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Dripping Springs Weekly Bulletins
Going Home!
A young seventeen years old man named Frank, weary of farm work and of saying “yes sir” to his father, decided to leave the “nest” and be his “own man.” His bags were packed on that December Sunday morning. Evening would be early enough to tell his parents, but then it happened. During a late lunch the radio exploded with news from Hawaii that Pearl Harbor had been bombed and the United States Navy was severely damaged.
A surge of anger and frustration came over the young man as the news broadcasts continued. This complicated his plans, but at least it was a way to leave home and do so honorably. Like Frank, many other young men went to recruiting offices that week, volunteering for the armed forces, and many homes were left behind in the days that followed. How could they know what lay ahead or how much they would miss home?
Months passed, and many waited anxiously for word from husbands, sons and daughters. For those overseas in battle, news and letters from home were now almost more important than life itself.
Frank found himself on a Battleship in the Pacific, under fire every day, and he thought of home every day he was gone! Memories! Thoughts of home! That’s what sustained many of those men in foxholes, on ships and in the planes. Frank would have gladly traded that Battleship for a shovel if he could just see his folks, work once more on his father’s farm.
WHAT DOES HOME MEAN TO YOU?
Now remember, we’re talking about “home,” not “house.” You may be able to buy a house, but you cannot buy or rent a home. Poets, preachers and others have made attempts at defining “home.”
ROBERT FROST: “Home is the place where, when you have to go there they have to take you in.”
A TEEN-AGER: “Home is where you go when everything else is closed.”
UNKNOWN AUTHOR: “Home: a place where the great are small and the small are great.”
WILLIAM G. BROWN: “The sweetest sounds to mortals given, are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.”
During our brief “homecoming” celebration, all are reminded of days gone by. While we should not seek to live in the past, we must be willing to learn from the past. If this congregation has anything to imitate it is not to be found in property or buildings, not in people of renown, not in numbers or dollars. What then? Only in our love for Christ, each other and our willingness to serve and be like Him – and we still have some work to do on that.
“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth,” 1 Peter 2:21-22.
WHAT ABOUT A HEAVENLY HOME?
Some, like Frank, had to see what life was like away from home before they came to realize the value of home and family. Too many today can easily describe the “flaws” in their home but cannot see the joys and benefits of a godly home. As beautiful is that word “home” for us in everyday terminology, there is a heavenly home that is much sweeter – because it is an eternal home.
Some will be deprived of a heavenly home because they are in love with life on earth. Can they really think doing what they want for sixty years on earth has a greater value than an eternity in a heavenly home? One with fellowship with Jesus, one with joys too wonderful to be described by human words?
Evidently so, for Jesus said that in choosing a way of life, many will choose a way that leads to “death,” to an eternity with Satan and his “ministers” – as compared to few who will choose the way to heaven. See what Jesus had to say about this in Matthew 7:13-28.
Frank’s generation learned the value of “home” the hard way, and many were able to go back “home.”
However, those who choose to put today ahead of eternity will discover too late their mistake. When Jesus returns in his role as “judge” (John 12:48, Hebrews 9:27-28), it will be too late then to decide to serve Him.
There will then be a great “homecoming” for all of God’s faithful children. Those who have preceded us in death will be there. Some we have never known, as well as the saved of all nations and all generations will be there. Let’s all begin now to prepare for that great “Homecoming”!
Carl B Garner
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“To get his goodnight kiss he stood beside my chair one night
And raised an eager face to me; a face with love alight.
His little arms crept round my neck, and then I heard him say,
Four simple words I shan’t forget, four words that made me pray.
They turned a mirror on my soul, on secrets no one knew.
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Home for Sale
Recently we passed by a beautiful old white frame house nestled among stately old oak trees and a well-kept yard. Flower boxes and a swing on the long front porch made that old house appear happy and loved. One could almost smell the odor of fresh-baked bread and hear the laughter of happy children. Into these thoughts came the intrusion of a sign out front proclaiming simply, "Home for Sale." I began to think, "How can we sell a home? Can a home really be sold?” How can one put a price on memories? Can mere money buy the sharing of events? Is there a possible means of financial evaluation of love of parents and children, the shared conversations of mealtime with family, the good books read and the sorrows experienced together? What price tag can be put on the spiritual teaching and godly examples in a Christian home? All these things make up homes. Do we really sell homes or just houses?
These thoughts continued to nag at my mind and I've concluded that we really are selling our homes today, even many whose owners are members of God's family. We are selling our homes to the god of the world (2 Cor. 4:4), who will use his power to destroy them. We sell our homes through TV, which we allow to freely baby-sit our children, teaching them the ways of ungodliness, sexual immorality, profanity, immodesty, deceit and cruelty. We are also selling our homes through mothers choosing to work outside the home at public jobs for "things" which are of little value in home building. We sell our homes through day-care centers for the tiny preschoolers and through church youth ministers to entertain rather than to teach. Mothers are selling homes through fast-food chains rather than providing the joys of family meals, using such time for teaching respect and table-manners as well as assuring well-balanced meals conducive to proper body-building. Daughters are not taught the happiness found in being good homemakers, good wives, and good mothers. Fathers are abdicating their God-given role of authority (Ephesians 6:1-4), selling their homes through the public schools now steeped in the teaching of humanism, atheism, evolution, etc.
We sell our homes through materialism, leaving the Lord out while putting "making money" first. Our children must be taught at home to "seek first the kingdom" (Matthew 6:33), having love and concern for others. They must be taught at home the work and worth of the church and what it means to be a part of it. Home is the place to begin to learn the Word of God and how to live it. It is the duty of the home to provide wholesome entertainment and activities rather than expecting the church to oversee such. We cannot expect our homes to survive on four hours of "church-going" per week. It is high time we wake up and quit selling our homes to the devil. Frankly, my home is not for sale! Is yours? Or have you already sold it??? Maybe it is time you seek earnestly to buy it back!!!
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