Talking about house foundation work (which we discussed yesterday), I used this illustration one time and asked a friend how they might respond to this troubling scenario. You are about to move into your ‘forever-dream’ home that you just had built, and on the day you sign all the papers finalizing the title work, your contractor takes you aside and lets you know he saved you a bunch of money on the construction. Curious, you ask him ‘how’, and he then informs you that he didn’t use a single piece of steel rebar in your foundation-slab work.

I hope you realize this would be no small factor, by any stretch of the imagination.

Funny thing about facing such a predicament like this… is that the consequences of this unimaginable dilemma might not show up right away. And as tempting as it might be to not want to face and confront this truth…just ‘throwing some extra dirt’ around the foundation of your new home…won’t fix anything. This is a classic case where borrowing that famous line: ‘Houston, we have a problem’…is appropriate.

Now it’s one thing to be told your home has foundation problems because there are some vital ‘components’ missing in that slab; but it’s another thing altogether to learn that there might be some important parts to the foundation in our Christian teachings that are missing, or maybe we failed to learn and grasp early on. And it can sure be convenient to want to ‘ignore’ some parts of our Bible….which might explain why we have so many ‘Christian denominations’ out there today. Last count I heard there was over 400 of them.

Denial is a scary thing, because if we demonstrate a reluctance to embrace truth, bad things can result from our hardened hearts, and Jesus encountered this frequently when He came to deliver the truths of God’s kingdom to us. In fact, we are told that He came to His own people…and they ‘received Him not’ (John 1:11).

It’s been 6 ½ years now since I had my ‘personal awakening’ that came in the early days of the pandemic, going back to March of 2020. The grace and mercy of God’s Spirit drove me back into His word like never before; and you probably remember many of us had a lot of extra time on our hands back then during the ‘shutdowns’. I remember laughing when someone voiced having ‘finished watching Netflix’ and were looking for something else to veg on.

But in all seriousness, my life was forever changed as a result of a renewed ‘coming to Jesus’ experience I had back then, and that is what compels me to continue writing and sharing here as I have done for the past five years now. I don’t claim to be an ‘expert’ on anything, but I have learned a few things along the way and continue to encourage people to study out these things for themselves because, Folks…we have some serious ‘foundation issues’. (Acts 17:11; 2 Cor. 11:3-4)

I should point out that in the first year of this ‘awakening’ I had, which I really see more as a ‘bringing me back from the dead’…my heart was in great need of a thorough cleaning, which is what time spent in His presence and His word began to do. I didn’t feel as if I had any message to take back then and go point my finger in other people’s faces with, because God was dealing with me, first. But then…as time spent in His word will begin to do…the scales from my eyes started dropping off and I began to learn a few things. It was almost like being back at ‘square one’ in my faith walk, but this time I had Jesus at my side and He was ready to lead me into some truth, despite all that I ‘thought I knew’. (and I had recently just turned 60) Can I just tell you that being humbled is the best place to find some much needed grace, no matter how old you are or regardless of  how much you ‘think you know’?

It was a Sunday morning and I was up early at our kitchen counter drinking coffee and reading in the gospel of John, chapter 8, when I came across that portion of text where Jesus was talking to some Jewish folks who had started ‘believing in Him’ (8:30). That’s when He told them: “If you abide in My word…you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (31-32).

That’s of course when they got all riled up and defensive claiming they had no need of being ‘set free’ since they had ‘never been in bondage to anyone’ (33). But then I read vs. 34…and the Holy Spirit would not let me go past that for a few moments. Hopefully you have that verse highlighted in your Bible, the one where Jesus told them ‘most assuredly…whoever commits sin is a slave of sin’.

So let us all…stop right here for a moment. How often do you hear other ‘Christians’ candidly admit…they ‘sin’ all the time? How many of you have been taught that you remain a ‘sinner’ (saved by grace)…and will ‘always sin on this side of heaven’? Show of hands, please?

And yet... based on what Jesus stated there ‘most assuredly’…if you or anyone else continues to ‘sin’, do they not remain to be…a ‘slave of sin’? Don’t be too quick to answer that; let’s just focus on what Jesus said there. I don’t see any footnote in my Bible that throws in some exemption or clause that says: “unless you have accepted Me as personal savior’.

“Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin; and a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever” (34-35).

That is when I heard the soft voice of the Holy Spirit ask me: “What do you think I came to set people free from?”

You do realize by now, I hope…that simply claiming to be a ‘child of God’…does NOT make you… a ‘child of God’. Romans 8:14 tells us plainly that those who are ‘led by His Spirit…these are the children of God”. “And we know that whoever is born of God does not sin” (1 John 5:18).

Now those folks back in John 8 whom Jesus was speaking to did not take kindly to the words He was sharing with them, adamantly claiming to be God’s children (39-41). That’s when Jesus had to break the news to them that because they were unable to hear/receive His word…that it was evident that they were indeed…NOT…children of God…but children of the ‘devil’ (John 43-44). His words, not mine.

As I sat there at my counter that early Sunday morning, finishing up my coffee and contemplating what I was reading…vs. 36 just took root in me, declaring that “IF… the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” It was then I put some shoes on and went for a long walk down the road I used to live on. God had my undivided attention…and little did I know that morning that I was on the threshold of ‘getting schooled’ by the Holy Spirit.

Meet me back here tomorrow?