Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
--John 14:1-3
I am thinking about heaven today. We are studying Revelation in our Monday morning class. All the glimpses of what we will see -- golden streets, gates of pearls, the river flowing as crystal from the throne of God, the rainbow encircling the throne, precious jewels, the tree of life, the angels -- all we are told about seems breathtaking.
But whenever I think of heaven, I think of the verses, not in Revelation, but in John, when Christ is comforting His disciples.
He knows what is about to happen -- that He is to be arrested, tortured with a cruel death, and they will be frightened and scattered and no doubt feeling hopeless and helpless. So what does He tell them to bring them comfort?
He doesn't describe the wonder and magnificence of His heavenly palace -- no, He tells them He is going home.And someday they will go home, also.
HOME. Because Home is where He will be. That's what they need to hear. That's what they want to hear. He's going back home and they will join Him there in the future.
And it will be our home. We're going home. Even the prodigal finally made it back home.
We have traveled in many areas of the world. We enjoyed our trips to Italy, Switzerland, Israel, Thailand, and so many other wonderful places. But we were always anxious to get back HOME.
Our earthly home is just a temporary substitute for our final destination, our real home. So in our hearts we are still pilgrims and wanderers, journeying on, seeking our real home -- the place where we really belong.
Why do we still yearn for home? Because we are homeless...we lost our home.
We seek, like Abraham,
...when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. --Hebrews 11:8-10
Our basic need for our lost home is fully met only because the Lord Jesus Himself, right now, is preparing for us a home in heaven and, right now, is preparing us for that heavenly home!
Until then we are living in a strange, alien land which is actually enemy territory.
But someday we will arrive Home. Finally. At last. And that day will be the first day of the rest of our lives!
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1
*****
Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. -- Robert Frost
This is written by Larry McCall and reflects so clearly the way we can drift from Christ's presence and slip into apathy and disbelief.
Come winter, the ice forms almost imperceptibly on the lake near our home. After the first few cold nights, a bit of skim ice may be noticed by the observant passerby. Gradually, ever so gradually, the ice thickens as the cold takes its grip on our northern Indiana community. By the dead of winter, fishermen labor at drilling through two feet of hard ice to get through to the warmer waters below.
Sin is like that. A heart that once seemed warm cools so gradually that only the especially perceptive friend or pastor notices skim ice forming on the soul of the church member.
The person who once evidenced a warm, experiential trust in Christ gradually, ever so gradually, cools toward the matters of eternity. The appetite to read God's Word lessens, prayer becomes sporadic, worship becomes boring, and all kinds of excuses are found not to be with Christian friends.
The ice thickens. The heart gets colder and colder. The voice of Christ no longer has its former effect. Instead, the call of the world draws. The beauty of Christ no longer entices. The world begins to look more appealing. One sin leads to the next. the second becomes easier than the first. Then, another and another. Eventually, the church realizes that one of her own has been overtaken by "an evil, unbelieving heart," leading a church member to "fall away from the living God" (Hebrews 3:12).
How does this happen? How does a person who has evidenced apparent faith in Christ and faithfulness to Him "fall away from the living God"?
More important, what can be done to guard against apostasy in the church? What should be done?
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold till the end the
confidence we had at first. As has just been said:Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts...
(Hebrews 3:12-15)
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Note: I need to think about this some more. How do we stop it? Is a key found in the words "encourage each other daily"? I don't want to let my heart harden....
This verse indicates that we ourselves harden our hearts.....and that as we pursue the deceitfulness of sin our hearts harden. I need to think more about this.
Sometimes I feel sort of brittle and cold -- not soft and giving like I do when living closely in the presence of God -- I sometimes feel myself drifting -- like the hymn--"Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I Love. Take my heart, oh, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above....Let thy grace, Lord, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee." That's what I want -- and I am sure that's what He wants!
Corrie Ten Boom tells a story from her childhood.
She remembers reading about martyrs for Christ and all they had suffered in the two thousand years since Christ's own suffering.
She told her father that she didn't see how she could possibly be strong enough to suffer the cruel punishments so many Christians had experienced.
His reply was something like this: 'Tell me, when you take a train trip, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Several weeks early?'
'No,' she replied. 'You give it to me just as I get on the train.'
His wise response to her earnest question: 'Well, that's how God does it. Your Father in heaven knows when you are going to need the strength to endure the suffering. That's when He gives it to you. You don't need it right now, but when you do, He will supply it -- just in time.'
Later, while in one of the Nazi concentration camps (where she and her family were imprisoned for the crime of hiding and rescuing Jewish refugees) she thought of those words and shared them with her companions.
Her suffering was great. Any prisoner caught with a Bible or praying would face a death by cruel torture.
