A Glimpse into God’s Home

Recently in our family, as culture shock continues, the learning curve grows ever steeper, and the honeymoon wears off (not sure some of our team ever felt honeymoon), we’ve been talking and thinking about home. Missing family and friends. Missing Jamba Juice and Taco Bell. Missing continuous electricity. Thinking about how good life was in the good ol’ USA. We are very aware that America is our home country and we are “wageni” here.

 

That got me thinking about “home” in the big picture.

Paul in Phil.1 and 2 Cor.5 says he’s pumped to go home – to live is Christ & to die is gain.

Are there ever days that you feel like this? Usually when the bottom falls out here.

When I lived in Indonesia, I visited many missionary families, & strangely the wives often told me that their biggest coping mechanism was thought that some day they would die and go to heaven. Why was this what kept them going? Cause life here and now can be pretty miserable! Paul even says in 1 Cor. 15 that if this life is all we have to look forward to, we are to be most pitied.

 

Whether we anticipate heaven because life stinks here, or cause being with God will be so much better, I believe the important thing is that we keep the future God has for us in our sights. Whether you call it “future grace” or whatever, the more we are focused on what God has prepared for us, the more our present becomes Christ-centered & mission-driven.

 

What do you hope heaven will be like? Are there any favorite passages that offer you heavenly encouragement?

 

Keeping heaven in our sights offers us:

·        strength, perseverance and passion for our present mission,

·        and hope and faith in something better to come.

2 Cor. 4:16-18 – We do not lose heart.

2 Cor. 5:6-9 – We are always of good courage.

 

Jesus is our best example, and you can hear the excitement in his voice near the end of his life in John 16:28 as he says, “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

Jesus mission was so important that he left his heavenly home and longed to return. He was not about to fail in the mission the Father had given him. Keeping his eyes on the prize helped him to persevere unwaveringly with the work at hand.

 

Likewise with our mission. The hope and encouragement of heaven leads us to increased passion, strength and perseverance for our task today.

For example, when we were raising support and at 2.3%, the dream of being in Africa seemed so distant we couldn’t even think about it. But when we were at 94%, Africa was all we could think about, and motivation to get the final 6% was through the roof.

Friends, stay on target, keep your eyes on the prize, and be encouraged to pour all you have into the short mission trip we have been called to here on earth.

 

Gal. 6:9 – “And let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

May God grant us grace to keep our eyes fixed on the prize.

Pressing on,

Eric