As I sit here typing this blog post, Ida is pounding Florida and a plane just ascended from the runway in Afghanistan carrying more people to a future they never planned to have.
And all of this is happening while the COVID numbers change daily.
I don’t know what stories will lead the news the day you read this post—but God does.
We are launching the new website today, FoundationsWithJanet.org.
I will not know most of the people who visit the site—but God does.
God knows all things so I want to help as many as possible to know God’s word. That is why this new ministry exists. Storms come and go. We make plans, and most plans change. Does anything stay the same?
God does—and so does his word.
The prophet Isaiah said, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8).
If the prophet were writing today, he might have said, “The world moves forward, and technology is everchanging, but God’s word will still deliver his truth, to each generation.”
Still teaching
Can you imagine filling a backpack or small suitcase knowing that the contents will be all that is familiar property in a week’s time?
Can you imagine the plane lifting from the airstrip knowing that you’re leaving behind people you love?
Can you imagine disembarking the plane in a new country and a different culture, knowing that some of the people you see may not be glad you arrived?
Some who fled Ida’s winds will return to their homes and find it “unfamiliar” too.
I used to teach second-graders how to think, imagine, and write. Now I teach adults to think about God’s word and apply his truth to their lives. Even as I type, I realize I hope to teach God’s word to the crowds of people arriving from other cultures.
God gave Moses his word for the refugees and he still does. I hope some of those refugees will find God’s word for them on the Foundations website. I hope I can teach some of you, who will then teach them. If God brought them to us, we need to be faithful to them.
I had no idea when I was teaching second-graders that I would still be teaching forty years later. I have no idea how many more years I will be teaching.
But God does.
Still standing
Most of us chart our faith journey as a crooked line, with highs and lows. We know what we did right and we know what we would do differently if we could. Our storms came and went, and there was usually some cleanup after. We’ve been weak and we’ve been strong. We’ve made plans, but we also know we don’t hold the future, and we know God does.
Someday, in heaven, I will meet my readers. I probably won’t know most of you on earth, but I have all of eternity to get to know each of you. What is our prayer until then? That God will find us still standing in his truth.
Jesus said, “Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against the house and could not shake it, because it had been well built” (Luke 6:47–48).
We chose the name Foundations because of the teaching of Christ. The storms are a promise and so is our firm foundation. Let’s build our lives grounded in his word.
I don’t know what I will be writing about a year from now—but God does.
I do know that I will be teaching God’s word as truth, because it is. “Everyone” who hears God’s words and obeys will still be standing on a firm foundation of faith, whatever the future holds.
Still learning
I’m keeping this blog post short because I hope you will click on this link and visit the new website. I hope you will join me as we study the book of Romans this year. And I hope this weekly blog post will be a moment each Wednesday of God’s truth.
If we are still living on earth, we still have more to learn about God. My husband, Jim, and I were talking recently about the extreme nature of the world’s events. Should we be looking for Jesus to return? His answer: “Of course. We should always live like it could be soon.”
We don’t get to know when Jesus will return—but God does. I hope when the skies open up and the trumpet sounds, the Lord will find all of us still standing firm in his word and obedient to his call. I hope the new website, FoundationsWithJanet.org, will help us do that.