Owning A Home
Sixty-seven percent of Americans own a home, which means that 70 million people are interested in home ownership. I just got to thinking, I wonder how many of these have an interest in owning a home in heaven after this life ends? Let me excite you about a heavenly home.
1. Earthly Homes: The word home often refers to a family, a dwelling, or an institution of some sort. It has been said that, “home is where the heart is.” Paul referred o a home when he instructed the Corinthians, “And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation” (1 Cor. 11:34). The church is not to be an eating place but our homes are. At the death of Jesus, John took the mother of Jesus “unto his own home” (John 19:27). We should be ready to care for those who are our own as Paul told Timothy, “But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for this is good and acceptable before God” (1 Tim. 5:4). The Holy Spirit enjoins upon women to be, “keepers at home” (Tit. 2:5). One of the reasons for so many divorces and stray children is a failure of women to be keepers at home.
2. Heavenly Homes: The wise man, in discussing the days of old age and ill fortune says that, “. . . man goes to his long home” (Eccl. 12:5). Are you as interested in a home in heaven as you are in your earthly one? No one, responsible to God, goes to heaven accidently! It takes preparation. Going to heaven involves faith in God (Heb. 11:6), repentance of sins (Acts 2:38), confession of faith in Christ (Matt. 10:32), baptism into Christ (Gal. 3:27), to be added to the Lord’s church (Acts 2:47), then living “soberly, righteously and godly in this present world” (Tit. 2:12). Have you made this necessary preparation? The heavenly home has been described as “a city in the country” (Heb. 11:10, 14). Abraham was said to have “. . . looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10). Those of Old Testament times desired, “. . . a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city” (Heb. 11:16). Do you have your heavenly home on reservation? You can as Peter described, “To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Pet. 1:4).
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