THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME

THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME

I read of an American who visited the 19^th 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!

FOUR WORDS THAT CHANGE EVERYTHING

FOUR WORDS THAT CHANGE EVERYTHING

A middle-aged man is having a tough time. His father and mother are both dead now, and he misses them. He’s got problems with his teenage children. Economic problems and severe shortages in all the necessities of life hit the region where he lives. To make matters worse, it seems as if every time he accomplishes anything, someone else comes along and grabs what he’s worked hard for all his life. It’s enough to make anyone want to give up...But FOUR WORDS CHANGED EVERYTHING.

A young man runs away from home. He knows that one of his own family members is out to kill him. He finds himself all alone and afraid in a place he’s never been before. His future looks grim...But FOUR WORDS CHANGED EVERYTHING.

A sincere and honest employee works hard, is honest and productive, and yet has to put up with constant sexual harassment from one of the bosses. After refusing these unwanted advances, day after day, this honest, hard-working employee is accused of sexual misconduct by the very person who has been guilty of the harassment. The employee is thrown in jail to serve out an unwarranted sentence. The outlook is bleak...But FOUR WORDS CHANGED EVERYTHING!

An 80-year-old man is prompted to confront the world’s most powerful leader and demand freedom for his people. He doesn’t want to do it. He feels weak and afraid, and completely inadequate...But FOUR WORDS CHANGED EVERYTHING!

Another man just lost his best friend and mentor and is called on to take his place. The man is filled with grief. He knows that his dead friend was the sort of man that cannot be replaced. How can he possibly handle the responsibility of it all? But FOUR WORDS CHANGED EVERYTHING.

A young man feels like a rabbit hiding from a fox. Enemy troops occupy his country. They’ve been seizing everybody’s food supplies, and this young man sneaks around trying to find and store food for his family. He is swamped with a feeling of worry, weakness, and worthlessness...But FOUR WORDS CHANGED EVERYTHING!

An entire nation is just bouncing back from the ravages of war and exile that it brought upon itself. But in the midst of reconstruction, the people’s priorities become mixed up. Their situation keeps going downhill. They are warned that change was necessary or they would slip right back into disaster. They are filled with the feeling of guilt and discouragement. They wonder if they truly have a future. They hope its not too late to turn things around...Then, FOUR WORDS CHANGE EVERYTHING.

A young woman from a poor family is engaged to be married. She has modest hopes because she has no great dowry to cause a man to want her. She is in no position to have any grand dreams. She has no reason to think she’ll ever be prominent or exceptional in any way...But, FOUR WORDS CHANGED EVERYTHING!

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There are four words that changed the situation for all these people. Four simple words.  Each word contains only one syllable. But these four words change everything when the One who speaks these words is God. He told Haggai to tell the people, “I AM WITH YOU.”

The Christmas Season is a time of celebration for most people. It always seems to bring out the good in people.

It draws from deep within us feelings of goodwill and cheer. Yet, this time of year also triggers feelings of another sort for many.

The Christmas Season has the highest rate of suicide because of the depression it brings to many. It is a time when we feel most deeply the absence of loved ones that have passed into eternity. It is a time when the pain of broken family relationships hits the hardest. A time when people feel the guilt of past failures.

During the Christmas Season, we find ourselves quickly approaching the end of another year with all of its successes and failures. We have a sense of understanding the words of James: “Life is just a vapor.  It is here for a moment and then it vanishes.” The years are passing with supersonic speed, and we sometimes wonder what our lives really amount to. As we look to the New Year, we have our moments of hope and a lot of anxieties.

During this Christmas Season we need, more than anything else, to hear and believe the four simple words of God – “I AM WITH YOU!”

When God speaks those words to our hearts EVERYTHING CHANGES! Even the harshest of situations have to succumb to the promises and power of God!

v  Those four words changed everything for a middle-aged struggler named Isaac.

v  They changed the life of a frightened runaway named Jacob.

v  They vindicated a wrongfully imprisoned employee named Joseph.

v  Those four words changed everything for Moses, the timid 80-year-old.

v  They gave strength to Joshua, the man who had to fill the shoes of Moses.

v  And for Gideon, the scared rabbit, those four words made him a mighty man of valor!

Those four simple, one-syllable words, “I am with you,” make a deciding difference in any situations. They changed everything for the confused and guilty nation of Israel. And they changed everything for an insignificant young lady named Mary.

No matter what your situation might be, when the living God declares, “I AM WITH YOU,” it changes everything! God’s presence is all you need in any situation. And, your reliance on Him will make you the victor!

NE PLUS ULTRA

NE PLUS ULTRA

In Valladolid, Spain, where Christopher Columbus died in 1506, stands a monument commemorating the great discoverer.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the memorial is a statue of a lion destroying one of the Latin words that had been part of Spain’s motto for centuries.

Before Columbus made his voyages, the Spaniards thought they had reached the outer limits of earth.  Thus their motto was “Ne Plus Ultra,” which means “No More Beyond.” The word being torn away by the lion is “ne” or “no,” making it read “Plus Ultra”. Columbus had proven that there was indeed “more beyond”.

I love that!  The fact is, beyond this life there is more!  In fact, that was Paul's purpose in writing what he did in I Corinthians chapter 15.  Beginning in verse 16 Paul says, "For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished..."

Then Paul pens one of my favorites sentences in all of the Bible: "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (I Corinthians 15:19).  And he continues, saying, "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept."

Now, skipping down to the end of the chapter, Paul tells his readers: "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:51-58 ).

I like what John had to say about us who are counted in the number of those resurrected or raptured.  In I John 3:2 John says, "It has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM."

While there are those who would say at the conclusion of life, Ne Plus Ultra, thank God there are those who understand that, indeed, there is more...so much more...beyond!

It has been called Glory Land, That Holy White City, Beulah Land, Paradise, The Promise Land and Heaven. The Celestial shores beckon us each and every day. We can only imagine its beauty and its splendor.

It has been described as a country a place. Never has there ever been a place that has captivated the minds of people for generations.

One cannot compare the earthly splendor of some of our great cities like New York, which bustles with the sounds of traffic, cultural diversity, and the most fashion driven people in the world with their designer handbags and lattes in hand. You cannot compare the earthly splendor of Paris, France the enchanting city that entices all of its visitors with its famed romance and renowned architecture and historical landmarks to the celestial city that’s called Heaven.

I read of an American who visited the 19^th 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!