Heaven is my Home

It seems like over and over the Lord is teaching us that we should not find comfort, satisfaction, or security in an earthly home.  We all long for a home, a place to hang our hat, a place to come where we can let down our defenses and be ourselves. Yet, we went for 4 years living in others people's homes, looking at their decorations on the walls. Finally at Sakintepe, we were able to build our own cabin and hang our own family pictures. Then the visa laws change...we must leave for 3 months out of every 6 months.  Just when we were feeling comfortable and relaxed, He jolted our security once again. Now others are staying in "our" home.  So we come back to the US on furlough and in order to give some sort of order to our lives, we buy a motor home in which to travel and live for the 3 months. After we drive it to Illinois, we had a fire in the engine.  We tell everyone our house caught on fire!  What is God trying to teach us?  We know that we are only strangers passing through this life and that earth is not our home, yet we still attempt to have some semblance of a dwelling place that we can call our own.  We feel like we have learned that lesson, so let's move on to more complex spiritual heights. But He keeps reminding us that we are sojourners, travelers, nomads for Him.  He encourages us to not get tied to things for comfort, to not be selfish with our time but to spend ourselves for others as He did while on earth.  Christ had no place to lay His head, why do we think we deserve any more than our Lord and Master?

Trust vs. Fatalism

Trust vs. Fatalism

Recently we had a neighbor get killed by a run away truck as he was buying vegetables with his family alongside the road. At first his wife was angry with God for having allowed such a tragedy. But the very next day she confessed her sin of rebellion against God and accepted his will for her life in the fatalist Muslim fashion. It made me think....what is the difference between trusting a sovereign God and believing in fate and destiny, but also in Allah who is all powerful?  Are we any different in our beliefs?

It brought to my mind the story of Ruth and Naomi.  After all the hardships and deaths that Naomi went through she says in Ruth 1:20-21, “Do not call me Naomi (meaning pleasant) call me Mara (meaning bitter), for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.  I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?”  Naomi fully understood the sovereignty of God and His dealings with her.  However, what made her bitter was her lack of understanding of the goodness of God. Yes, God is almighty, all powerful and sovereign over every circumstance of my life. But His goodness is what makes me trust His heart when I don't fully understand His hand. 


When David was fleeing from his son Absolom, he says in II Samuel 15:26, "Let Him do to me whatever seems good to Him." He accepts God's dealings in his life as "good." I am learning through many different events in our life that I need to surrender and learn to trust in the "good" that God brings into my life, whether through our visa situation, or relationships, or family.  Sometimes what I see as "good" doesn't look very good to me, but I can trust in the goodness of a good God who is working all things together for my good. Lord, I do believe, help my lack of trust in your sovereign goodness. 

Life with a View

We recently read a book called "Life with a View" and I thought it was an appropriate title for our lives as well. Some days we enjoy the view (this is the view from our cabin), other days we are confused by it, and still other days the view appears dark and cloudy. However, the view is distorted by our own sinful perspectives and our beliefs about God, because we actually do live what we believe. As we learn to speak truth to ourselves and not listen to lies, our view becomes clearer to His ways. We know that He knows what He is about and that all He does is good, because He is good (Psalm 119:68). Sometimes all we can do is sit back and watch God work out all things for our good, and then the view becomes glorious!