Sandy Foundations

We were driving home on the turnpike after our daughter’s college visit.
I was enjoying the playlist I was listening to on my iPod.
My husband was driving and I was taking in the scenery.
Then I saw the billboard.

It’s not your forefather’s Valley Forge anymore.

Ever the writer, I got out my notepad and jotted down some thoughts.
The picture on the billboard was of George Washington in sunglasses.
He looked like an advertisement for Ray-Ban rather than the father of our country.
I know a thing or two about creativity, but this billboard bothered me.

Our government has just come off of a shutdown.
Parks, museums, even scenic vistas were closed to the public.
A marathon runner was fined $100 for running in Valley Forge Park during the shutdown.
It’s NOT our forefather’s Valley Forge anymore.

One can even say it is not our forefather’s country anymore.

Battles can be fought with weapons or they can be fought with words and ideals.
Words and ideals are a more subtle battle.
That kind of battle requires savvy, cunning, shrewdness, and wisdom.

It is a matching of wits and ingenuity, not brute strength.
In our own strength, that kind of battle makes us afraid.
We feel so ill equipped.

But we are not in our own strength.
If we are in Christ, we are in the power of His Spirit.
THAT makes us a formidable foe for the enemy.

In this battle of words and ideals, the weapons of choice are semantics and nuance.
It becomes the same argument that was heard in the Garden.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say…” (Genesis 3:1)

The enemy is a master at casting doubt.
Doubt about what God really says in His Word.
Doubt about God’s goodness.
Doubt about God’s Sovereignty.

The enemy would love nothing more than for us to cast off that tired old Bible.
Lay it aside for something new and relevant!
Did God really say?
We begin to think, God couldn’t have meant that!

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ “
“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:2-5)

And you will be like God.
That has been our desire ever since.
Apart from Christ, we do not want anything to do with God.
We want to be our own God.

We want to keep things fresh and relevant.
The problem is, relevance keeps changing and shifting things as with the ocean tides.
God’s Word is unchanging.

Apart from Christ, we are too busy hiding and running away from God.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The mans said, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:8-13)

Blame.
The man blamed the woman.
The woman blamed the serpent.
We are still blaming everyone but ourselves for our own sin.

When the Lord God asked, Where are you? He was not asking because He didn’t know.
God is omniscient; He knows everything.
He knew where Adam was in the garden.

Where are you? was asked because God desires relationship with us.
It is like us asking, Where are you today? when the person we are talking to seems distant.

Where are you?
Apart from Christ, we are distant, aloof; we want nothing to do with God.
We can do a fine job of being our own God and being in control.
Or so we think.

It’s not your forefather’s Valley Forge anymore.
It’s not the same stuffy Bible anymore.
Those that came before us couldn’t really have meant that.

They did really mean it.
It is the same unchanging Word of God.
God really did say.

New is not necessarily better, if it dismisses the foundations.
Foundations are either on Rock or they are on sand.
The Rock is Christ: firm and secure.

Sand?
You can’t build on sand.
Nothing lasts when you do.

I remembered the billboard on the turnpike.
Washington’s sunglasses are appropriate for the sand building we have been doing lately.