Skip to main content

Making Their Home With You

             Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. (John 14:23)

 

            What would it be like to have the Father and the Son make their home with you? The two things Jesus mentions will likely give us pause: loving and obeying God. That gets in the way of “It’s my life” and “It’s my body!” In other words, it’s rather like living in a family.  You have to take the wishes and preferences of others into account. And while we always assume that all of the residents in the household have equal authority, but that’s never really the case, and ultimately, we wouldn’t want it to me. For example, if someone in the household was an expert in carpentry, would you really think the carpenter should look to your guidance on the construction of something? Oh, there might be some discussion of the aesthetics, but when it comes to what works and what doesn’t, a wise person will bow to the experience of the carpenter.

            When it comes to building your life, who is likely to have a more comprehensive and exhaustive understanding of you, how you work, the universe, and how the universe works: you, or the One who created you and the universe? Instead, we (including I) tend to get on our high horses about God thinking He’s something special and we’re all supposed to kiss His boots because otherwise He’ll get mad and strike us with some plague. We would never say such a thing, but He’s God! Why is He so self-centered or insecure that He thinks everything should be done His way? Grumble, grumble, grumble. When we look at the words or listen to ourselves, it’s often obvious that we’re being silly, and sometimes, we get even sillier as a result – trying to justify ourselves.

            What we really need to do is what Job did – put our hands over our mouths and go sit in a corner. Why wouldn’t we want God to make His home with us? Can we really imagine that there would be no benefit in it? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen!

  While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)            Do you like roller coasters? I don't. You spend forever climbing a hill. You get to the top and have half a second, then you race down to a low point. Sometimes the racing down involves tying your insides into knots. At the bottom, you either have to be dragged up another hill or you get off the ride. Peter's life was a roller coaster from the time he met Jesus. There would be miracles, and then Jesus would teach things that didn't always make sense, and then they'd go out and perform miracles, and return to be taught. Peter was praised for giving the right answer to "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus said that said answer came from God. Peter was at the top of the hill.            ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer Lists

                 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:2-3)   In connection with what I wrote yesterday about the possibility that I’m wrong, I’m feeling the need to go back to basics - craving spiritual milk because somehow, I missed something. It’s a little embarrassing, craving milk like a newborn, but the truth probably is that we are newborns many times in many ways in our lives. From God’s perspective, we may never be anything more than newborns, forever needing that milk. On the other hand, being a newborn can also be exciting because so much is new. My mind is playing pinball - ricocheting from one idea to the next and through six more before it happens to hit the third again. The main topic is prayer. I have at least seven organizing structures all somewhat influenced by the movie War Room , which I’v...
Post a Comment
Read more