect: “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars” (Luke 21:25). These signs, even when they result from natural causes, remind us of the coming of the Son of Man on Judgment Day. Then “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light: the stars will fall from the sky” (Mark 13:24-25). These future events mark the end of the world as we know it, ushering in, according to Saint Peter’s words, “a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness”: (2 Peter 3:13). The apostle prefaces this saying by reminding us that we look forward to this great change as God’s fulfillment of His promise. That promise pertains to our reception in the Father’s heavenly home of many rooms which Jesus prepared for us.

Eclipses of sun and moon, as well as the other signs of Christ’s second advent—the sea roaring under the lashing of hurricanes, the land convulsed by earthquakes, the increasing distress of nations, the coming of false christs and false prophets—are not to terrify us. We are at peace, knowing that God is in control of His universe and that the gates of His kingdom of glory are always open to us. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, of which Jesus Christ is the solid cornerstone. Sun and moon, heaven and earth, will eventually pass away, but the word and redeeming work of our Savior abide forever. In His hands we are safe.

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"Reason to Celebrate"

"When he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home." Luke 15:5
   

To celebrate means to rejoice together over an event—perhaps a victory, a birthday, a wedding, or a family reunion. Perhaps someone long absent has come home. The return is celebrated with a party.

The recovery of a lost sheep was an important event among Palestinian shepherds. At stake had been the loss of a living being—a beloved lamb, perhaps a ewe with a broken leg, or a sheep that the shepherd knew by name. To find it and restore it to the flock marked the triumph of the shepherd’s love and concern. Here was the truly human touch so easily lost in the age of machines.

To be sure, there is joy in heaven over all the faithful members of Christ’s church, over the so-called ninety-nine who remain true to their Savior. The Lord and His angels are happy over their constancy and consistency, their spiritual growth, and their service in and to the flock to which the Good Shepherd ministers. But there is also joy—exceeding great joy—over one sinner who repents and returns to Christ’s church of believers.

Why this great joy? It means the recovery of a human soul worth more than all the material wealth of the world. It means the reinstatement of a person for whom Jesus Christ shed His precious blood. It means the restoration of an essential link in the golden chain of Christian fellowship. It means regaining a lost jewel in the crown of the King of kings, Jesus Christ, whom God brought back from the dead “through the blood of the eternal covenant” (Hebrews 13:20).

If a sinner’s repentance occasions great joy in heaven, shouldn’t we on earth likewise rejoice and renew our efforts to bring straying sheep into Christ’s fold?

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"God’s Sword Versus Man’s Swords"

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Ephesians 6:17
   

In Victor Hugo’s novel “Les Miserables” Jean Valjean was imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. After his release he was relentlessly pursued for years by Inspector Javert for being a parole breaker. In some societies lawbreakers are excessively punished. In our time, however, the opposite seems to be true.

Crime should draw its due penalty. Saint Paul writes that the government “is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4). Justice is not served when the victims of crime suffer while the perpetrators go free. Peace and tranquility in the community are endangered when unauthorized private citizens carry dangerous weapons with evil ends in mind, such as robbing and stealing. Jesus told Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Put your sword back in its place … for all who draw the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). It is a safe prediction that killing others by any kind of lethal weapon will sooner or later find killers to be the victims of their own preoccupations.

The great deterrent or preventive of sinful swordsmanship is not the sword of punitive power of the government but, in the words of the apostle, “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). This Word includes God’s law, which declares, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). It includes, above all, what Saint Paul in this connection calls “the Gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15). This Word is effective because it changes hearts, for it is out of unchanged hearts—according to Jesus in Matthew 15:19—that murder proceeds.

The Word of the Gospel fills hearts with love that replaces hatred, greed, or whatever else drives people to hurt or harm their neighbor. This love has its source in the love of the Father who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, as our Savior. This same loving Father continues to send the Holy Spirit to strengthen us in the saving faith and to grant us peace on the basis of sins forgiven. God’s sword prevails where man’s sword fails.

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"Quoting all of God’s Word"

"I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God." Acts 20:27
   

The stern, 18-century Puritan clergyman in Northampton, Massachusetts, Jonathan Edwards, is often criticized for saying in a sermon that God holds the sinner over “the pits of hell much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire.” Usually not quoted is what Edwards went on to say: “Yet it is nothing but His hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment.”

