Will Your Church Survive An Earthquake?

Issues – April 2011 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Will Your Church Survive An Earthquake?

On January 12, 2010 a devastating earthquake struck Port-au- Prince, Haiti killing 222,570 people and toppling virtually every building. After a severe earthquake in California several years ago, I read about a church that survived while other buildings around it buckled, cracked and collapsed. Why? Because when it was built its congregation invested almost half of its building funds to set extra strong pilings deep into the solid bedrock beneath the soft earth upon which the little church stood.

The Lord wants us to invest our spiritual resources just as this congregation did. He said, “A wise man ... built his house on the rock” (Mt. 7:24). Why should we do this? Because Jesus warns us that destructive forces will surely come and beat upon our house, washing away all that is built on nothing more than sinking sand. But He guarantees that if our spiritual house is built upon Him, the solid Rock, it will not fall.

The Lord’s Church is not built on men’s wisdom, good works, or great wealth. Rather, it is built by “God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,” and it is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” (Eph. 2:4,20).

Originally, the chief cornerstone was the very first stone laid in a foundation. From it all other measurements were taken, upon it all else depended, and to it everything else in the building referred. In other words, the entire structure relies upon how solid and true the cornerstone is.

Is your cornerstone the Lord, and do you measure all things by Him and His Word? Will your spiritual house withstand the many earthquakes of this life because it stands on “the solid foundation of God” (2 Tim. 2:19)?

By Larry Ondrejack