Home Sweet Home

Every once in a while, I get a whiff of something, a brief glimpse of another time in another place. Just a fragment of a scene – the house with the garden, the form of a person in the doorway, the scents of the flowers drifting on the breeze. Familiar, though I can’t remember why. Loved, though I can’t remember who or where. And so real, I can almost smell it and feel the warmth of the sun.

For a long time I thought this was memories of the past (and it might be just that), but now I wonder if it’s actually glimpses of heaven, of what and who we’ll see there. Sometimes I think I know the people in the vision; sometimes its the place – house, garden – that seems familiar. But always, always, there is the sense of familiar and loved.

I wonder if this is what Lewis was thinking of when he had Jewel the unicorn say, in The Last Battle, that we loved Narnia because it reminded us of Aslan’s country.

And I wonder how much our longing for that beloved, familiar place is behind our dissatisfaction with this life, our moves from one house or job or relationship to another, or our travel to exotic locales. Are we always just searching for home?

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The thing is, we were created to live in God. Adam was formed in God’s image, designed to be a companion and friend of God, fashioned for fellowship with his Creator. We lost so much more than we understand when Adam disobeyed.

Nothing will make us truly and eternally happy, or content, or at peace, until we make our home in Him.

It’s not enough to say that you are saved. Not enough to say that you’ve filled that ‘God-sized hole’ inside you with God rather than other stuff. Definitely not enough to say you’re ‘following Him’. Even when we’ve done that, we still feel a need for more.

Oh, the need comes and goes, but it’s always there, underneath. Isn’t it?

What we really need is to go farther, and actually move into Him. Pack up and move to another place.

Just move right into God’s heart. You invited Jesus into your heart when you got saved, but He wants you to live in His heart, too.

This is God’s strongest desire – not that He lives in us, but that we live in Him. This is what we were created for!

In that place of oneness with Him we can live in wholeness in every facet of our being.

In oneness with Him, we can be who and what we were created to be – unique and individual and perfect!

And from that place of oneness with Him, we can reach out and change the world, one heart at a time.

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May you find your true home in Him, and move right in and settle down, nevermore to roam.

I in them, and You in Me – John 17:23 (The whole chapter is good, especially from verse 20 to the end!)

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Famous Last Words

Maybe not the most famous, but possibly the most misunderstood, last words are those of Jesus upon the cross.

He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.  (John 19:30)

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What is finished, though?

Most will agree that He was referring to the atonement for sin. The sacrifice of a sinless person paid the penalty for all mankind’s sins for all time. An amazing, awesome thing, and more than enough for us.

Yet the longer I live, the more I get to know Him, the more I see that there is so much more that He accomplished. Here’s what I’ve seen so far:

Curses are finished.

Disease is finished.

Poverty is finished.

Bondage to satan is finished.

Separation from God is finished.

The old man is finished.

Sin is finished.

Death is finished.

Guilt is finished.

Shame is finished.

Condemnation is finished.

* * *

Fellowship with God is restored.

Freedom from bondage is ours.

Righteousness is ours.

So are wisdom, grace, and every fruit of the Spirit.

Because we are born again into His kingdom, a new creation, we are overcomers.

In fact, we are more than overcomers.

Through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are restored to the relationship and position that Adam forfeited in Eden’s garden. Think about that one for a while.

This is the rest we enter into upon salvation!

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In I John 4, we are told that God’s seed remains in us, and we don’t sin! So being a ‘sinner saved by grace’ is hogwash. Demon dung! Yeah, we were sinners, but now we are a new creation, the children of God, perfect and righteous and holy, just as He is. (Another lie bites the dust!)

The redemption of mankind was finished that day on Calvary!

Finished!

Every facet, every part of our being was set free of sin and its effects!

Every!

It’s all done! Complete!

God don’t mess around! When He does something, He does it well, and He does it thoroughly.

So there’s nothing that’s not done, that needs to be fixed by us!

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Why then, do we struggle so much?

Because we don’t understand that it is ALL finished! We think it’s something that’s only partially done, and we have to do the rest by ourselves!

After all, isn’t that what it says in Phil 2:12?

Ah, but Phil. 2:13 …

This ‘working out of our salvation’ is simply learning the truth of His finished work! It is not us changing ourselves. It is us allowing God to work in us to change us, to set us free (which is His good pleasure!).

As this truth of the finished work of Christ becomes real to us, it sets us free!

It changes us into His image, restores us to that position Adam had.

The position we hold from the moment of our rebirth into His family becomes real to us. (It was always real to God.)

Because we live in time, these changes happen over time. But God lives outside of time, and in Him, it’s finished!

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May you be blessed with His truth in your inward man!

May what He has finished become more real for (and in) you!

And may you rest in His completed work!

(I was going to include scripture references for all this but decided it’s too much work. Besides, if you find a truth yourself – with Holy Spirit’s help – it is more real to you. Happy hunting!)

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