Gleanings from Obed-Edom (Part 2) - The Library

Thinking about Obed-Edom and how the Ark was in his home for 3 months, reminds me of a little booklet I read years ago--WOW--now that I think about it, it was over 50 years ago! I can hardly believe it. The title was "My Heart--Christ's Home" by Robert Boyd Munger. It was published by InterVarsity and has been republished many times since.

I ordered a new copy. And I am as delighted with it now as much as I was then.

Originally it appeared in InterVarsity's HIS magazine and then later in Billy Graham's Decision magazine.

The text is Ephesians 3:16-17,

"That God may grant you to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith."

Weymouth's version is:

"That Christ may settle down and be at home in your hearts by faith."

And The Message:

I ask Him to strengthen you by His Spirit--not a brute strength, but a glorious inner strength--that Christ may live in you as you open the door and invite Him in. And I ask Him with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God

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I can't stop reading and re-reading this from C. S. Lewis:

Dozens of people go to Him to be cured of some particular sin which they are ashamed of, or which is obviously spoiling daily life (like cowardice, bad temper, alcoholism). Well, He will cure it all right; but He will not stop there. That may be all you asked, but if once you call Him in, He will give you the full treatment.

He didn't come to change us into nice people, but new people. He is the painter and we are the painting. He is the inventor. We are only the invention. He knows what we can be and has given His Son to make our transformation possible. His goal for us is higher that we can imagine for ourselves.

You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage; but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

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In Munger's wonderful little about God settling down and being at home in our hearts, as soon as he invited Christ into his life he gives the Lord of the Universe a tour through His new home.

First is the study, or the library. It was filled with books, magazines and pictures on the walls (actually the thoughts and imaginations and fantasies of the mind). In a way it is the most important room because it serves as the control room of the whole house.

Suddenly as he saw Jesus looking at the books and pictures he realized that many of these things (and the thoughts they represent) did not in any way make Jesus feel comfortable. In fact, some were shameful, and the host was embarrassed for Jesus to see them.

He turned to Jesus and said, "Master, I know this room needs to be cleaned up. Will you help me clean it up and make it pleasing and comfortable to you?"

Jesus said, "Certainly, I've come to handle things like this. First, remove everything from your shelves that is not good, true, pure and helpful, and throw them out! Fill the shelves with the Sciptures and things that honor Me. Meditate on them."

"But what about the walls? My thoughts and imaginations?"

Jesus said, "You will have difficulty controlling these images. But I have something that will help."

He handed the host a full-sized portrait of Himself. "Hang this in the center of the wall of your mind. Concentrate on Me."

The host did and acknowledged later that when his mind was centered on Christ--the awareness of His presence and purity and holiness--impure thoughts seemed to back away. "So He helped me bring even my thoughts under His control, even though the struggle still continues, I rely on His power and presence to give me victory."

If you have trouble with this little room of the mind, bring Christ in there! Pack its shelves with the Word of God. Study and meditate on it. And keep before you the presence of the Lord Jesus.

Remember Christ's words in John 14: I go to prepare a place for you...that where I am you may be also. Later in John 14 He said, If a man loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him and make our home with him.

He was promising that even as He was going to heaven to prepare a place for them, so it was also possible for them to prepare a place for Him, in their own hearts right here on earth.