One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten

Foundations

Introduction:

When a baby is born he is the most helpless of creatures. The bear has claws, the lion sharp teeth, and the cheetah lightning speed. Man appears most helpless.  Man is born without shell (like the turtle), without spines (like the porcupine), without horns (like the ram). It seems that God has equipped each animal with some special means of defense and of survival. What has God given man? What can he use to fend off danger, defend himself and live happily in the world?

God has given man something greater than a shell in which to hide, greater than a claw with which he can tear and rend, or speed with which he can out-run danger. God has given man a mind. The mind of man gives him the advantage and the opportunity to scale higher than any mountain goat, go faster than any cheetah, warm himself better than any bear skin. God has given us a brain. Let's use it. If the animals we have mentioned do not use their God-given birthrights of advantage they will not survive. We Christians must use our minds as well to survive in this evil and sinful world.

We are saved by giving Christ our heart. We survive and successfully live the Christian life by giving Him our hearts and our minds as well. "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2Tim. 2:15).  None of God's creatures have a longer childhood than man. The lion cub is off on its own in a very short time. The two-year-old thoroughbred is running at the Kentucky Derby. Only man takes eighteen years to prepare for life.  Those years are years of training and learning. A "New creature in Christ," a "born-again" believer should have some training and preparation before venturing out into the world as well. Jesus trained his disciples for three and one half years before giving them their "Great Commission" to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Even the Apostles had their "Basic Training " before wading into the fields of spiritual conflict. God has charged his ministers to "perfect the saints" for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:11). We cannot perfect the saints without training them.  Paul wrote, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" Rom. 12:2..

Some think Christianity and faith are just a religious feelings" others dismiss it as a superstition. Much foolishness is pawned off as faith because it refuses to submit to the tests of revelation (the Bible) and application (does it work?). Every believer should be able to explain what he or she believes and how it effects the way they live.

It is always a good idea to build the foundation before you build the house (Kings 6:37-38). Many believers will have trouble tomorrow, because they have not laid a good foundation today. In Hebrews 11 we are told that Abraham looked for a city which had "foundations." Abraham set out to know God. In the end, God called Abraham, "My friend."  Psalm 11:3 asks a pertinent question. "If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?" Satan knows how to capitalize upon your weakness and ignorance. If you are not able to give good reasons for what you believe your whole "Christian Experience" will be shaky. This study shall attempt to lay a strong foundation of Biblical ideas and principles upon which you can build. The end result will be a Christian philosophy of living that shall stand you well in all kinds of circumstances and situations. 

With every church claiming to be "the true" church, a new Christian is likely to either just accept the practices and traditions of a particular group that has embraced him, or become confused as they try to negotiate between conflicting beliefs, practices, and requirements.  One of the very fist lessons a new believer should learn is to differentiate between the major and the minor notes in the symphony of their Christian experience. What is the difference between a "conviction" and a "preference?" Many people hold up their prejudices as their faith while their preferences become part of their own personal Gospel. Some believers have their own list of things that are "sinful" and taboo, and delight in checking other people's lists so they may label them as "liberal" if some restriction is missing from their litany. There is a lot of hypocrisy and despotism that goes along with this kind of Christianity. We shall attempt to give you good reasons to believe what you believe, and do what you do. We would do well to understand the distinctions between goals, principles, standards, convictions, laws, and commandments. Many of the disagreements people have are the result of first failing to define their terms. Here we shall attempt to make some distinctions.

.Every Christian should have goals or objectives. What are the goals or objectives of the Christian experience? It could be said that our goals are the objectives or desires of our lives.  The Christian experience also involves principles. A principle is a guideline to help us through the crisis times of life. Principles help us to establish a code of conduct and to help us through the crisis times of life. Principles help us to establish a code of conduct and the rules of action before they become necessary. For example, a fire code or fire plan is drawn up to effect a plan of action should there be a fire. It is not without significance that it is drawn up before the first smell of smoke. When we talk of a man have "principles" what we mean is that we can predict how he will behave in a given situation. When we teach children "principles" we are preparing them for times of moral testing so their predictable behavior will have the desired results of triumph.  Imagine having a factory without any department of quality control. The QC department of any factory must check the product as it is being manufactured and assembled on the assembly line. If standards are not kept up to a minimum manufacturer's specifications the quality declines, waste increases, products fail, and eventually customers are lost.

