THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME
I read of an
American who visited the 19th Century Polish Rabbi, Hofetz Chaim:
Astonished
to see the rabbi’s
home was only a simple room filled with books, with only a table and a bench,
the tourist asked, “Rabbi,
where is your furniture?” The rabbi asked in return, “Where is yours?” The puzzled American tourist replied, “Mine? But I’m a visitor here – I’m only passing through.” “So am I,” said Hofetz Chaim.
I love the
words Albert E. Brumley penned back in about 1946, when the world was still in
the throes of World War II:
This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through, My treasures
are laid up somewhere beyond the blue; The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open
door, and I can’t feel at home in this world any more!
What I am conveying
to you is that Heaven is the MARK…
The closing
weeks of 2013 are a time that we prepare to go Home! It is a time that we
prepare others to go Home! It is a time that we get ready to meet our loved
ones! Today marks the time that we talk about Heaven’s Gates and how we are all going to get there!
Perhaps the
reason we are not as successful at outreach as we once were is because we are
not enamored with the thought of Heaven as we once were. Perhaps the anticipation we once had is no
longer there because we have it too good here on earth.
It’s time that we turn our hearts toward
Heaven and take on the responsibility of helping others get there! If you serve the church in any capacity, you ought to be trying to get
someone to heaven! If
you are a board member, Sunday School teacher, Department Head, Usher or
Hostess, you ought to be doing everything you possibly can to win a soul to God
and get that person to heaven! The
job of the whole Church is to get others ready for Heaven!
We
need a renewed desire to go there. If
you read church history at all, you will find the Christians that did the most
for the world were those who thought the most of Heaven!
Maybe
we have become ineffective because we have ceased to long for heaven. We are too satisfied with what we
have here below! We need
a renewed passion for a place called HEAVEN!
