Under His Wings, part one

This is part one of my Sunday Message to the folks at the 55+ community. Feel free to share it with those whom you think might benefit.

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Under His Wings (Part One)

by Richard Maffeo

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light."  (Genesis 1:1-3)

Much more than simply the first words of the Bible, this text establishes the foundation of Christian faith. Chapter one declares without explanation – for none is needed about God’s existence –  “God ‘is.”  Neither does the Biblical record here attempt to explain God’s origin, for God always ‘was.’ There is not a ‘before’ or ‘after’ with God, for He created the very concept of time itself.

God simply just “IS.”

You might remember what Moses asked the Lord in chapter three of Exodus: “Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”  God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:13-14)

Foundations are important. As the psalmist David would later write – likely from personal experience: “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3)

Don’t neglect foundations. Jesus thinks they're important. That's why He spoke of them in His parable about those who built their homes on sand and those who built on solid rock. One stood firm, the other crashed to the ground when the storms of life swept across them (see Matthew 7:24-27).

On what are you building your life? It’s a question we ought to routinely ask ourselves. Are we building on the rock-solid foundation of God’s word? Or are we building on the shifting sands of anti-Christ philosophies brought to us by some theologians, pastors, teachers, writers, entertainers, politicians, and others?

If your life’s foundation is built with the insidious seductions of anti-Christ teachers, then please! Heed this sober warning from God’s word:

“Beware that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form . . . .” (Colossians 2:8-9)

Please, don't dismiss the urgency of this appeal. Foundations are important. The ground on which we build quite literally determines our eternal destiny. And God loves us too much to let us keep building on the wrong site -- without yet another appeal for us to change.