Dear Friend,

How do people best discover the presence of Christ in our lives and say, with deep desire in their hearts, "We have heard that God is with you?" Most likely it is when they see how we confront the stoms of life. During recent months, I have talked to many people who have seen their lives severely disrupted by the economic downturn. Our own ministry has been affected by these forces.

Being a Christian does not exempt us from these storms. At some point, we all face hardships. Each of our lives can change instantly through illness, death or catastrophes of all kinds. the longer we live, the more storms we will face. The question is how we respond when the storms hit. If we respond win the right way, we have the potential to win many people to Christ.

Jesus helps us to prepare for these inevitable storms. At the end of His Sermons on the Mount, He tells the parable of the wise man who builds his house on a rock. When the storm hits, his house stands. The foolish man builds his house on sand. When the storm hits, his house falls.

Clearly, Jesus tells us in this parable that the key to successful weathering of the storm is the strength of the foundation. It is possible that on the outside, the two houses looked the same. The difference lies in the foundation.

That foundation, Jesus says, is learning to do what He says. Go to any church, and you will meet many people who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ. They go to the same church services, Bible studies, Sunday school classes and other activities, but not all of them have strong foundations.

Building a strong foundation for life takes time. it takes effort. It takes commitment. These are things that many so-called "believers" are not willing to give. We live in a culture where commitment is foreign. Instead, we are encouraged to live for the moment, to commit ourselves to nothing and to no one. We are distracted by many things.

As members of our society, we are all guilty too some degree of having weak foundations. We all have tendencies to laziness and passivity. But we must fight these tendencies. Jesus' admonition to do that He teaches is later echoed by James when he says, "Faith without works is dead." (James 2:17).

What are the elements of a strong foundation? Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has already told us. They include:

• Seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
• Building treasure in heaven, not on earth.
• Discerning false prophets from true prophets.
• Holding to the straight and narrow way.
• Learning to receive the good gifts that God wants to give His children.
• Learning to depend upon God's provision of our necessities.
• Developing freedom from materialism and anxiety.
• Conducting acts of righteousness that please God.

To build a strong foundations, we must know the truth and act on it. to know the truth, we must actively seek it, with the desire to live it out in our lives. We must put aside our lazy, naive and short sighted ways of thinking and learn to think like our Lord Jesus.

Let this be our resolution for 2010: to build strong foundations in the kingdom of God. not only will it glorify our Lord, but will receive infinite blessing, and we will attract many people with out testimony for the gospel.

With love in Christ,

T. Valson Abraham