Right Foundations
“Before we can build lives that glorify God and survive the storms, we must be careful to pull down and destroy the rubbish upon which our lives were previously built.”
“Our heavenly Father does not want a family of fearful, insecure children but he does want our confidence to be built upon his own faithfulness and power, not our own ability.”
– That is not to say that God despises anxious people, rather that we have every reason to be confident if we understand ourselves rightly as secured by God’s sovereign choice and sustenance as opposed to our performance.
“We often fail to believe two important Bible statements… Our Lord’s words ‘apart from me you can do nothing’ (Jn 15:5) and the promise that ‘nothing will be impossible with God’ (Lk 1:37). Instead we live in the middle area of human ability.”
“We all know the jargon, but are our lives truly built on the words of Jesus?”
“Baptism is not a rite for Christians to consider whether or not they will obey after their conversion. It demonstrates the burial of the old self, which is part of conversion. The Bible gives us no authority to preach forgiveness of sins and eternal life without reference to baptism and all that it signifies.”
“A Christian who always demands his ‘rights’ has never understood the cross. We should rejoice that God has not given us what we justly deserve…. Our inconsistency is revealed when, having entered through the door marked ‘Grace’, we then demand justice when we are inside.” – This one has major application for us thirty years on, living in an era of even greater hyper-individualism. Our rights and self-expression are generally excepted as a sacred value in a way that it is quite at odds with the true Gospel of Grace.
Conclusion – Terry draws attention to the importance of Gospel foundations for the individual which at once secures them in depending upon God’s unwavering approval, whilst deterring them from self-confidence