“In need of concrete work?” I read in the paper. There were other ads of course, in fact many of them, but I was straight away attracted to that advertisement. Why? There is one promise in the Bible, I like to read again and again. I know that verse off by heart of course and I say it quite often to myself.

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid which is Jesus Christ.”

(First Corinthians 3:11)

That advertisemment mentioned above talks about FOUNDATIONS! Foundations are so important. And it is not only important to have a foundations, we must have the right, the correct foundation.

Read First Corinthians 3:11 again!

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY FOUNDATION!

I was not going to pressure myself into writing more posts or entries for this blog. In fact I was going to have a bit of a break.

But this afternoon the word pressure came into my mind in relation with something else and all of a sudden what I read only yesterday about pressure was back in my thoughts. I am coming to that in a minute. As you can see I have to write about this very important subject, whether I want to or not.

Pressure is there all of the time in one form or another for all of us and we have to deal with it.

We had a very wise field leader in Thailand, when I was a missionary there with W.E.C. International from 1966 until 1979. I remember him saying: “If we put enough pressure on each other, we all go home eventually.” Do you agree with that?

Most of us don’t like pressure, I am sure. We are trying to eliminate pressure, right? But can we always eliminate it?

And this is what I read yesterday in the little paper called “Coffee News” (30. 11. 09) under the heading “On the Lighter Side” : “Don’t be afraid of pressure. Remember that pressure is what turns a lump of coal into a diamond.”

Don’t be afraid of pressure! Are you afraid?

In the Bible, the Word of the Living God, we read about the apostle Paul, who was not afraid of pressure. He is writing a lot about pressure in his second letter to the Corinthians.

In Second Corinthians 11:28 he says, “Besides everything else, I face daily pressure of my concern for all the churches.” And then in the same letter in Second Corinthians 4:8,9 we read this, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;….”

Notice, that he is writing there about four things: 1. Pressure, 2. Perplexity, 3. Persecution, 4. Being struck down.

I will close with Second Corinthians 1:8-11 where Paul, the apostle, is writing about hardships and great pressure in the province of Asia. He despaires even of life. In his heart he felt the sentence of death.

Why did all that happen?

His answer: “But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God,…”

Pressure makes us rely on God and turns lumps of coal into diamonds.

Are you a lump of coal or a diamond?