A good point to make is this: When you quote someone, quote accurately, fairly, and completely. Satan can quote the Bible when he thinks it is to his advantage. But he leaves out what does not serve his purpose. During the wilderness temptations Jesus quoted Scripture to good effect. So Satan tried to do the same, citing Psalm 91. But he left out the important words: “in all your ways” (verse 11). It is also for the dishonest use of the Word of God that the devil is called the father of lies.

Let’s be careful how we quote the Bible and pay close attention to the context. The Bible can be made to say that there is no God when one leaves out what goes before, namely, that it is the fool who says this (Psalm 14:1).

It is of greatest importance to note the distinction between the Law and the Gospel. Jonathan Edwards was preaching the Law when he said that God was angry with sinners, and he was implying the Gospel when he said that God’s hand keeps us from falling. Saint Paul made a similar dual statement: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23). This is Law and Gospel. To preach only the Law is legalism. To preach only the Gospel of God’s love in Christ to people who refuse to repent is declaring a half-truth.

In His Word, God declares to us His whole counsel of our salvation. To this revelation we add nothing nor take away anything.

[Soldier4Christ]

"Honoring the Living"

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Ephesians 6:1
   

W. H. Auden, in one of his poems, speaks of the human tendency to speak more favorably of “horizontal” people than of “vertical” ones. By the former he means persons lying in their graves, while the latter refers to the living ones who are still up and about. Usually more flowers, in a literal and figurative sense, are given to the dead than to the living.

In the “table of duties” section of his Ephesian letter, Saint Paul reminds children to honor their parents by obeying them. Faithful obedience honors fathers and mothers while they are still alive.

To speak words of commendation and to do deeds of kindness to faithful Christians is always in place. Saint Paul has words of praise in his epistles for the living “saints” in the congregations he addresses. In his words to the Philippians he recognizes an unnamed “loyal yokelfellow,” probably the spiritual leader. Euodia and Syntyche, temporarily on the “outs,” nevertheless drew the compliment that they “contended at my side in the cause of the Gospel” (Philippians 4:3). He said they did this “along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life” (Philippians 4:3). Are we following the apostle’s example with regard to recognizing and thanking faithful church members, teachers, pastors, and officers? Let us not wait with our commending words until it is time to write the obituaries.

Sometimes it is hardest to give deserved compliments to those nearest to us in the family. In the last chapter of his Romans epistle Saint Paul does not hesitate to give cordial greetings to several of his relatives who “were in Christ before I was” (Romans 16:7).

Giving honor to whom it is due is a good principle to follow. This is especially true in our relationship with the living Christ, whom we honor equally with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and to whom we owe special gratitude for giving His life that we might have eternal life, now and in the life to come.

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"Christ’s Church Will Endure"

"You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." Matthew 16:18
   

In the early centuries of the Christian era, Santa Sophia in Constantinople (now Istanbul) was one of the great churches in Christendom. When, in 1453, the city fell into the hands of Islamic forces, the church was turned into a mosque. Today it is a museum.

Changes like this do not contradict the assertion in the hymn line “The church shall never perish,” nor do they deny what Jesus said of the church, “The gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18). Christ’s church of believers, the communion of saints, will endure, as another hymn writer states, “even when steeples are falling.” Church buildings may be destroyed by fires and floods, or be converted into other kinds of structures as they were in Russia, but the church proper—people, believers—lives on.

In our times of great neighborhood changes in our cities, many once-beautiful church edifices are all but abandoned. This fact we regret, but we are consoled by the conviction that the church invisible continues, and even thrives, in other communities.

The true church, that is, the sum total of all Christians the world over, lives on because it is built on Jesus Christ. He is the “chief Cornerstone” in the solid “foundation of the apostles and prophets’ (Ephesians 2:20). The apostles—and the prophets before their time—did not build Christendom on the flimsy ground of human opinion—not “on wood, hay, or straw,” not even on the more solid things: “gold, silver, costly stones” (1 Corinthians 3:12), but on the Gospel truth that Christ Jesus, God’s Son, came into the world to save sinners.

The truth of salvation through faith in the redeeming merit of Jesus Christ stands firm, and so does the church based on it. You and I, as believers, are integral parts of that structure.