Home Sweet Home

“Home is where the heart is.”  It is a place you long for after a long day at work.  It is a place of familiarity, warmth, acceptance and rest.  It is the place that you can sit in your comfy spot and say, “Ah!!  It’s good to be home.”  Of course, not everybody feels that way about home.  The people on “Cheers” obviously sought their rest a different way.  I know for a fact that there are people everywhere that seek that rest in other places because home has ceased to be that place. 

But truth be known, even those who have that comfy spot do not have perfect rest.  That rest can only come from One Source.  In a discussion with a young person recently, that on-going angst in life was addressed.  They were talking about all the pressures they felt from life.  I had to tell them that those pressures are a lifelong battle.  It’s always going to be something jabbing at you…the scene just changes.  I went on to say.  “That’s not to depress you but to help you realize now that it’s a daily calling on God to give you His peace and patience with this life.  This earth really is not our home.  That’s why it’s so hard to rest.”

 “I am a stranger in the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me.”  Psalm 119:19    We have a rest, a genuine rest to look forward to as Christians.  “Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall…”  Hebrews 4:11  Seek God daily for the strength it takes to make it through as a faithful representative of Jesus Christ.  We, as believers, have a rest, a genuine rest with which to look forward.   Let’s spread the word as we absorb the word, which will serve as our constant reminder and hope of that future rest.

Imagine

Time and time again, I hear words like, "Our country is under God's judgment", "it's going down the tube", "we're on a slippery slope", etc.  And yes, I do see and hear evidences of darkness, but I would say that since the fall, those things have been occurring.  Really, all you have to do is read the Word and realize the atrocities men have committed throughout this little dot on the line called "Time".  But thanks be to God for His Word, for Godly men called to be preachers of His Word and for a people called out by Him to be set apart and the joy of fellowship with those people!!

However, God does "declare" a time when the world will be devoid of even those encouragements.  "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for the hearing the words of the LORD.  People will stagger from sea to sea and from north even to the east; they will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, but they will not find it." Amos 8:11-12   Now this prophecy takes my breath away.  I cannot fathom such a time.  I don't want to be here for such a time.  And it makes me thankful, even in the midst of large patches of darkness across our great country, that we still see and hear the Light that gives us comfort and encouragement.

I could develop this post, going from one idea to another to show how a time like that would look.  But it would be far too long.  So, if you would, "imagine" and as you go through thought after thought, praise God for His blessings that such a time is not yet realized.  And ask Him for the power to be such an influence on your world, that darkness will not be allowed to overtake it!  "The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."  John 1:5

Lean Into the Wind

As I continued in Amos today, I became very uneasy as I read the following: “I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your assemblies…take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.” (Amos 5:21-23)  Yes, I’ve read this before and may have even posted it before but on the heels of Mr. Tozer’s book, Deeper Life, it continues to convict me.  Consider the following excerpts from his book.

“I believe that the imperative need of the day is not simply revival but a radical reformation that will go to the root of our moral and spiritual maladies and deal with causes rather than consequences, with the disease rather than with symptoms.”

“Natural talents enable a man to work within the field of nature; but through the body of Christ, God is doing an eternal work above and beyond the realm of fallen nature.  This requires supernatural working.  Religious work can be done by natural men without the gifts of the Spirit, and it can be done well and skillfully.  But work designed for eternity can only be done by the eternal Spirit.  No work has eternity in it unless it is done by the Spirit through gifts.” 

How do those two quotes relate to Amos?  Sometimes I fear the church goes through a lot of motion with no inward holy motivation.  They do well in much of that “motion” but if it’s not Spirit led, it’s vain and worthless.  We need revival.  And I really think that need is ongoing.  We constantly need to pray and ask God for guidance in regard to our motives for everything done in His name.  Because His name IS our reason or we “chase after the wind”.

One more quote from Tozer and I’ll end with it.  Let us be encouraged and challenged by these thoughts.  We must wake up and live like Jesus.  “So strongly is the breeze blowing for revival that scarcely anyone appears to have the discernment or the courage to turn around and lean into the wind.”