Home in Heaven

Let us reflect on the great gift of eternity and the home in heaven. This world, our bodies, all of it is temporary. Our eternal residence is prepared for us and guaranteed in Jesus Christ. Let us take joy in knowing that by the grace of God through faith in Jesus we can repent of our sins and enjoy a reconciled life with our heavenly father.

2 Corinthians, Chapter 5:1-9 (ESV)
1: For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2: For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
3: if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
4: For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened – not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
5: He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6: So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
7: for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8: Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
9: So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

We may suffer, we may hurt and this body we are stuck in may be dead weight, but we are to set our focus on the heavenly, on the work of Jesus and the instruction He has given us.

Let us rest today recognizing His wonderful work and the eternal home we have to look forward to.

Amen

Preacherman

Contemplate Grace

I was reminded tonight that it is important for us to contemplate grace. The Grace that God has shown to us because of the work of Jesus.  This Grace that for us is a free gift, a pardon for sin and a security of a home in heaven.  Such great blessings for free!  Yet we are to remember the price that was paid for this Grace.  Jesus paid an extremely high price for this grace.

Jesus was in heaven as God with power and authority and yet He lowered himself to take on the form of a human.  Not just any human but a baby, born in a barn to a poor family in difficult circumstances.  He did not seek to achieve great wealth or power while He was on earth.  He lived a perfect life and was persecuted and caused to suffer and die a horrible death on a cross because He wanted to pay the price for our sin.

And Jesus did not do all that just so that you and I can get a "i get to go to heaven" card.  Jesus did that so that we can experience the work of His Grace in our lives by the Holy Spirit.  This Grace was given to transform us.  Transformation into who God has for us to be, not our agenda but His.  It will be uncomfortable at times, maybe even painful and hard a lot of the time.

As a Christian your price is paid, now you are His and His Grace will cause a transformation in you to be obedient to His Word.  Live the surrendered life, submitting daily to Jesus and He will take care of the rest.  Then respond and do what you are supposed to, because your Lord has asked you to.

We owe Him everything and a lot more.

Preacherman

Hebrews 10

Let us be reminded today of the great value of the sacrifice of Jesus and the solid foundation it is for our salvation.

Hebrews, Chapter 10 (ESV)

1: For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
2: Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?
3: But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
4: For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5: Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;
6: in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
7: Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'"
8: When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law),
9: then he added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second.
10: And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11: And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12: But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
13: waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
14: For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
15: And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
16: "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,"
17: then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."
18: Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
19: Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
20: by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,
21: and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
22: let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
23: Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
24: And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
25: not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
26: For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27: but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
28: Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
29: How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
30: For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people."
31: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32: But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,
33: sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
34: For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
35: Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
36: For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
37: For, "Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38: but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."
39: But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Jesus paid a one time eternal sacrificial price for our sin. No further payment is required or can be made by us. the sufficiency of His work is full, complete and far greater than our understanding. Worship and celebrate the finished work of Jesus today. He is more than worthy of all our praise.