By Caleb Faires
Rudyard Kipling, inspired by Samuel Stone’s “The Church’s One Foundation,” wrote a hymn of his own called “Hymn Before Action.” It can be sung to the same tune, but I must warn you that its content is radically different from Stone’s. Kipling invokes God’s aid to support blatantly imperial aims.
Kipling’s message may hit a little closer to home than we’d like to admit. Have you ever sought God’s help for something that was really just a selfish wish? I have. We are naturally inclined to think opportunistically of our relationship with God. We have our own ideas about what we want and how God should help us fulfill our wishes. I am grateful that God is both faithful and gracious, dealing patiently even with my presumptuous and petty ways.
Unlike Kipling, Stone’s theme is not about the imperial aims of man, but the kingdom of God. It is part of a series of hymns which expound on the declarations of the Apostle’s Creed. In this hymn, Stone addresses the theme of the Church universal, and the communion of the saints.
This hymn is a reminder of what our forgetful hearts need to hear again and again: Christ is our all. He is the one foundation.
How often we build our lives on false hopes, false foundations, and the lure of worldly success. We seek to build the church on false visions of success—like size, numbers, facilities, and programs—while neglecting the preeminence of Christ. Our hearts are inclined to supplant Jesus and replace Him with our own designs.
It is precisely this “do-it-yourself” kind of faith that Christ confounds. Psalm 127:1 says, “Except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.” I think I read this verse over a thousand times before I noticed that God Himself was the builder. Somehow, I always read this and thought it meant that I should build on my own, after getting some architectural direction from God.
That’s not what the verse says. God is the builder. He has established the church. He builds it. And my communion with Him and with the saints is not rooted in what I have done, but in what He has done. Indeed, Peter declares that we are “living Stones” (1 Peter 2:5). Our chief duty is to rest in Christ and rest upon the foundation He has laid.
Any activity we invest in that is not fixed upon Christ is vanity. Any program we concoct, any relationship we foster, any prayer we utter is vain labor apart from Him.
Stone reminds us that only in Christ do we find peace, sustenance, hope, joy, life, beauty, glory, reconciliation, love, salvation, identity, comfort, endurance, strength, and grace. Christ alone fills all in all (Ephesians 1:23).
Written By Caleb Faires
The Church’s One Foundation
Samuel J. Stone, 1866
The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her
And for her life He died.
She is from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.
’Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.
Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won,
With all her sons and daughters
Who, by the Master’s hand
Led through the deathly waters,
Repose in Eden land.
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee:
There, past the border mountains,
Where in sweet vales the Bride
With Thee by living fountains
Forever shall abide!
For an added layer of worship during reading plan, we’ve created a Spotify playlist for Hymns! You can find the complete HRT Hymns Playlist here, or listen to the first track on the player below. Enjoy!
145 thoughts on "The Church’s One Foundation"
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Patrick Shen says:
That a lot of what we are to do is to wait on him. Struggle is very real. Our joy is found in him therefore supersedes all things on earth
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It is a gospel of salvation.
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God is the beginning of all things for me. And the fact that he is our foundation is the place i get my identity as the bride of the church.
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I will look to him first as the begging of all my thoughts and deeds. I will take hope in his promises that my ends are not his ends.
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I will pray for vision and endurance.
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Austin Timko says:
God is the builder, the architect of my life; of all lives and of all things. Sustain from acting out on selfish desires. Pray that God reveal his will and his plan that you may live in the fullness of Christ’s love.
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It’s always there, always true, always changing, and never lacking in anything. IT IS THE WORD OF GOD.
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Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. No selfish desires.
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We are selfish. We want what we believe is best for us. But the fact is, we will never know what is best for us without first seeking Gods plan for the situation/opportunity in our life.
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Lord break me to experience the fullness of your love. Give me wisdom, strength, and understand throughout all my days. Enter my heart, speak through my mouth, act through my body, guard my mind heart and soul. Lord, help me be love in others lives.
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Jarod Workman says:
We are nothing without God.
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God must be the builder of our lives. All of him, none of me.
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Kyle says:
Dear Lord,
You are the cornerstone and grand architect and builder of my dwelling. Continue to build me so that You– the Holy Spirit– may dwell inside of me. Cleanse me Lord so that I may be presented to You as radiant. Everything I am, everything I have is Yours! Use this ordinary dwelling for Your extraordinary work!
In Jesus’ name,
Amen -
Jeff Copeland says:
In the Gospel we find stability, a rock, upon which we doesn’t change in an ever changing world.
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By submitting to the work of Jesus in my life to finish what He started.
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The only way our lives will make sense and find fulfillment is in Christ. Jesus is our One and Only true foundation.
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God has laid the only foundation in Christ that can Redeem and change humanity. God desires to make us into a holy people who radiate his glory.
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Lord open my eyes and move in my heart to yield my life to your work of making me into the man you want me to become. I confess there is nothing this world has to offer than can compare to your presence and work in my life.
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Andrew C says:
That He is in control and in Him is where I find my rest and He is the one who builds the foundation, not me.
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That we are broken and in need of a strong rooted faith that is offered to us but we often choose to reject it because we want to be in control or we think God wants us to build our own foundation. But God is the one who builds it.
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