Many years ago, when my Mom was still alive, she decided she was tired of hauling loads of heavy laundry up and down the basement steps. She felt the Holy Spirit leading her to enclose our back porch and turn it into a mudroom/laundry room. Because of financial limitations, we did 90% of the work ourselves. (We couldn’t do heating and plumbing. That’s best left to the pros.).
It was an exciting time planning the room. Mom and I were anxious to design where we’d put windows, doors, closets, and cabinets. Paint colors, lighting fixtures, and flooring options were all calling our names!!
However, before we could get to all this fun stuff—before we could even build the walls or fill them with insulation—we had to bring in a digger to dig down below the frost line. Then we had to lay the heavy cement blocks that were our foundation.
While it certainly wasn’t a fun day or glamorous day, it was one of the most important days of the whole project. Because as we said last week, it doesn’t matter how impressive your exterior is, how beautiful your finish work is, or how much cool stuff you have in a building, it all needs to start with a solid, dependable foundation.
The same is true for followers of Christ. We need to build our lives on a solid foundation. However, the foundation we build our lives on isn’t made of bricks and mortar, but it is the solid belief that the Bible is the 100% Word of God. It is inerrant, infallible, and designed to be practically applied to every area of our lives.
There is a reason that this is the first of the Assemblies of God’s Sixteen Fundamental Truths: The Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, are verbally inspired of God and are the revelation of God to man, the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct.
The Bible is God’s very word to us. It isn’t man’s ideas about God.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us that the Bible is literally “God-breathed.”
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
"God-breathed" means the Bible is inspired even to the very words (verbal) that were chosen by the writers.
This means that the entire Bible—both the Old and New Testament are the very words of God. They are literally “God-breathed.”
It is also inerrant and infallible, meaning that there are no falsehoods or errors in the entire Bible.
The Bible is timeless, meaning that it applies to all people at all times in history.
These facts are important beyond the fact that all the characters in the Bible were real and all the stories were historically accurate. It’s essential because it reminds us that all Bible teaching is also meant to be taken literally. It is God’s Word to His people about how to receive salvation, have a personal relationship with Him, and how to live our lives as His people.
The entire Bible is inspired, inerrant, infallible, and timeless from beginning to end.
It’s all true. It’s all relevant. It’s meant to be read and obeyed.
As it says in Matthew 7:24-27, it is the solid foundation on which we can build our lives.
“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.
Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.
But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.
When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
Do you want your life to have a secure foundation?
Then you need to become a woman of the Word.
You need to read it, study it, and choose to build your life around it by applying it to your life.
The woman who chooses to reject it is placing her life on sinking, shifting sands that will not stand up when the storms of life come. The woman of God who chooses to read the Word of God, understand what it says, and obey God‘s Word is building her life on a solid foundation.
Like a solid, firm foundation, the woman who builds her life on the inspired, inerrant, infallible timeless Word of God will always be secure.
Adessa Holden is an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God specializing in Women's Ministry. Together with her brother, Jamie, they manage 4One Ministries and travel the East Coast speaking, holding conferences, and producing Men's and Women's resources that provide practical Biblical teaching for everyday life.
When asked about herself, she'll tell you "I'm a women's minister, a sister, and a daughter. I love to laugh and spend time with people. My favorite things are chocolate, the ocean, sandals and white capris, anything purple, summertime and riding in the car listening to music. It is my absolute honor and privilege to serve Jesus and women through this ministry."
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