Monthly Archives: December 2012

Our True Home

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pt320_house_block_outlineC.S. Lewis said “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”

This world is not our home. We are created for a world other than this.  As awesome as life here is, as awesome as it, as many things as we love, as many blessings as we have, this world is not our home.

We were created for something better.

We were created for our true home.

Jesus puts it like this in John 18:36-37:

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Jesus said, I am a king, but my kingdom is not of this world.  He is not an early king.  He is a heavenly king.  And that is our true home.  Our true home is at home with Him.

But, here’s the cool part. Think about what Lewis said in the beginning. If we know that our true home is with God, we have all the more motivate and call to work hard in this life.

I want as many as possible to join me in our true home. So, I’m going to work to share the good news of grace and mercy.

I want “thy will to be done on earth, as it is in heaven” to not just be something that we say in church, but something that we live out every day.

I want as many as possible to know that freedom and forgiveness that comes in Jesus Christ.

I believe in heaven. And I can’t wait to get there. So because of that, I have the freedom, the call, the joy to live my life with our true home in mind all times.

There is life in that.  Are you living today with your true home in mind?

Won’t you join me?

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Learn to do Good

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I love reading the Bible and seeing a certain phrase or concept just sort of jump out at you.

That’s what happened to me today in reading Isaiah 1:16-18.  Listen to what it says:

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

20learn-600I was reading and I got the part that always encourages me, verse 18, about the forgiveness of sins offered to us by God. And that’s always good stuff. Good to ready, good to remember. That always motivates me and fires me up.

But the part that stuck out to me was verse 17. Where it says this.

“Learn to do good.” I like that. Learn to do go. Learn good. Work on it. Get better at it.

We aren’t just magically going to do right. We are going to fall. We are going to make mistakes. We are going to mess up. It’s going to happen. To me. To you. That’s human life.

Daily, each day, each moment, learn to do go. Work on it. Keep trying. Keep working. Keep being faithful.

You can do it! God loves you. God has forgiven you. Through His blood, you are redeemed, you are restored.

Learn to do good. Be faithful. As I like to say – pray, read your Bible, and go to church.

Learn.

When you fall down, get up. Today is a new day. Live it fully.

Today, you are forgiven. Today, work on being faithful. Live in His love.

And learn to good. May the God of mercy fill us with His grace, that we may be faithful today, and each day!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.