BUILDing a Firm Foundation

Join Crystal as she starts a new series centered around Proverbs 14:1, "Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands." 

We all know the importance of having a firm foundation in any building project, and it is just as vital when it comes to our spiritual lives. Our lives must be built on the LORD Jesus Christ--and our salvation is only the beginning! 

The NEW Book, Today's Thoughts... is available now! If you'd like to read the introduction, click here. 

Available Bible Studies and Bible Study Guides (affiliate links):

• Today's Thoughts...
• It's Time.
• Arise, Go.
• Pullin' Weeds, Plantin' Seeds
• There's a Fly in my Tea!
• Study Your Bible With Me Series

Connect with me:

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• Website

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hi there! Welcome to Wisdom for Wednesday, your midweek pause for truth, encouragement, and practical faith. I'm your host, Crystal Ratcliffe, author, speaker, and fellow traveler on this journey of growing in God's Word. Each week we'll dive into Scripture together and have the opportunity to be encouraged in the truth that never changes. If you're able, grab your Bible, a cup of coffee, and let's seek God's wisdom together. Hi there! Welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited to be recording today from my new office. And of course, I feel like I'm a little bit out of practice, but I'm getting settled in here. Very thankful that we have signed the papers on the sale of the house and are settled into our new home. So we I've shared before, we kind of felt like the Lord leading us to sell the house, and it has been a whirlwind. It's been very quick, which I'm thankful for because I have also started coaching volleyball again since um since I made an episode. Volleyball season has started. That's the one thing I still, I guess the one job I still have outside of the home. So that started up, and we are getting ready to start games for that. So we finished just in time, and I know that was all the Lord, and so I've just been so thankful to him for the way that it has all worked out. And so I have been ready to share with you this topic for a long time because I studied through this uh when I was preparing for the Quiet Resting Places Ladies meeting. I felt like this was where I was supposed to go. But then at the last minute, the Lord kind of changed my direction to those lessons that I shared with you on Gideon. And so I've been praying about this, and here we are. I feel like this is what I'm supposed to share on the podcast, and I think it goes along with what I often have requests for on the podcast, which we'll get into maybe not today, but more marriage and family type topics. Those will be coming up as we go through this little series, and I have no idea how many it will be, so we're just gonna kind of jump in here and get started today. Um, I have had this word on my heart for a couple of years, truly, and that word is build. And I think when you think about the word build, you know that you have to do that with intention. We're gonna talk about that more as well, and that it doesn't just happen by accident, it's very intentional. There has to be some plans made and there has to be a very firm foundation laid. So that word has been on my heart when I think about women and I think about our homes, our families. And so I want to share with you what I had kind of studied through and been learning about that. And it starts with one verse. And when I read the verse, I really want you just to have an open heart in mind because I think if I am able to articulate it, it applies to all of us, not just women with children. So I want you to just kind of hang with me here. But the verse is Proverbs 14:1. Every wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. So in this verse, house means those who dwell in a house and compose a family or a household. So we all have a house, whether you're married or you're single, you have a house full of children, maybe you don't have children, maybe you have an empty nest like we do. Even if you're a divorced or widowed woman and you find yourself all alone again, we have a personal house, and we're gonna talk about that a bit more. But we don't just have a personal house, we should also be members of a Bible-believing local church, what we could call the house of God. So, with that in mind, we're gonna dig a little deeper here, and so we have that word build. So when I look up the definition of that, it means to build, to establish, to cause, to continue, but also to repair or rebuild. And so I think that's really important because some of you listening may come from a broken home or a broken marriage. I know for Mark and I early in our marriage, we definitely had a house that needed repaired. Um, if you've made mistakes, uh, you realize that you've just not been the best at building up your house, there's always time for a fresh start. And that can be today. So if you need to do some repair or you need to do some rebuilding, you can start doing that today. And now I think we all understand that when we are building, the foundation is the most important part. It has to be sure and solid. And I know you know where I'm headed because our foundation is Jesus Christ. Now, I'm not gonna blow right past that because it seems so simple. Of course, we all know and understand that we must build our house upon the rock. We might even be familiar with this parable, uh, probably even saying about it as children. It comes from Matthew 7, verses 24 through 27. It says, Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. So notice the comparison here is once again between the wise and the foolish, just like in that verse in Proverbs that I read to you. And in this passage, we understand that house is speaking of his life. We must build our lives upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and salvation is only the beginning. In almost all of my books or in everything I share, you're gonna eventually hear me talk about the difference between salvation and having a personal relationship with the Lord. And the reason is because when I learned the difference, it was life-changing for me. So I want to take a few minutes just to talk about salvation. I had made a profession as a young girl, and as a teenager, I began questioning that. I did not remember any personal conviction or repentance, you might say. And I wrestled with the Lord about it for a long time because I was worried about what people would think because I'd already been pretending to be saved and acting saved. And I know sometimes we can get caught up in what other people will think, but I want to encourage you, if that's you, Christians would just rejoice if you accepted Christ as your savior. There wouldn't be any judgment or being critical because you thought you were saved and then you recognize that you weren't. So I just want you to understand that that it really is about repenting and believing. And there's no perfect words, there's no right way to accept the Lord or to do it the right way, but it does require that repentance. And so in Romans 10, 9 and 10, it says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And then verse 13, one of my favorite verses says, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever means me, that means you. Any of us that come to the Lord with that truly repentant heart, um, he is going to save us. He promised that he would. And so after I accepted Christ as my savior, there wasn't this big change in my life because I was already acting saved. And I had had this bad habit of trying and failing to read my Bible and pray daily. And I knew now I had the Holy Spirit to help me, but it took me a few more years after my salvation to start growing. I was actually married, I was expecting Chaz, and it really was just weighing on me this responsibility to teach and train him when I knew that Mark was not at the time walking with the Lord. And I had also started to notice at church that there were people who genuinely seemed happy to be there. They had a love for the Lord, they had a love for his word, and here I was going through the motions. I just felt like I was missing something. And I didn't realize it at the time, but I was wandering in the wilderness. Um, if you've done the book Arise Go, you know what I'm talking about. I'd been saved, I'd been delivered from Egypt, but I had not yet crossed over into the victorious Christian life. I didn't understand all that God wanted for me to live out here on this earth. I wasn't that I had to wait for heaven for all the good things that he wanted to bless me with. I could walk in victory here on earth. And so, thanks to a good Bible preaching church, I knew the answer was in God's word. And I started a ladies' Bible study that the church was having, and I really began to pray and ask the Lord to give me a love and a passion for his word. And I know some of you have heard this testimony before, but that's okay. I think that it's our testimonies can be a powerful way to witness to others and to encourage others. So I'm going to keep sharing my testimony. I hope you will share yours as well. But somewhere along the way, the Lord answered my prayer, and I really wanted to spend even more time in his word. And it was during that time that I learned the importance of spiritual growth, which truly is what my writing ministry is all about. And I wrote a whole Bible study about that called Pullin' Weeds, Planting Seeds. So salvation is really just only the beginning of our walk with the Lord. And he wants to draw us into a personal relationship with him that has us digging into his word for spiritual truths and applying them to our life. A relationship that has us crossing over into that victorious Christian life, the abundant life that he has for us. We don't want to be wandering in the wilderness. That was supposed to be temporary for the children of Israel. They were supposed to be on their way to the promised land, and it was going to be temporary, a time of learning and growth. But instead, because of their unbelief that they could cross over and conquer the land, they ended up wandering for 40 years. And I think that unfortunately, that's what's happening to many Christians today. They are still wandering. The opportunity is there to believe God and cross over into a victorious Christian life, which, by the way, is marked by unshakable peace, everlasting joy, and abundant fruitfulness. And when you've experienced it, you will not want to go back. I promise you that you will not. So, yes, we must be saved, and then we must build a personal relationship with the Lord to establish that firm foundation for