081421 Not My Home

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of the God of the entire world. What a wonderful thing that is! If God’s love and redemption had been limited only to the part of the world where human life and God’s interactions with man initiated, probably all of us would be left out. But we are included! Along with all the needy people that each of you are trying to reach in places all around the globe.

About twenty years ago, I started thinking about writing books. Not the devotional and Biblical type of writing that I have since pursued, but Christian fiction. I put a fair amount of thought into it. I planned a series called “Quiver,” about a couple and their five children. I had a basic plan for each of the books and developed a lot of structure in terms of what the characters were like and where they were going to end up. I started on book one, and I finished 36 pages – typed, single-spaced. Then life happened – school, ministry, health, etc. I never went back to that writing, and I doubt that I ever will.

In that draft the best friends of the couple ended up going to the mission field. I named this missionary couple Eugene and Alice Homan in a subtle tribute to missionary friends of mine, the wife of which is receiving this letter. When Gene and Alice told the book’s main characters of their call to the mission field, this is what they said.

"The Lord has been working in our hearts for several months now, but we weren't sure exactly what it was He was trying to show us until Sunday night. After that message, Alice and I both knew. Pastor talked about Abraham's faith and how he followed God, and then he brought out that verse in Hebrews about looking for a city whose builder is God. This world is not our home. Abraham went wherever God led him because he was looking forward to something eternal. Sometimes we get tied down to this one little spot in the middle of Pennsylvania and think that it's the only place that God can use us, that it's the only place that we can be, just because we happened to be born here. I think we are prone to forget about the people in the rest of the world. What I'm trying to say is that this world is not our home; we're just passing through here on our way to heaven. So, if this world is not even my home, then does it make any difference what part of it I live on? We have decided that we don't want to be so tied to any one part of this world that we won't go elsewhere for God. And we firmly believe that he has called us to go elsewhere."

The verses referred to about Abraham are found in Hebrews 11:8-10. “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” The passage goes on to state that the patriarchs “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (v. 13).

The corresponding hymn contains these words.

“This world is not my home, I'm just a-passing through.

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue;

The angels beckon me from heaven's open door,

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

O Lord, you know I have no friend like you,

If heaven's not my home, then Lord what will I do?

The angels beckon me from heaven's open door,

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

 

I have a loving Savior up in glory-land,

I don't expect to stop until I with Him stand,

He's waiting now for me in heaven's open door,

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.”

The character in my book asked, “So, if this world is not even my home, then does it make any difference what part of it I live on?” Those words are somewhat easy to say in a moment of spiritual strength and illumination. Practically, they can be more difficult to live out than we would want to admit. That’s where the truth of Hebrews serves as an anchor and an on-going motivation and encouragement. God’s Word reminds us that our life in this world is indeed temporary. Heaven, our true home, does await. So just a few more days on this earth, serving our wonderful God however and wherever He asks. That’s not too much, is it?

In the meanwhile, may God give you every bit of grace and wisdom and strength that you need to continue through the challenges and inconveniences of this life. It will indeed be worth it all when we reach our final home.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA