.......foundation

Near the Temple in Jerusalem, there is a great mound of huge blocks in a heap on the Herodian street, testifying to the fulfilled prophecy of Jesus. The blocks were stones of the Temple that had been heaved 50 feet over the Western support wall onto the street below, during the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 AD.

When the Romans finally penetrated Jerusalem's walls, they burned the temple and dismantled the walls enclosing the Temple Mount compound in order to recover the gold that melted between the stones. Every block was pried away and they literally left not one stone on another. The stones were pushed over the edge of the Mount and sent crashing onto the street below. 

Today, you can still see how the pavement caved in from the impact of the stones that were dropped from above. It is amazing to see the fulfillment of Jesus' words frozen in stone yet today. "For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you ,and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.'" Luke 19:42-44

Still, this attempt at erasing the grandeur of Jerusalem, and perhaps its memory, has been a failure, because the foundation remains.   "Thus says the Lord God, 'Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.'" Isaiah 28:16 

The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy moves about one-twentieth of an inch a year and will eventually fall. Quite significantly, the word "pisa" means "marshy land," which clues us in to why the tower began to lean even before it was completed. At a height of 179 feet, its foundation is only 10 feet deep and built on swampland! How important is the foundation on which we build every facet of our lives! 

In Luke 6:47-49, Jesus gives us a warning. "'Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.'" 

Build a firm foundation! Everything else in your life depends on it.