But she endured. Reading her Bible and praying. Her sister died there. She lost other family members.
But Corrie Ten Boom survived.
In the presence of my enemies....
Years later she was telling her story to a small village in Africa, where the struggling church was facing intense persecution by a hostile government.
[When I was growing up Corrie was a popular speaker - often on Billy Graham's programs and with many other hosts. We all read her book, The Hiding Place -- and yes, there was even a movie!]
As she looked out on her audience she knew many of these new Christians would be killed in the near future. They were fearful and anxious, but as she spoke she saw confidence and joy appearing on their faces. Peace began to fill their hearts.
She learned later that over half of her audience had died a martyr's death shortly after she left.
And now, dear friends of mine, I beg you not to be unduly alarmed at the fiery ordeals which come to test your faith, as if this were some abnormal experience. You should be glad, because it means you are called to share Christ's sufferings. One day, when He shows Himself in full splendor to men, you will be filled with the most tremendous joy. If you are reproached for being Christ's followers, that is a great privilege, for you can be sure that God's spirit of glory is resting upon you. 1 Peter 4:12-14, Phillips
...you should be glad....you will be filled with tremendous joy...a great privilege...God's spirit of glory is resting upon you.
Just as Peter and his Christian family were facing persecution under Nero, so did Corrie Ten Boom and all those other Christians who suffered under the Nazis, most of them for trying to resist Hitler and to help Jews.
God's spirit of glory rested upon them, and will in eternity, when they are wearing the martyrs' crowns.
Let's remember to pray for today's persecuted church
Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5)
[I got this story from a book by Nancy Guthrie, a fine compilation of thoughts about suffering. Nancy has lost two children, and has been able to share great insights about grief and pain.
You may remember I said that the first step towards humility was to realize that one is proud. I want to add now that the next step is to make some serious attempt to practice the Christian virtues.
A week is not enough. Things often go swimmingly for the first week. Try six weeks. By that time, having, as far as one can see, fallen back completely or even fallen lower than the point one began from, one will have discovered some truths about oneself.
No man knows how bad he is til he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie.
Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army be fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not be lying down.
A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it; and Christ, because of He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means -- the only complete realist.
From Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis
I was checking out a verse I remember reading earlier about God's instructions for the kings that would be ruling Israel.
It shall be that when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself two copies of this Torah in a book, from before the Kohanim, the Levites. It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life, so that he will learn to fear Hashem, his God, to observe all the words of this Torah and these decrees, to perform them, so that his heart does not become haughty over his brethren and not turn from the commandment right or left, so that he will prolong years over his kingdom, he and his sons amid Israel.
(Deuteronomy 17:18-20, Hebrew Bible)
Does this mean the king is to actually write out, copy carefully, his own copy of the Torah (first 5 books of the Old Testament)? Looks like that to me.
Actually, 2 copies, according to the Hebrew Bible -- other translations say 1 copy.
Here's the way the NIV translates it:
When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees, and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign for a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
I decided to check my old, interesting Chumash (collection of rabbinical commentaries on the Torah) to read their thoughts:
Their records say the king is to write out two copies. He is to keep one copy in his treasury, and to keep the other one with him at all times. These scrolls are to remind him at all times, august as his position may be, that he is a servant of the Torah. This is especially important in the royal treasury, where the presence of his wealth could easily blind him to his responsibilities.
If the king inherited Torah Scrolls from his father, he must nevertheless write one new one for himself; but if his father did not leave him any, he must write two.
The king is to copy his Scroll from the authoritative one that Moses placed in the safekeeping of the Kohanim.
He shall read and observe...In its plain sense the verse is quite clear. But, the Chumash says, there are deeper meanings as well. The king should have the physical Scroll with him at all times, but also the king should consult the Torah for guidance on how to deal with whatever happens to him, for all the events of all the days of his life. And how to react to all circumstances.
It continues...If a king, who must maintain his dignity and for whom a certain level of pomp is proper, is forbidden to be haughty, then certainly each individual must purge himself of this distasteful and abominable trait from his heart. Grandeur is God's alone and human beings should take pride only for their degree of service to him.
I enjoy reading the Chumash....but look at that last sentence -- human beings should take pride only for their degree of service to him (God).
Isn't that the opposite of what Jesus taught? And remember Paul.."not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:9)...and remember the Pharisees?
Ignoring God's Word - Isn't this, in reality, exactly what is wrong with the whole world?
But taking pride in our service to God -- isn't that, in part, what's wrong with the church?
P.S. Notice the Hebrew translation says to make (by hand) copies of the Torah - that would be the first 5 books--Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Most Gentile commentaries take it to mean the book of Deuteronomy only, but still a big task...requiring patience and skill....