our life that we're talking. It happens through his word, prayer, and spiritual growth. We have to have this firm foundation that goes beyond salvation. Because things are going to come at us and it's not going to knock our house down. Our life built on Jesus Christ, those things that come at us, the tragedy, the trials, those are not going to cause us to fall away from Him if our foundation is sure. When you don't develop a personal relationship with the Lord, you attempt to build your foundation on maybe your service, your standards, your spiritual checklists. And then when tragedy knocks on your door, when trials come, your faith is shaken. And you might say things like, I've served God all these years. I can't believe He would do this to me. That attitude shows that there's no relationship. And we're all in danger of the same thing. In our flesh, we like our works, we like our checklists. Do this, don't do that. But that doesn't foster a relationship. It makes way truly for pride and a critical spirit, and it leaves behind a shaky foundation. This is why I so enjoyed our study when we were on, when I was on the Her Portion podcast, and we studied through Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, because Paul really warns about adding anything to your faith as far as expecting that to earn God's favor. We cannot work for salvation. We know that. And sometimes I think that we rely too much on those things and call it relationship, call it faith. And then, like I said before, when things start to go wrong in our life, we look back at our checklist and our service and wonder how in the world this can happen. Because I've been doing all the things. But when you have a relationship with the Lord, you know him and you can trust him. And you can trust that he is good and he is working all things for good in your life. And so I think that's where sometimes we get a little mixed up with our foundation because we build this foundation, we get saved, and then we start building the foundation maybe with our service. I teach Sunday school, I sing in the choir, I go to church every time the doors are open, I read my verse today, I did my scripture writing today, I prayed today, I did this. So we're building this foundation with all of the things that we're doing rather than building the foundation with a personal relationship with the Lord. And the personal relationship comes from knowing him through his word and spending time in prayer. When we read and study his word, that's his opportunity to speak to us, that's the opportunity we have to know him more, and then in prayer we are able to speak back to him and have communion with him that way. And that is what we have to build our foundation on. The other things are good things. Don't misunderstand me. It's good to serve, it's good to make sure you're reading your Bible and studying and praying every day, but those things in and of themselves are not going to give us a firm foundation. The firm foundation comes from knowing the Lord. And I know I even just recently shared that episode, What Do I Know About My God? Because that is one of the foundational truths that will help you. If you truly know the Lord, you can trust Him. And you can trust Him no matter what waves are coming at you. Remember that parable of the wise man and the foolish man and the foundation, and how the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell for the foolish man. But for the wise man, when that happened, it fell not because it was founded upon a rock. It was founded upon the rock. And when our life is built on the rock, a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, we are able to experience the victorious Christian life, that abundant life that He has for us right now, that remember I said is marked by unshakable peace, everlasting joy, and abundant fruitfulness. Who does not want that in their lives? There are so many things going on in the world today that can shake our peace and can steal our joy and keep us from being fruitful for the Lord. But I would just encourage you, how's your foundation today? And what is it built on? Is it built on a personal relationship with the Lord? Or are you trying to build your foundation on your service, your standards, and your checklists? I want to leave you with that thought today, and we will continue this series next week. So we'll talk a little bit more about our verse that wise woman builds and that foolish woman plucks it down, and then we'll kind of get into some specifics, I think, as we move forward in this series. So thank you so much for listening. I'm like I said, I'm glad to be back. Let me just remind you that there are links to the Bible studies, the books in the show notes. If you are a new listener and you don't have those and you're looking for them, they are linked there. Also, there is a link to support the show, and that helps me with the podcasting fees. So if you click that, it will take you to my website where you can read more about a donation. And that is also where you will find my journals and cards that are all made with KJV verses and scripture. So if that is of interest to you, you might want to check it out. Again, thank you for listening. If you've enjoyed the episode, as always, I ask that you share it with a friend so that more ladies can be encouraged. Thank you so much. We'll see you next week.