Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Home

The children of Israel, following the dramatic exit from Egypt, wandered for 40 years in the wilderness, without a permanent home.  But, they did have the presence of Almighty God with them.
In Deuteronomy 31, we can read:
7 Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, "Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it.
8 And the Lord, He is the one who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed."

When it was time to enter the promised land, God raised up a man to lead the people in and gave him the assurance of His presence with him.  The Israelites were about to make another transition, and the road was certainly not smooth once they crossed the Jordan into their new home.  But, God was with them, and He is with us, totally faithful - He will enable us to navigate the transitions of our lives - with wisdom and direction, with strength and courage. We can know He is with us.

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We encounter so much in life that is temporary and walk through various stations, with each season passing away and another one coming.  And, ultimately, we recognize that life here on earth is
temporary, as 2nd Corinthians 4 suggests:
15 For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Yesterday, we talked about a building being repurposed for refreshment, spiritual refreshment.  We recognize that a building can be a tool - for ministry, and for the local church.  The Church itself is not a building, but a facility can be used as a fellowship and ministry center.

There's a church in the greater Washington, DC area that has been wandering without a home building for a few years now.  It's the Falls Church Anglican Church (TFCA), which is part of the Anglican Church of North America, which, according to a Christianity Today story, "had lost its 250-year-old historic church property after a long, high-profile legal dispute with the Episcopal Church that spanned 2006–2012."

The ACNA, as I understand it, was an Anglican body that broke ranks from the Episcopal Church and embraced a more conservative theology.

A dedicatory message preached by new rector Samuel Ferguson, after different features of the new space were prayed over, included these words: “We are God’s living stones whom he is shaping and configuring into his holy temple,” adding, “You can imagine it is one thing to build a beautiful building out of bricks and mortar. It is altogether another thing to build a unified and holy people. We are far harder to work with.”

The article included a quote from Jeffrey Walton, Anglican program director for the Institute on Religion and Democracy: “To be candid, church buildings do matter. They serve as missionary outposts in the communities that church congregations seek to minister amongst,” adding, “While the buildings themselves are not ‘the church,’ they establish a physical presence in a community. For Anglicans and other Christians in historic, liturgical traditions, setting is important.”

The church has been in seven different locations since 2012, having been hosted by churches of a variety of denominations. Ferguson noted that the church had been "tabernacling" for the past seven years.

Walton, in his article at the IRD website, stated about the opening Sunday recently for the 2,000+ member congregation in its new home in a new building:
At a standing-room-only 8:45 a.m. service this Sunday in 2019, Ferguson noted that the Bible has many examples of people displaced for a season. God providentially engages his people in an activity or period of renewal that otherwise might not have occurred.
“God strategically forced us into a place of real weakness. As a church, we really didn’t know what was next. We really didn’t know what to do, except depend completely on him. Dependence, not independence, is strength,” Ferguson recounted of TFCA’s own journey. “Weakness will train you to lean on God.”
The writer of the Christianity Today article, Abri Nelson had this to say about transitional periods in life:
God is active even in our periods of uncertainty. Think of Joseph in prison, Abraham and Sarah without children, Elijah sitting on Mount Horeb after fleeing from Jezebel; they did not see the end of their stories while they were in them, nor could they see how God was orchestrating the strands of their stories to fold into his larger plan of redemption.
One could say that all of our lives are a journey; hopefully, there are periods of stability, although that may not be the story for everyone.  But, we will encounter instability from time to time, and God gives us the ability, through His presence, to enjoy the journey.  I think about that song from Michael Card that declares that there is certainly, as the title suggests, Joy in the Journey.

We can remember that in our transitional times, we can trust the Lord.  Change brings opportunity, and really, when you think about it, opportunity will bring change.  We travel from station to station, point to point, and can depend on the Lord to give us the direction we need to navigate those travels.

And, as believers, we can be on the search for a place to call home within the body of Christ - ultimately it's not in a building, but in a group of fellow believers.  That's the way God has designed the body of Christ and the local church, for us to function and fellowship together, so that we can experience His fulfillment.

Remember, ultimately, God has a home for us.  And, it's not this world - He wants us to live here with an eye on heaven, the place that He is preparing for us, where we will see Him face-to-face and enjoy Him for all eternity.  That's our home; the place to which we truly belong.

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