Precious Cornerstone
Deutsch
EnglishTherefore thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: Whoever believes will not be in haste. Isaiah 28,16 (ESV)
We simply have to realize that we are dealing with an almighty, majestic and just God.
1. Human limitations
However we may judge incomprehensible catastrophes, they show us human limitations.
Man is capable of accomplishing great things. He can build airplanes that can carry almost a thousand people across the oceans from continent to continent in just a few hours.
He can build houses that form a city within a city, houses that rise more than 800 meters into the sky and house tens of thousands of people. Man thinks he is great and smart, even if he is hardly able to solve his own problems.
But then events suddenly break out in his life that show what man really is: a needy, weak creature, dependent on the love and grace of the heavenly Father.
Huge boulders crushed a car on the Gotthard Autobahn and killed a couple. Swiss media reported that the stones were lying on the street „as if a giant had thrown them down at random. Like toy cars, they rammed a passenger car and overturned a heavy articulated lorry.”
2. The Sovereign God
C. S. Lewis is said to have said, „God whispers to us through our conscience, speaks to us through the word, but cries out to us through sorrow.“
In the judgment prophecy of Isaiah it becomes clear: the sovereign God, who lets his righteousness and omnipotence flash in pictures of the judgment, this God shows his human-loving heart.
God has laid a precious foundation for salvation that is rock solid: „Jesus Christ.“
Anyone who believes that has more than one chance with God and will not be put to shame!
3. Whoever believes will not be put to shame
That means: If I believe in salvation through Jesus, then the judgment that would banish me into the eternal distance from God will pass me by. I may have fellowship with Almighty God today, tomorrow and forever. Thus, in the midst of threats of judgment, the gospel shines forth. We need that rock-solid cornerstone that gives our lives a sure footing.
A. M. Toplady (1740-1778) was a minister at Blagdon on the Mendips, about eight miles from Wells. He was converted in a barn in Ireland when he was barely sixteen. After the song was over, a humble, uneducated man stood up and spoke about the word:
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.Ephesians 2,13 (ESV)
This sermon was used by God for the salvation of young Augustus M. Toplady. One day he was caught in a heavy thunderstorm. He sought refuge between two mighty columnar rocks in a rocky gorge that leads up into the Mendips mountains.
At one point of the rough cliffs, a steep limestone cliff rises about 30 meters high, and right in its middle there is a deep vertical crevice. Here Toplady was sheltered from the violence of the thunderstorm, and here he was inspired to write the famous song:
» Rock of salvation, open to me, hide me, eternal refuge, in you. Let the water and the blood, holy flood on your side, be my salvation, which frees me from sin, guilt and power! « (Pentecost Jubilee No.: 201 verse 1).
Autor: Egon Waechter
Photos: https://pixabay.com/de
