If you haven’t noticed, it has been a while since I have posted anything. I have been away on a work vacation building our new home. It is hard for me to believe, but God is giving us a house. We are excited! But as with any gift from God, I want to receive it and use it the proper way. A few thoughts.
First. This home is a gift from God. Stop… Rewind the clock ten years… Jared, ten years ago would have had a hard time recognizing a new home as a gift from God. Why? I had bought into poverty theology. In the quest for treasuring God above all things, I had no frame of reference on how to enjoy earthly gifts and pleasures. My thoughts would have been “Sure a new home would be cool, I just don’t want it to get my heart. I better not enjoy it too much!” An onslaught of subtle guilt would then follow.
Present day. Thankfully, God’s word has changed my poverty theology. It remains true, family or a house should never wholly have my heart. But I have discovered the truth of 1 Tim 4:4″For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.” God has given and by his grace we will receive with thanksgiving!
Secondly. I want our home to be a slice of heaven on earth. Habakkuk 2:14 looks forward to the day when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” God has seen fit to place the Sparks family at 325 Ashwood Ln. in Carbondale, Illinois. My role is to cultivate and build our home and property as a place designated for the Glory of God. This will be a place where the truth of the Gospel will be known and it’s implications lived out. When people are in our home we will point them to their greatest need, which is to Glorify God.
Let’s connect the dots. If the theme of our earthly home is the same as theme of my eternal home then my earthly home becomes training ground for heaven. What will be the theme of heaven? Rev 22:3 “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.” What, then, is a good theology of place or home? Our home will be a place where the Gospel of Jesus, life, death and resurrection is known in the hopes of being a place where God is glorified.
May it be.
Recommended Read. The Things of Earth by Joe Rigney https://www.amazon.com/Things-Earth-Treasuring-Enjoying-Gifts/dp/1433544733/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474293457&sr=8-1&keywords=the+things+of+earth
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