Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Home (01/09/06)
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TITLE: Our Homecoming! | Previous Challenge Entry
By Doug Laird
01/11/06 -
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God established the home on earth, but our primary focus must be the eternal, not the temporal, if we are to maintain the correct priorities in life.
The Bible teaches that, for believers, the day we go home to be with the Lord is better than the day we were born into our earthly home (Eccl. 7:1). The Bible tells us that the going home of a (saved) loved one is a “precious (Psalms 116:15 NIV)” moment.
From a divine viewpoint, a believer’s homecoming should be a cause of celebration.
When we truly love others we want what is best for them, no matter what it may cost. Selfishness causes us to want to delay the earthly departure of any child of God who He has called home.
There is only one right time and set of circumstances for each individual to be born and to go home, and they are in God’s hands. The spiritually mature believer will not desire to die one second sooner or live one second longer than the time that God has ordained for him/her.
I have walked “through the valley of the shadow of death (Ps. 23:4 NIV)”, but it was not my time to go home. I have witnessed the homecoming of many others. Some were at either end and some were at the midpoint of what we would call the duration of a “normal” life span. It is not how long we live, but what we accomplish during the time that God gives us is what matters.
God did not consult us when He determined the circumstances and timing of our birth and He does not consult us concerning the circumstances and timing of our call to come home.
His direct and permissive will allows us to make many decisions between these two events, but the timing and circumstances of our birth and homecoming is in His hands (Ps. 31:15).
Our homecoming is not an end but only a change in location, and a better one (for the believer) at that.
So why is it then that even Christians look upon our homecoming as tragic and not the blessed (Ps. 116:15) event that it was designed to be?
The bottom line is that even most Christians lack the divine perspective when it comes to death. For some it is a matter of fear, while for others it is a matter of prioritizing this life over eternity. For many it is a matter of not accepting His will.
Reasonable precautions to avoid a premature death are exercises of common sense, but when caution becomes fear, it is a matter of satanic bondage (Hebrews 2:15). Fear is the antithesis of faith. The more you have of one, the less you have of the other. The degree of faith we have will determine our viewpoint of death.
Desiring this life and/or the things of this life over the eternity is a clear indication of human as opposed to divine viewpoint concerning the very reason we were created (Luke 14: 26, 27).
The glorification of God is the primary purpose that we were created. It is the glorification of God that gives each and every day here on Earth purpose, meaning, and definition.
Our life and relationship with God is NOT something that begins when we are called home, but is to be the continuation of the one that we initiated and (should have) nurtured while here on Earth.
For some, death will come suddenly and with no or little time to reflect on what is happening. For others, death will be a process. Those who are called to experience death as a process are given perhaps the greatest opportunity to witness to their friends and family by the way they face not only death, but the process of it as well.
The only time a homecoming is tragic is when the wandering soul finally arrives, sees family and friends inside, but finds the door locked and no one inside who is willing to come to the door (Matt.25: 10).
Thank God for being a Father who will not shut the door until all His children are seated around His table (John 10:28).
Are you ready to go home?
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