"Will Your Foundation Pass Examination?" By Shane C. Montgomery

I imagine you might well be growing tired of me and my pleadings for you dear Christian, that you continue to strive and desire holiness in your life.  If you are a regular reader of this blog first of all, thank you!  and second, you have noticed I preach a lot on Sanctification.  This dear Christian,  I confess, I appear "hung up" on this subject because I truly am.  I plead and beg daily on this blog that you my friend will earnestly and vehemently seek out holiness in your life.  It is not my intention to bore you, to tire you or to run you off to another blog, my desire is that you stick around, return often, read till you get your fill and are edified with what you read and just maybe grow a little in personal holiness.  Not that I know more than others, I am more feeble minded than most in fact, but even the feeblest of us can still bear witness and testimony to the Glory of God.  


 For a "Witnessing and Theology" blog, this site sure speaks a lot on Sanctification.  This is because it is such a important subject.  Honestly, how many non-believers visit this site?  I would imagine very few.  How many Christians visit, well, about 200 a day believe it or not.  How many are Reformed?  Most.  So I know I am frequently speaking with people like me, those who embrace the Doctrines of Grace.  Those who love the Puritans, their writings, teachings, lives.  Those like me who love theology and love even more to be a Bold Witness For Christ.  All these things are wonderful, they are all special in their own way, but I know most times in my writings and postings that I speak with Christians, this is why I often refer to you and address you as such.  So dear Christian, my brother or sister in Christ, tonight is no different because I once again plead with you to seek out the things of God in all areas of your life!


  Tomorrow is Sunday, The Lord's Day.  Hopefully you will get up tomorrow morning, get dressed, get your family ready and out into the car and off to worship and praise God in corporate worship with other, like minded believers in a Christ Centered, Bible Believing Church where your pastor preaches the whole council of God's Will over simply telling you stories of his last hunting trip.  I hope your pastor preaches The Word and his sermons are Scriptural, and applicable to your life.  I hope that you grow from your day in worship tomorrow.  This Sanctification is so very vital for all of us.  We cannot simply look at our religion as we do our hobbies.  We cannot simply throw on church on Sunday mornings and just as quickly throw it back off when we get back home.  We must take our faith serious!  We must strive and keep striving!  If we are going to reside under the banner of Christian, then we do not have a choice, we must seek holiness.


  Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they are those who wear that thirst and hunger, it is plainly visible, you can see the desire in their eyes, it's all over their face, it is clearly seen in the lives they live.  Simply  having an appearance of holiness will not do for these people, they know that life is speeding past at a rapid rate. They know that life is fleeting, running away on them.  With every passing Sunday, they hear the inward call of holiness.  The days themselves bear witness to the time gone by, everyday we look in the mirror we see that time is leaving us in place, it is moving on with or without us.  


 Christian, it is so important that we do not waste a single day of our lives!  We will have no excuse.  We cannot give sufficient apology of why we chose the worldly things over the things of God.  Christian, your faith will be tested.  Christian, you faith will be examined!  Can you pass the test that awaits in these last few days? You can if your faith is like the house built upon a rock.  The house built upon sand will quickly fall, it's foundation will soon wash away with the next strong storm of hardship.  You build upon your foundation by building upon your Sanctification.  You can quickly shed your church clothes, you might even quickly shed off your church service, but a sanctification that is quickly shed off is no holiness at all.  This is why I plead with you to work fervently on your holiness.  Go to church tomorrow, pay attention, pray before you enter the building, ask God to send His Spirit, pray God will open your heart and mind to wonderful new truths that will help you grow, pray that God will allow you to hear the revealed truth in His Word and that the Spirit will apply it to your life.  Don't be merely a pew sitter, be a part of the worship, sing loud, praise God, pray hard!  Learn every bit that you can.  Give your entire self to God in worship.  Plead with God to be spent by Him, plead with God that He use you to bring Glory to His Wonderful Name.  Plead with God that He sends His Spirit into your life and He conforms you into the very image of His Son.


  Christian, I speak tonight to you.  You who have been Justified by the blood of the Lamb.  You who hunger and thirst for righteousness...... Grow in Grace.  Do not settle for anything less than God Himself!  Seek the crown that waits for you in Heaven.  Work to enter into the narrow gate, avoid the wide pathway that your friends and family are traveling, don't settle for the easy way, your faith and your very Christianity will be examined soon by God Himself.  So examine it for yourself.  Does it pass the test?  If not, then maybe you need to reconsider your foundation.  I speak as one who once built a foundation on the sand, the storms of life hit and it washed away.  I had to seek God all over again, I had to seek His Face all over again.  My life was a lie. Christ did not reside in the center of my life, that center was still full of the world.  I had to get on my knees and beg God to rid that trash from my life.  Christ now sits in the center where He belongs.  May God never let Satan ever again use the world to lure me away from the Lamb of God!


  Examine your house, don't look only at what you can see, look underneath, look at the areas that are hard to get to.  Look at the foundation, what is your house built on?   If it is sand, then dear Christian, tear it down now and built it back up with Christ.  Keep Him forever in the forefront of your mind as you rebuild.  Your sanctification is a work in progress,  it will take a life time. A lifetime spent on building up your foundation will be a foundation that much stronger, daily building up your walls, making them thicker and more able to defend against the fiery darts of Satan.  Daily digging in, building upon your bulwarks.  Making your foundation stronger and stronger. It will take a lifetime.   The question is..... how much lifetime do you have left?   Glory be to God and seek holiness in all you do!


Be Holy! 
Shane