I’m looking at a rental and property management advertisement in the Coffee News. At the top it says in big print:
“LOOKING TO RENT A HOME”
No, I am not looking to rent a home!
I have lived most of my life in dwellings belonging to other people and they can kick you out.
I am looking for a permanent home.
I have learned that there is a resting place, that there are abiding places. We are reading about those “abiding places” in in the Bible in John 14:2 There it says: “In my Father’s house are many rooms;…..” The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking!
Heaven is a home which is permanent. We are reading in Second Corinthians 5:1 that heaven will abide forever. “….an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
I am on my way to HEAVEN!
What is your final destination?
“HEAVEN IS A PREPARED PLACE FOR A PREPARED PEOPLE, AND THEY THAT ENTER SHALL FIND THAT THEY ARE NEITHER UNKNOWN OR UNEXPECTED.” – Bishop Ryle
“There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.” – Freya Madeline Stark
“We would like to see JESUS.” – John 12:21
“YOU HAVE SAID, I WILL SURELY MAKE YOU PROSPER.” – Genesis 32:12
At the local ANZ Branch I picked up the “Investor Focus” and I am reading with great interest in the message to investors, that the New Zealand dollar is one of the ten most traded currencies in the world.
Investors are very important to Banks!
What is important to us?
I remember what I read this morning in a devotional book written by C. H. Spurgeon. He writes:
“IT IS A BLESSED THING WHEN YOU CAN BRING ALL YOUR DESIRES INTO FOCUS SO THAT THEY CAN CENTER ON ONE OBJECT.”
Hebrews 12:2 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,……”
“Beautiful inside, beautiful outside,” is written on the wall behind the counter of a shoe shop at New Lynn Mall in Auckland/NZ.
I am at once fully alert.
In the Bible the Lord Jesus Christ is also teaching about the “outside” and the “inside” and we are finding his words in Matthew 23:25-28.
But let me first of all quote from the latest WarCry (09 April 2011, page 03):
“It reminds me of how a friend once described his life: like an overstuffed suitcase he tried to keep shut. This picture stayed with me because it sounded like my life , too. I was nice and tidy on the outside, but inside things were jumbled, chaotic mess. It’s just one of the many ways I’ve used to try to trick God and others into thinking I’ve got it all together.
Until the zip breaks, and everything explodes out like fluffy, multi-coloured napalm.”
In Matthew 23 the Lord is calling the teachers of the law and the Pharisees hypocrites.
In Matthew 23:25,26 he admonishes them to clean the inside of the cup and the dish, to get rid of greed and self indulgence.
In Matthew 23:28 he tells them that they appear to be righteous on the outside, but on the inside they are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
I am asking myself now:
Am I only beautiful on the outside, or am I also beautiful on the inside?
We can try to trick others into thinking that we’ve got it all together, but not God!
