We have certain things in our home that are unusual, and we also have memories and pictures. I have met people who lost their homes due to fire or weather, and many say the same thing- they miss their pictures- something that cannot be replaced.
I live in a home that is special to me, but I cannot hold onto it forever. Eventually, I will either sell it or pass on leaving it either way to someone else.
I remember staying in an antebellum home in Mississippi for my honeymoon. The home was very old, large, and beautiful, but during the tour, the tour guide talked about all the owners since it was built. The list was long and many lost it due to death while some to not being able to pay taxes; there were various other reasons. The man who owned it was getting married in the elaborate home and was planning the ceremony while Lisa and I stayed there. Yet, he will not be able to keep it forever. Eventually, he will also not be the owner due to death or some other reason.
It is true on earth that we have no permanent home, but for us, this really should not matter. We do have a permanent home with our Messiah.
Scripture: Psalm 90
90 Lord, You have been our dwelling place[a] in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are the eternal.
3 You turn man to destruction,
And say, “Return, O children of men.”
4 For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it is past,
And like a watch in the night.
5 You carry them away like a flood;
They are like a sleep.
In the morning they are like grass which grows up:
6 In the morning it flourishes and grows up;
In the evening it is cut down and withers.
7 For we have been consumed by Your anger,
And by Your wrath we are terrified.
8 You have set our iniquities before You,
Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.
9 For all our days have passed away in Your wrath;
We finish our years like a sigh.
10 The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knows the power of Your anger?
For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.
12 So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O LORD!
How long?
And have compassion on Your servants.
14 Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy,
That we may rejoice and be glad all our days!
15 Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us,
The years in which we have seen evil.
16 Let Your work appear to Your servants,
And Your glory to their children.
17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands.
This psalm reminds us that we are at home with the Messiah when we are following Him in spirit and in truth.
He is our home and has been our home from the beginning of time, and this is important because we only live about 70 years or a few more years if we are strong enough.
Due to our limited time of life, we are to work for Him and be His servants.
So, while we live, we have a home with Him. He is to guide our lives, and we are to be subservient.
We have the certainty of an eternal home. The feast of trumpets is our rehearsal that He will return for us-
Scripture: John 14:1-6
14 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions;[a] if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.[b] 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Our Messiah promised that He will return for us and that He stands as our Representative to the Father in heaven.
We also learn in the Feast of Tabernacles, among other things, that we are in a temporary dwelling place in our bodies.
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5
5 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the eternal.
According to Paul, we are in a body analogous to a tent- a temporary dwelling place. We have a permanent and perfect body awaiting us in a perfect place of the future.
It really is true that our Messiah is our dwelling place through the physical generations as stated by Moses and in the world tomorrow as stated by John and Paul as I read earlier.
Our hope and eternal home are in our Messiah. One song says “This world is not my home, I am just a passing through” while another song says “Swing low sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home.”
Also, we sing a song in this church called “Harvest Home”.
These are our greatest blessings: to live according to the Bible and to be reborn to live with our Messiah forever. No one can destroy or alter these facts.
I close with two verses not usually sung from Amazing Grace-
“The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.”
“The world will soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbade to shine, but God who called me here below, will be forever mine.”
The eloquent words from “Amazing Grace” tell the story of His love for us. Troubles will come to those who follow Him, but the reward is so great. Eternity awaits us once this flesh fails, and our temporary dwelling places are changed to that which lasts throughout eternity.
Pastor Nick
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