Home!

Though I enjoy camping -- going somewhere, setting up a tent, and living in it for a few days -- I still always look forward to returning to our house with a regular bed, hot shower, electric refrigerator and stove. The tent is merely a temporary shelter while away from home. Home is a more PERMANENT structure.

As the nation of Israel traveled through the wilderness, they lived in tents. They pressed on looking forward to the Promised Land where they would have towns and fortified cities; real walls and roofs over their heads.
Also, as they journeyed, they carried the tabernacle; the center of their worship to God. However, once they reached the Promised Land, God told them there would eventually be a more PERMANENT structure in the place where His Name would be -- that being the temple built by Solomon in Jerusalem.
Certainly the people looked forward to a sense of more PERMANENCE.

How about us? Is a sense of something PERMANENT an encouragement to us?
Paul noted a contrast which should not only help us keep a proper perspective regarding life, but also encourage us with regard to what God has in mind that is more PERMANENT than what we have now.

Paul wrote…
“For we know that if the TENT, which is OUR EARTHLY HOME, is destroyed, WE HAVE A BUILDING FROM GOD, A HOUSE not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” ( 2 Corinthians 5:1 ESV)

Paul referred to our body as a tent. Our flesh and bones were only intended to be a temporary dwelling for the soul. As the hymn arranged by Albert E. Brumley (1937) states:

“This world is not my home, I’m just a passing thro’.
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.”

We are not home yet. We are journeying on as we dwell in the tent of this body. Yet, this tent is a center of worship to God as we give ourselves completely to Him as living sacrifices. ( Romans 12:1) But someday we are promised to receive a more PERMANENT dwelling; “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” It is the encouragement Jesus gave the disciples.
( John 14:2) It is a PERMANENT dwelling being prepared for us, a people prepared in this realm for such a glorious dwelling as it will be.

Let us continue pressing on in service to God in this realm. We’re not home yet. We are to continue moving about, following God as we live in the temporary tent of this body. But as children of God, let us be encouraged by the assurance of a PERMANENT home for the soul prepared for an eternity with our Lord.

Have a great day KNOWING A PREPARED PLACE AWAITS US!
Carl

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