"But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?" (James 2:20).

There are many things in life we can well do without, but there are at least seven things a Christian simply cannot do without. These are outlined in the following listing.

"An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:39-40).

"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:14).

"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20).

"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (I Corinthians 3:11).

The only sure and lasting foundation, for either a Christian institution or an individual Christian life, is the Lord Jesus Christ. No other foundation will endure in that coming day when "the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is" (v.13).