Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [27] God's Forever House

 

Notes from Lockdown UK (/world)

Last Saturday morning, glorious and sunny, I walked into town for some shopping.

What a strange journey!

At the start of my excursion someone asked me about "God and Coronavirus."

The roads were empty of cars and the pavements destitute of people. I did not have to press one pedestrian crossing button. Bird song, normally drowned by tyre-noise, pierced the silence. Car parks were deserted, except for one which had attracted a band of travellers.

Few shops are open. Some have unusual signs on their locked doors, owners worried about losing their customers for good. One says "We'll be be back soon" another thanks their customers and encourages them to return.

A meat shop is open, and so too a sweet shop, not sure why;  but otherwise, the city centre is a ghost town - on its busiest day!

As I begin to supermarket queue, 2 metres from fellow shoppers, conversations begin - shoppers don't normally talk to one another.  One man tells me he thinks it's all hyped up. But, with his kids, he has buried a Coronavirus time capsule under the ground. Filled, I guess, with Coronavirus memorabilia. In a wood somewhere in Worcester. He hopes it will be dug up in centuries to come.

Just when I am at the front of the queue, a healthcare worker darts in front of me. That's OK. But she is stopped by the security man who is very strict - I guess some people have been blagging their way to the front of long queues. She has no identity card so has to open up a work email with official logos to jump the line.

The shop allows only sixty people inside at a time, so it's a quiet amble around, trying to obey the new tape markings on the floor and the arrows down the aisles.

Later that day a brother from Canada calls to describe exactly the same lockdown scenario in Toronto! Canadian workers can receive a cheque for $2000 per month - but if it is discovered that they were not eligible for it they will have to pay it all back after the storm has passed.

On my way home I wonder how the homeless are faring, without the crowds from whom they beg. I find one lone tramp. He pulls a teddy bear out of his bag, speaks to it, gives it a hug and returns it.

It's far too early to know what's going on in the world or how we will look back on these strange days.

On this Easter bank Holiday Monday we have arrived at the end our Psalm 23, to the last line which reads:

"And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

David has spoken confidently of this present life - he knows that God's goodness and mercy will be with him, even pursue him, every single day of this life. But what about the day after the day he dies, as we all must do?  David ends his Psalm with future hope.

"...the house of the Lord..."

We notice, straight away, that David calls heaven "the House of the Lord." Heaven belongs to God. It's where the Triune God lives, in glorious loving communion, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It's where God's glory fully expresses itself, and where his infinite blessedness and compassionate love is found.

The ethos of a house is shaped by the people who live there.

The house I grew up in was ordered (because of my Dad) and warm (because of my Mom). It is so with all our homes. The owner sets the tone, the note, the mood. Kids and visitors then feel the vibes.

Because heaven is God's house, no evil thing will be found there, no tempting serpent will be allowed into that new creation. To banish evil from his holy sight, God has prepared hell for Satan and his demons.

Mention of God's House, cannot but lead us to the words of Jesus who said to his disciples, "In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you..." (John 13).

Jesus has now prepared rooms for us in heaven. Through his death and resurrection he has made a way for us to be at peace with God. And through his Spirit of adoption we have become God's children, waiting for the glorious day when we will go to our true home. The Spirit of adoption also gives us a present and bright foretaste of that world to come.

"...I will Dwell..."

The word "dwell" in the Hebrew has within it ideas of  retiring of sitting down. We sit down at the end of a busy day. (Cruel torturers, by contrast, make people stand up for days on end.)

Heaven is the place of permanent retirement.

I do not believe in earthly retirement  because I see it nowhere in Scripture - and Scripture, not my culture, shapes my behaviour. The notion of a time spent at the end of our lives - now stretching onto decades since we live so long - dedicated to personal pleasure and hobbies is unknown in Scripture. 

The idea of a fun bit at the end of life comes from YOLO (You Only Live Once), or its sister meme "There's only One Life Live it."  If this present life is all there is, if there is no heaven to come, then why not spend your final days getting more of what you really wanted in the first half (but were prevented from doing so by bothersome 'work')? Eating out, more holidays, more sports, more hobbies, etc. 

