Guardians Of The GospelSample

What is the foundation of your life? If you build a house on a poor foundation, chances are you’ll be building it again sooner or later. This is such an age-old and evident truth that Jesus was able to employ it in His teaching 2000 years ago in a way that requires no contextualization for contemporary ears to make sense of.

The truth of God’s identity is the firm foundation upon which we build our faith. It is the power that transforms us from being opponents of God to being adopted into His family. It was in remembering the truth about his father that the prodigal son came to his senses whilst trapped in the pigsty, and it is in remembering the truth about our Heavenly Father that we can come to our senses whilst trapped in the devil's snares. For all prodigals, it is the truth that sets you free and returns you to the loving household and firm foundation of the Heavenly Father.

The greatest challenge faced by the early church is actually the same that we face today. Not primarily persecution, but false teaching. When God’s truth is distorted, perverted, or sidelined, the firm foundation upon which we are to build our lives becomes dangerously shifting sand.

Jesus knew the power of a good story, such as the wise and foolish builders, and He also knew how to present His teaching in short, easy-to-memorize sentences. When you understand something deeply, you are able to present it succinctly and clearly without changing its essential truth. When your foundation is solid, even the simplest structure you build can stand up to the most trying forces.

However, when your foundation is the shifting sand of personal or cultural whim and desire, your ‘truth’ may look and sound attractive, but as the winds of challenge or change blow, it will fall down sooner or later. Paul lists various disastrous foundations upon which people build their lives such as pride, money, status, treachery, and self-indulgence. Some of these people, he warns, will even appear to be godly. The biggest problem of a shifting foundation is not merely having to rebuild whatever falls, but to survive being crushed as it does.

The Holy God has provided us with the way by which we unholy and rebellious people can come back into a relationship with Him. Thanks to the perfectly holy life of Jesus given in holy sacrifice, we can live for Him by His Holy Spirit and can know Him by His holy word. The result is not the mere appearance of godliness but the assured foundation of it revealed through the ongoing transformation of the whole life in righteousness, faith, love, and peace. To be the holy people of the holy God, we must build our lives on the firm foundation of His unchanging, unwavering, and unfailing holy truth. It is not just the word that we proclaim but the word we become.

The great missionary to Hong Kong, Jackie Pullinger, was asked in an interview about her amazing ‘ministry’ to which she replied, “I don’t have a ministry, I just have a life.”

One danger in evangelism is that we spend more time working on the method of evangelism than on understanding and living the message itself. We are to be people who correctly handle the word of truth, as Paul exhorts Timothy to do, but not merely to craft good talks or develop ministries. Our aim by God’s grace and provision is to become the living word of God to the world.

Holy people with a holy message.

Advancing the Gospel - join the movement

Another core principle of Advance group mentoring is to sharpen each other in what the foundational truth of the gospel really is. We want to proclaim the gospel message accurately in every opportunity we have. Time is given in every session to wrestling with scripture through group discussion prompted by topic-relevant questions as we seek to apply the truth of the gospel to our lives and the evangelism that flows from them.