Based on “Living or Dying - We WIN!” by Pastor Mark Balmer; 7/17-18/10,
Message #6055; Daily Devotional #5 - “There’s No Place like Home”
Preparing the Soil (Introduction): The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' (Acts 17:24-28) As I sit here writing to you, dear reader, in order that you may understand better the truth given to us by the Bible, I can close my eyes and see my place of birth. I know every road in that little town; I can hear the familiar birds calling and see the bloom of the state flower. How I’ve longed to return and live in that gilded place. If I open my eyes to the pages of our love letter from Christ, I find a place infinitely superior to that one horse town. It is a place which my soul shouts to see and my ears strain to hear. A place we are called not to harbor for our own joyful reflection but to share for the comfort of others. A place created by a person who very much loves us. When we accept Christ and place Him into the center of our lives, then we have what all mankind is eagerly grasping for...immortality. We never die, but we must choose how we live. For our life here is that of an orphan who is adopted from a foreign country. During the growth and development in their continent of adoption they can’t seem to shake that gravitational pull of their ‘homeland’ and likely their biological family. So it is with a Christ follower. We are here on Earth as aliens, and we seek that innate attachment with our Heavenly Home and Father.
Planting and Watering the Seed (Growth): Paul knew where he was from and where he was going. His soul was alive to that knowledge. To him it mattered not when he went home but that he brought others home with him. For him, earth was but a place he inhabited in order to grow and help others grow alongside him. He learned to love and take joy in his work, his friends, and even his physical comforts. However, inside he yearned for the day when his flight would leave for his homeland. Though the flight would be wearisome, painful, and even tearful; he longed to see the rise and fall of those familiar golden streets, the sounds of the angels singing to his Father. He embraced life in either land. But, in the end, it was life in Christ which was his choice. Either here on Earth or there in Heaven, he only wanted what was going to please his Heavenly Father. Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 demonstrates how we strive to find something that will fill the longing of our hearts. Without Christ as our center, we inevitably lead ourselves into a lifestyle so full of meaningless ‘somethings’ that life no longer exists as a relationship builder, but as a means to corrupt and estrange ourselves from anyone with whom we may have a meaningful connection. We live our lives more interested in what will happen in the next episode of our favorite TV series or who will win the next big game, than we do for the resolution of our own family disconnections. As tragic as this everyday dulling of our relational possibilities may seem, the danger of our soul becoming disconnected from its homeland passes us by with sadly less urgency. Having been lulled into a mindset of ‘here and now,’ we let the brilliance of ‘forever’ escape us. Our inheritance from Christ is Heaven, our homeland. Without conscious effort we allow this world to forfeit us our inheritance and leave us empty inside. Sir Walter Scott stated, ‘Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said, this is my own, my native land!’ We must claim Heaven as our own, our native land, and let our soul be alive to our purpose here on Earth.
Harvesting the Crop (Action/Response): As we wake each morning and open our eyes with the regret of a night so soon gone by, or as we fall into bed with the delight of a day finally over, consider this; it is not the night that we were created for, nor the day created for us to endure. No, the day was given with God-sized opportunities to bring fellow orphans the revelation of their homeland. The night was given but to ready us once again for that challenge. Have you questioned your purpose here on earth or had fear about leaving it? Is it possible for you to hear your beloved Father’s voice on these matters? Oh, yes! All you need to do is open the pages and peer inside! He is waiting for you both here on earth and in Heaven.
Cultivating (Additional Reading): Isaiah 35:1-10
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Calvary Chapel of Melbourne; 2955 Minton Road; W. Melbourne, FL 32904; 321-952-9673
All Bible references are from the New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise noted.