We all need to slow down, and we are grateful for the invention of the pension which allows us to change pace as our strength is weakening. But there should be no earthly retirement for God's people. We are called, like Moses and Paul, to serve God until our dying day.

Let's save our hobbies for heaven and use all our present time and energy to build up God's kingdom,  to serve God's people and thereby to lay up treasures in heaven.

Heaven in the place where we will rest.

And yet, rest does not mean we will be inactive! No, we will serve God forever and ever...

"...and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen." (Rev 1:6)

"You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” (Rev 5:10)

“they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence." (Rev 7:15)

"No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him." (Rev 22:3)

"I will dwell."

The Bible opens and closes with people dwelling in the glorious and most-blessed presence of God. The Garden of Eden was the beautiful place it was because God was there and because he spoke to Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. God lived with man. The new heavens and the new earth are likewise, the wonderful place they will be because God will be there - he is both the Owner and the Host. "God himself will be with them and be their God." (Revelation 21:3).

One day, when this life is over, we too will go home to dwell with God.

Our heavenly host will be the God-man Jesus Christ. In him and through him we have already caught a glimpse of what God is truly like for, "in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form." (Colosians 2:9).

Read the Gospels to remind yourself what God was and is like.

Heaven is a wonderful place,
Filled with glory and grace,
I want to see my Saviour's face,
Heaven is a wonderful place.  

When we all get to heaven
What a day of rejoicing that will be
When we all see Jesus
We'll sing and shout the victory 

This world is not my home I'm just a passing through

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue

The angels beckon me from heaven's open door 

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore

"...forever."

As a child I would wonder how big the universe was. I would imagine reaching the limit of the sphere, touching it, but then of course, there must be something beyond the sphere, I reasoned. Infinity is hard to grasp, whether a child or an adult.

David's final word means exactly what it says. Heaven is forever.

Many of our present anxieties are caused by the shadow of tomorrow falling on today. We do not know how tomorrow will pan out and that brings us anxiety today. And we know that new future troubles will most certainly come upon us for "man is born to trouble as sparks fly upward" (Job 5:7)

But if the tomorrow of heaven is always glorious, then the today of heaven will always be blessed.

Let's hear that again.

If the tomorrows of heaven are always glorious, then all the todays of heaven will also be blessed. 

A SONG FOR THE DAY
Today we have two songs. The first is a beautiful and unusual rendition of Psalm 23. You can hear it HERE. One man sings four parts.

The other song is a noble attempt to catch something of the joy of heaven.

There is a higher throne
Than all this world has known,
Where faithful ones from ev’ry tongue
Will one day come.
Before the Son we’ll stand,
Made faultless through the Lamb;
Believing hearts find promised grace—
Salvation comes.

Hear heaven’s voices sing;
Their thund’rous anthem rings
Through em’rald courts and sapphire skies.
Their praises rise.
All glory, wisdom, pow’r,
Strength, thanks, and honor are
To God our King, who reigns on high
Forevermore.

And there we’ll find our home,
Our life before the throne;
We’ll honor Him in perfect song
Where we belong.
He’ll wipe each tear-stained eye
As thirst and hunger die.
The Lamb becomes our Shepherd King;
We’ll reign with Him.

Keith and Kristyn Getty

You can hear it HERE.

A PRAYER FOR THE DAY

Our loving Father in heaven,

We thank you for eternal life. We thank you that this short life is not the end.

We thank you that stretching out into infinity lies our final home, with God, with the Lamb and with all of God's people.

We thank you that You will wipe every tear from our eyes - yes, and even that one.

And we thank you that there will be no more death or mourning, crying or pain, because the old order of things will have passed away.

While we journey here, help us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.

Help us to hope as he did.  Because of his confident hope in the joy set before him he was able to endure, even the cross.

So may the hope of heaven inspire our hearts, fill our minds and shape our present lives,

In Jesus' Name we ask these things,

Amen.