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Dripping Springs Weekly Bulletins
A Place Called Home
Charles Parkhurst said, “HOME is heaven for beginners.” Some might not accept that statement, but most of us would. The very word, HOME, has a magic sound. Famed poet Robert Frost wrote in his humorous way: “HOME is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”
That’s an interesting thought. HOME. For a soldier in a far away land, the word HOME is comforting. To the prodigal in Luke 15, it was a word that drew him back. What does that word mean to you?
A Place for Knowing
All of us have a need for security. We need a place where we know we are loved and respected. Those who live there love us and will protect and defend us in times of trouble. There is safety there. There is a place for us there. We have responsibilities there. We belong there. That is why we long for HOME, because we know and accept these things. When HOME loses this quality, we cease to long for HOME, and we lose much of our sense of confidence and value. No one should ever doubt they are loved at HOME. Even when all else fails, HOME is a place of knowing.
A Place of Going
It is our “going” that makes us long for HOME when we are gone. As pleasant as a vacation can be, we are always ready to go HOME. When sickness comes, we want to be at HOME, not somewhere else. The place most longed for during a stay in the hospital is HOME. When tragedy strikes, HOME is the place to go, for there we find comfort and strength. HOME is a place where we want “to go.”
A Place for Showing
One reason we love HOME is that HOME is where we show our love for each other. We don’t hide our love, we don’t ignore our love, we don’t deny our love. There we show our love. We reveal our true self, and we can “be our self” when we are at HOME. We reveal our thoughts, our convictions, our dreams and our fears for we know that HOME will accept us for what we are and encourage us to be more than we have been. HOME is a place for showing.
A Place for Owing
There comes a time when we realize what a blessing we have in our HOME. We may discover this when we see another whose HOME does not possess these qualities. In our HOME we discover the power of a mother’s love and a father’s sacrifice. We learn to marvel at the very things we had previously taken for granted.
We learn of the blessings that come from God, and what we
owe Him, Romans 13:8. Those debts can never be repaid, so we learn how to provide blessings for others, for our own family some day. HOME is a place for owing.
A Place for Growing
Do you remember the marks on the door that proved how fast you were growing? HOME is where that fact is important, not the school or the ball field. And when you grow you know that’s good. HOME is a place in which growing is accepted and expected. It is an environment in which growing can and should take place. It is a place where each member helps the others grow—in “wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man,” Luke 2:52. When true growth does not take place, parents are concerned and do whatever it takes to make that growing possible. HOME. Yes, the HOME is a place of growing— physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually.
A Place for “Crowing”
Polite society decrees that we be humble and self-effacing. Boasting about our accomplishments is forbidden, so we respect that decree and hope that others know how good we are and have been. We appreciate compliments for us or for ours, and we are encouraged by them to attain greater things.
Humility is a biblical principle, 1 Peter 5:5. But is there not a place where our self-esteem is appropriately given a boost? Can a mother not “crow” about her child? Can a husband not find a place to brag on his wife? The HOME is one place where we can praise someone without fear that they will become self-centered or arrogant. HOME—it’s the place for “crowing.”
It is an understatement to say the HOME is the building block of any society. Let HOME be what God intended it to be: a place of knowing, going, showing, owing, growing, and crowing.
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“You are as much a king by your own fireside, as any monarch on his throne.”
“East and West. Home is best.”
“Home is where the heart is.”
Pliny the Younger, A. D. 102
“It matters not how sloppy a man’s coat might be, how baggy his trousers might be, if his children will stand for thirty minutes with their noses pressed against the window pane watching for daddy to come home from work, you can trust that man with anything in this world.”
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The Church - The Family of God
Inspiration describes the Lord’s church in various ways to help us to perceive the nature and importance of this blood- bought institution. Using figures with which people were familiar, He conveyed great spiritual truths concerning the church. Let us consider one of these terms to help us understand the marvelous and precious nature of the Lord‘s church.
I believe one of the most meaningful and a wonderfully descriptive figure the Bible uses to describe the church is God‘s family. God is our Heavenly Father, for James wrote, “Of his own will he brought us forth [or, begat us – KJV] by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (James 1:18). Paul declared,
“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,” Ephesians 3:14-15.
God promised, “Wherefore Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, And touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you, And will be to you a Father, And ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18.)
Because of this relationship with the Father, the Bible speaks in terms of the “brotherhood.” Peter says, “Love the brotherhood” (1 Pet. 2:17). Christians are called “brethren” (3 John 10), and “sister” is used to describe Christian women (1 Tim. 5:1-2). This caring family relationship is described in 1 Timothy 5:1-2, “Rebuke not an elder, but exhort him as a father; the younger men as brethren: the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, in all purity.”
In this family relationship in the church, Jesus – the Son of God - is described as our elder brother. The Hebrew writer declares, “Christ as a son, over his house; whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end” (Hebrews 3:6). As our elder brother, Jesus makes intercession for us, “Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
The family concept is a perfect parallel to the church. This is true, first of all, because it denotes a sense of belonging. This belonging affords comfort. Ten times in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 “comfort” is mentioned in our association with the Father. This belonging also provides strength – a growing and building up of the body (Eph. 4:11-16). Isn’t it wonderful to know that we have a place in the family of God! The family concept is a perfect parallel to the church also because it signifies relationship. In the family of God we have a unique relationship with the Father and other Christians. We can approach God, as our Father, in prayer (John 16:23). In this wonderful family relationship we receive an inheritance from the Father (Colossians 1:12).
The family concept is a perfect parallel to the church also because it draws a line. Not everyone is in the family of God. Our Father designated certain requirements, and if these criteria are not met, one is not a member of the family. Merely associating with the family does not make one a member of the family. We must be born into the family. We are born into the family through our obedience to the will of God. Peter says, “having been begotten again [born again – KJV], not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth” (1 Pet. 1:23). The word of God teaches that to be a part of God’s family we must hearers of the word (Romans 10:17), believers in Christ (John 8:24), penitent (Luke 13:3), willing to confess the name of Christ (Romans 10:9-10), and be immersed in water for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38). These five steps places one into the family of God. Remember, the Bible teaches God has only one family (Eph. 4:4; 1:22-23)
As children of God, Christians should most assuredly bear the image of the Father. In doing so, we will keep ourselves separate from the world (2 Corinthians 6:17-18), and we will “walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8). If we will live faithfully as children of God then we will be “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him” (Romans 8:17).
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