The question is does God have any "standards" for the Christian experience by which we may gage our progress? If he does, where do we find that standard by which he evaluates our lives? A "standard" is God's quality control for life. If you don't build your life with God's standards, you are going to find some fenders falling off when you hit the first potholes of adversity and crisis.

Another word often used in Christian circles is the word convictions. Just what exactly does someone mean when they say the "have convictions" against doing something? There is a big difference between a conviction that something is wrong and a conviction that something is right. Convictions are very strong beliefs that I am willing to suffer and sacrifice for. (Not necessarily make others suffer for). Some religious people have pleaded the sanctity of their "convictions" as reason enough to violate the civil law of the land. Someone might say, "I have convictions that prevents me from taking up arms and going to war." Another says, "I have a conviction against television, the movies, and alcohol.

The United States Government has attempted to help us define what is indeed a "conviction," and has drawn up a test which must meet three criteria. It must be Scriptural (that is based upon some recognized, religious writings, teachings, or traditions such as the Bible, or the Koran, etc). It must be evident in your life. And third, it must be consistent. Unfortunately, much of what people claim to be convictions are merely preferences. A simpler test of the spirit might be "are you willing to go to jail, rather than violate what you call a conviction?" If not, what you have is a preference rather than a conviction.

The second aspect of a conviction is that it is personal. While you may become a champion of its importance, value, and reason, and become a spokesman for its message, you must understand and remember that God changes people from the inside out, not from the outside in. Forcing your convictions upon unconverted people is simply cosmetic. This is not to say that society is to become a lawless anarchy in which individuals operate as detached and unrelated agents. Convictions are the personal constitutions of government that order the lives and behavior of a single soul. Because we are social beings and live in communities, God has established two additional elements that contribute to the dynamics of human action and accountability: Laws and Commandments. Have you ever noticed how a flock of starlings moves in mass like a single body and can change direction in a second? God has placed somewhere in each little bird an innate ability to fly in flocks, wingtip to wing tip without colliding into one another. In a seeming remarkable way, a hundred birds can move as one body across the sky with out accident.

Man has no such internal guidance system since his disastrous fall. What God did give, in order for man to live in harmony with one another and avoid disastrous collisions is the ten commands. It is the genius of Sinai that has become the accepted measure of societal decency. Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill, etc. have been the guiding force of every successful society. The commands brought down by Moses from the mountain were not necessarily new, as much as a restoration or codification of truth. Since man still had traces of truth left like tracks or vague impressions of memory etched upon conscience he recognized the commands of the Decalogue as "right" without question. He somehow seems to know all along that adultery was wrong, but now he had it in writing.

The last element in the equation of behavioral dynamics is a moral scepter of righteousness that gives God final say and authority in my life whether I accept it or not. While a man might ignore God's commandments, no on ignores his laws. While commandments are the cause, laws are the result. God's universe is one of order and reason. God is neither arbitrary nor capacious. Laws govern the world, visible and invisible. I may choose to jump out of a window, but the law of gravity will have the final say. We may explain our behavior on the basis of our goals, standards, or convictions, but God has the last word. "What so ever a man sows, that shall he also reap." Laws may be seen as a sequence of natural events occurring with unvarying uniformity under the same conditions. One law may at times supersede another, but there is no escaping God'' order of things.

Order is the first rule of life. Faith is simply recognition of God accompanied with a yieldedness to him. Faith is a man's arrival at the logical and spiritual conclusion that has determined that God is the rightful Sovereign and King of our lives. His government becomes our government (seek ye first the kingdom of God) or as Jesus expressed it in another place, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done." Faith is more than a strange, religious, mystical, or mythical feeling that comes over a person like some ethereal aura. Faith touches the whole man, body soul and spirit. God generates it in the realm of our spirit (which might be parallel to the holy of holies of the Jewish tripartite temple). It is cultivated in the soul and it is celebrated in the body life. Faith does not rest upon fantasy, feelings, or foolishness. Neither can the Christian life be built upon such cobwebs of the imagination. It must have a firm foundation.

The Christian has a faith, but if his Christianity is to enter the arena of everyday practical living, he must also have a practical philosophy that explains by action and attitudes how that faith is relevant as well as real.  Too many Christians have broken fellowship with other Christians over preferences while pretending or presuming them to be convictions. Many have blamed the failure of their faith to protect them when they ventured out into a dangerous world without principles. Some have meandered aimlessly in their Christian experience because they never knew they should have goals or what they might possibly be.  Because they are based upon and originate in the Bible, the ten convictions in this study should provide a firm foundation upon which Christ can build what will last for an eternity.