Foundational Faith

DAY 5

To my most beloved sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus who lives and reigns for evermore:

I make myself breakfast every morning. Ever since my wife and I did the South Beach Diet (which didn’t “stick” by the way) I’ve made eggs for breakfast. I found my morning goes better because I feel fuller for longer. But I goofed a little this morning. I started heating the pan, cracked my eggs and plunked them in the pan to make fried eggs. I’d forgotten an important step though: making sure the pan was hot enough. Sure, I had coated it with a thin layer of oil, but but it just wasn’t hot enough. So what’s the big deal? Well, if you’ve never done it, it means the eggs will stick. A lot. I made what my father in law refers to as fried scrambled eggs. And it’s a pain to clean the pan, stuck and dried on egg. And the end product, the eggs, are not as good as when they are done correctly. Sure, I could eat them but in a restaurant the customer would have sent the food back. It’s similar, but not really the same end result. 

“Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you”

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Who Have We Become?

Christians in America: Who are we? How do you first identify yourself? Is it by gender? Is it by place of birth? Some other modifier? Or by denomination? Does anything come before “Christian”? 

I realized in my own life, that I was more defined by my political viewpoints. I was defined by the western education that raised me. By the philosophies of the Greeks and the Romans and the English. None of which is bad, in and of itself in my opinion.

But I had missed the foundational layer: Christ. Christ in me, the Hope of Glory. 

I. Am. Christ’s. 

We cannot serve two masters, we are told in scripture. And the very tenets, the very roots of yourself need to be in Christ. I think this makes the command to “pluck out your eye if it causes you to sin” a little easier to grasp. 

Does some philosophy apart from Christ cause you to stumble? 

Does your self made image need constant care and maintenance? 

Then pluck it out. Tear it out. Burn it down. Dig it up and burn it. 

Whatever. It. Takes. 

“How?” you ask. The way the Church has for centuries counseled the penitent: With prayer. And fasting. And confession. And giving of alms. And meditation on God’s word. And tears. And supplications. And agonizing and pitiful sobs to the Holy Spirit. Because it’s the only way to dig away the sand to the rock that is Christ. Because your soul depends on it my sisters and my brothers.  And only GOD can give you the strength to do it. 

Soli Deo Gloria