Our home was established thirty-four years ago when my husband and I married. We have inhabited many different dwellings but as the old saying goes, home is where the heart is and my heart is forever bound up in God-ordained oneness with Paul’s. In fact, these words were clearly communicated in our marriage vows.
““But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’
‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’
So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.””
Mark 10:6-9 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/mrk.10.6-9.NIV
Our home is not separate from us as a couple but we have shared many different addresses. We have had the privilege of building a family together and during those same years, we have also built two houses. Three if you count one major makeover and addition. We have enjoyed dreaming together, picturing what could be and then seeing it take shape before our eyes. Was our patience sorely tested? Every time! Was the finished product worth the work and wait? Absolutely!
Even a solid plan, with every minute detail mapped out, cannot account for human error. During one build, our ductwork was installed before the house was dried In completely. After a week of rain, the ductwork was necessarily removed and replaced. Weather also comes into play when footings are dug and foundations laid. Delays are inevitable. Subcontractors fall behind on other jobs creating further scheduling conflicts. If you know you know. Being handed keys, a certificate of occupancy, and spending that first night under the roof you’ve invested so heavily in fortifying is highly satisfying.
Still houses can be destroyed. The year my husband and I were engaged, coastal Carolina took a severe beating. By the time we were married and chose our first apartment, more than a year had passed and the Charleston area where Paul was studying remained storm scarred. Destruction on a massive scale occurs annually from natural disasters alone. We purchase insurance, hoping to cover our losses but then storms like Helene prove exceptions exist to every rule.
What a relief to know, as followers of Christ, that this world is not our home. This is not all there is to life. As beautiful and fulfilling as it may be, we were made for more. We are eternal beings, created in the image of God for a life of abundance in Christ in the here and now, but one day, we will be clothed in immortality. Our eyes of faith are set on a home with unshakeable foundations whose architect and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:10TPT)
“It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance.
He went without knowing where he was going.
And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents.
And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise.
Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.”
Hebrews 11:8-10 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.11.10.NLT
“But now you have been united with Christ Jesus.
Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.
Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.
Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.
We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.”
Ephesians 2:13, 18, 20-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.2.20.NLT
““Don’t let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God, and trust also in me.
There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.
If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”
John 14:1-3 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.14.1-3.NLT
“You know the way to where I am going,” Jesus had summarily announced. Thomas only said what they all must have been thinking. They had followed him for the better part of three years. They had left behind homes and families. He had shown them miracles. He even authorized and empowered them to do miracles. He sent them out and they came back rejoicing that demons submitted to them in His name. “Don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you. Rejoice because your names are registered in heaven,” Jesus had said. He kept talking about going away to someplace they could not follow, yet.
“And you know the way to where I am going.”
“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one can come to the Father except through me.”
John 14:4-6 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.14.4-6.NLT
“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.
Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him.
Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.
For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.”
Colossians 2:6-9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/col.2.6-9.NLT
“I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments.
In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Colossians 2:3-4 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/col.2.4.NLT
“And so, dear brothers and sisters who belong to God and are partners with those called to heaven, think carefully about this Jesus whom we declare to be God’s messenger and High Priest.
For he was faithful to God, who appointed him, just as Moses served faithfully when he was entrusted with God’s entire house.
But Jesus deserves far more glory than Moses, just as a person who builds a house deserves more praise than the house itself.
For every house has a builder, but the one who built everything is God.
Moses was certainly faithful in God’s house as a servant.
His work was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later.
But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house.
And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.
That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness.
There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years.
So I was angry with them, and I said, ‘Their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’
So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”
Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters.
Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God.
You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.
For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.”
Hebrews 3:1-14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.3.14.NLT
“Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking.
For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven!
When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise:
“Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.”
This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.
Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.
For our God is a devouring fire.”
Hebrews 12:25-29 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.12.25-29.NLT
“For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.
But thank God!
He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable.
Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”
1 Corinthians 15:53-58 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.15.53-58.NLT
We ordered a large custom farm table to be delivered upon completion of the first house we built. Our move was delayed nearly a year and though we paid in full, we could not take delivery of the table while in our small rental house. The owner assured us this was not an issue. He would store the table until our home was ready. He arrived the week after our move, having delivered another table a few hours north of us. As he helped my husband carry our table inside, he shared that he had stored that other table for over two years. The house had been completed and the hardwood floors sealed. A careless worker leaving the job site tossed a cigarette from his vehicle igniting the flammable sealant and the entire house burned to the ground.
“Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder.
Now others are building on it.
But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful.
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.
Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw.
But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done.
The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.
If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.
But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss.
The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.
Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?”
1 Corinthians 3:10-16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.3.10-16.NLT
“But I tell you, on the day of judgment people will have to give an accounting for every careless or useless word they speak.
For by your words [reflecting your spiritual condition] you will be justified and acquitted of the guilt of sin; and by your words [rejecting Me] you will be condemned and sentenced.””
Matthew 12:36-37 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/mat.12.36-37.AMP
““Therefore, the one who confesses and acknowledges Me before men [as Lord and Savior, affirming a state of oneness with Me], that one I will also confess and acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven.
But the one who denies and rejects Me before men, that one I will also deny and reject before My Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 10:32-33 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/mat.10.32-33.AMP
You and I have a choice today between grumbling and gratitude, procrastinating and praise, worthless words and worship. What we choose most often displays what is in our hearts. Do my thoughts become words and actions that clearly show Jesus is my Savior and Lord? What a privilege to know that our lives on earth are preparing us for something more. If we readily invest our valuable resources in building a beautiful structure to inhabit temporally, how much more should we be investing in eternals?
““Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal.
Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.
Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”
Matthew 6:19-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.6.19-21.NLT
God’s Word provides our script for the opening scenes of eternity. The melodies reverberate throughout scripture. Let’s learn them together, day by day, and sing them out, loud and strong, with our voices and our lives, a prelude to eternity in the presence of the King.
“Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his holy temple.
Praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his powerful acts.
Praise him because he is greater than anything else.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.”
Psalm 150:1-2, 6 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/psa.150.1-6.NIRV
“And they sang a new song with these words: “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it.
For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
And they sang in a mighty chorus:
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered— to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.”
And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea.
They sang: “Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.””
Revelation 5:9, 12-13 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rev.5.9-13.NLT
Words We’ll Sing Forever ~Seph Schleuter
https://youtu.be/HIC2SV04pFo?si=fsF3_mhu_wrUWKHU
Song of the Saints~ Phil Wickham
https://youtu.be/NmrbS8pI6HU?si=NF5gXk3Nun3U98YJ
Worthy of It All~ Jeremy and Adrienne Camp
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