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

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more