My Forever Home!

READ Ecclesiastes 3:1-17

s

SITUATION The author gives insight on values. He encourages the reader to use time wisely by making right choices.

s

OBSERVATION One of the key words in this section is the word "time." Solomon said that God has an appropriate time for every activity and for every stage of life. How we use that time reflects our values and our understanding of our eternal destination.

s

INSPIRATION You have an eternal address fixed in your mind as well. God has "set eternity in the hearts of men" (Ecclesiastes 3:11, NIV). Down deep you know you are not home yet.

So be careful not to act like you are. Don't lower the duffel bag too soon. Would you hang pictures in a Greyhound bus? Do you set up a bedroom at the roadside rest stop? Do you load your king-size bed on a commercial flight?

s

Would you treat this world like home? It isn't. The greatest calamity is not to feel far from home when you are, but to feel right at home when you are not. Don't quench, but rather, stir this longing for heaven.

s

God's home is a forever home, "And I will live in the house of the Lord forever" (Psalm 23:6).

s

My friends Jeff and Carol just adopted two small children. Christopher, the older, is only three, but he knows the difference between Jeff's house and the foster home from which he came. He tells all visitors, "This is my forever home."

s

Won't it be great when we say the same? Couldn't we use a forever home? This home we're in won't last forever. Birthdays remind us of that.

s

During the writing of this book I turned forty-six. I'm closer to ninety than I am to infancy. All those things they say about aging are coming true. I'm patting myself less on the back and more under the chin. I have everything I had twenty years ago, except now it's all lower. The other day I tried to straighten out the wrinkles in my socks and found out I wasn't wearing any.

s

Aging it's not fun. The way we try to avoid it, you think we could. We paint the body, preserve the body, protect the body. And well we should. These bodies are God's gifts. We should be responsible. But we should also be realistic. This body must die so the new body can live. "Flesh and blood cannot have apart in the kingdom of God. Something that will ruin cannot have apart in something that never ruins" (1 Corinthians 15:50).

s

Aging is God's ideas. It's one of the ways he keeps us headed homeward. We can't change the process, but we can change our attitude. (From Traveling Light by Max Lucado)

s

APPLICATION Eternity seems like a long way away for some people. If you're avoiding thinking about it, start looking at your own mortality. What does it mean for you to live today in the knowledge that God has set eternity in your heart? What changes can you make in your lifestyle based on that knowledge?

s

EXPLORATION ETERNITY-- Psalm 89:47, 139:24; Isaiah 26:4; John 5:39; Galatians 6:8; 1 Timothy 6:12

s

The Devotional Bible - Experiencing the Heart of Jesus; Max Lucado General Editor, New Century Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers