The Father’s Home

Posted on by korgrocker

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”
John 14:1-3 NLT

We wonder sometimes about what the home, the one that Jesus is preparing for us, will be like. There are some facts that we do know. For a start, God and Jesus will be there. And because God is holy and pure, so will our home be. The location of our future spiritual home will be in Heaven, because that is where Father God lives. We know that wherever Jesus is, there we will be as well. Some translations refer to the “room” being a “mansion”, but because God is wonderful, our new home will be as well. We can also assume that because we are not there already, Jesus is still in the process of preparing the new home.

We can find a few hints of the process before we enter our new home from other places in the Bible. In Acts 1:9-11 we read, “After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”” Jesus will return to Planet Earth for a second time, the angels at the Ascension said, and it will be just in the same way that He left. If we had taken a video of the way Jesus left this world, ascending into the clouds, then if we replayed it backwards, that would be how He will return. In 1 Thessalonians 4 we can read what the Holy Spirit revealed to Paul, “For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:14-18). It will be noisy time when Jesus returns, with shouting and trumpets. Will that occasion be the time when we are allocated our new bodies? John 6:40, “For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day“.

But to find out where are new bodies will live, we need to turn to Revelation 21:1-2, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband”. And to cap it all, God will set up His home on the new earth with His people. Revelation 21:3, “I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.” For all those people who perhaps think that when they die they will live with God in Heaven forever, there may be a bit of a shock!

Father God. We only see dimly those parts of our future that You have revealed to us through Your Word. But come what may, we trust in You. Amen.

A Life with God

Posted on by korgrocker

“For you are my hope, Lord GOD,
my confidence from my youth. 
I have leaned on you from birth;
you took me from my mother’s womb. 
My praise is always about you. 
Don’t discard me in my old age. 
As my strength fails, do not abandon me.
Psalm 71:5-6,9 CSB

Who can say that God has been their hope all the way from their youth until their old age? That was the case with David, as we can see from reading this Psalm today. He even goes as far as to say that God was with him even from the moment he was born. When he wrote these verses, David was obviously approaching his twilight years, but reading the Psalm you can see he was still being pursued by undesirable people, a common theme throughout his life. In verse 4 he wrote, ”Deliver me, my God, from the power of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and oppressive”. 

In verses 17 and 18, the Psalmist wrote this: “God, you have taught me from my youth, and I still proclaim your wondrous works. Even while I am old and gray, God, do not abandon me, while I proclaim your power to another generation, your strength to all who are to come.” David wasn’t going to retire quietly. He wasn’t going to fade into oblivion, disappearing into the grave without completing his mission in life. And the one thing he mentioned was that he was going to ensure that the next generation knew about God’s power and strength. Not for David was an epitaph on a tombstone, nice words but largely unread and of little impact on those around him.

I’ve blogged before about the legacy we will leave when we cross the great divide. Although I was brought up in a Christian home and went to church with my parents, I was in my late twenties before I made a personal commitment for Christ. But there is one thing that I am confident of – I will be a follower of Christ for the rest of my life. Furthermore, being a closet Christian, someone who hides his light instead of being a beacon of hope and light in his community, is not for me. I recently heard a Sunday message about sharing our faith, and how important it is that we have our stories ready for the times when God wants us to share them. And also to be ready with the “Sinner’s Prayer”, for when we get the opportunity to lead someone to Christ. David was focused on sharing what he knew about God with the next generation, and asked God to be with him while he did it. We too must be focused on the mission God has given us. And He will be with us while we do His will. Note that sharing our story is not something we do at the end of our lives. Jesus didn’t say in Matthew 28, “Therefore [when you are a pensioner] go and make disciples of all nations…“. No – making disciples was an instruction Jesus left for all His followers, young and old. Sharing our stories will often be the start of the disciple-making process. 

In verse 9 of this Psalm, David asks that God doesn’t abandon him in his old age, as his strength fails. He doesn’t necessarily mean physical strength, but mental strength as well. So many dear saints come to the end of their lives, blighted by illnesses such as dementia. The last few words of Matthew 28 read, “…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age“. God will never abandon us, even when we are failing in our last days. And a new body is waiting for us in our future home. What a wonderful God He is.