Tuesday,
June 13, 2023
So also Jesus
suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of
his own blood. So let us go out to him,
outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore. For this
world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come. Hebrews 13:12-14
Most of us are familiar
with Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. She found
herself in a strange land, and desired nothing more than to go back home. Glenda, the “good witch” outfits Dorothy with
magic red slippers and tells her to close her eyes, click her heels three
times, and say the phrase over and over, there’s no place like home; there’s
no place like home.
For some people a church
is much like the ancient temple, or even the tabernacle in the wilderness…a
building…hardly a home. The writer to
the Hebrews makes the point that fellowship with an eternal God is not a static
issue. Human beings are mobile, growing
or dying, a soul never entombed Buildings
stay where they’re constructed. We can
be lost, in the sense of losing our way, or living in disobedience, in the
far country, away from God’s fellowship.
We can be unready
for dwelling in our permanent home, a house not made by human hands. That unreadiness
is born of an unwillingness to “bear the disgrace” of the One who
saves us. It may not be beligerance, but
rather holding-back from totally giving oneself to Christ as a
witness. It can be described as coming
to a worship service as a spectator, rather than a participating
member of the team.
Spectators have little invested in church, other than an hour of time in any given week; by contrast, worshippers are there to offer God praise, and all they have. They come with open, empty hands, willing (even eager) to have God fill those hands with whatever task, blessing, challenge, or mountain to climb, God may pick-out for us. It is this willingness, to leave the building and enter the harvest field, which describes worship…not merely singing a few songs and listening to the preacher’s words; that describes enduring ritual – hardly worship.
My parents weren’t
interested in becoming land barons; they were concerned with raising two boys
to be men.. The tiny 4-room house on Long
Island was surrounded by tall oaks, elms and whatever scrub brush could eak-out
a living in the sand. Dad cleared most
of our yard with a hand axe, and a lot of sweat. Whether you’re raised in a big city, or a
rural backwater, commitment to what life God gives you is what teaches you there’s
no place like home.
For You Today
There are about 2,500 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper explore
some of these: Restless and Which One?
Title Image: Pixabay.com Images without citation are in
public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted
from The New Living Translation©
