Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from John Denver singing … Take Me Home, Country Home … proclaiming joyfully that we a place in our hearts to return home; … but we Christians will never be home till we return to the home God has prepared for us in Heaven.
Highlight Verse[s]: Hebrews 11:16 [NKJV] …
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
… “They” here is all who look forward to a heavenly home.
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Highlight Context: Hebrews 11:8-16 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… The Author of Hebrews pointed to a desire in the hearts of all of God’s true family to return to the home prepared for them by God.
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Reference Passage #1 … John 14:1-3 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus promises His disciples a home in Heaven, prepared by Him and waiting for all who truly follow Him in faith.
Reference Passage #2 … Philippians 3:20-21 [NKJV] …
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
… Our home is Heaven; and we’ll one day return there to be with our Lord.
My Journal for Today: … Our Daily Bread author, James Banks, tells a personal story to illustrate how Christians must live in this world in anticipation of returning to our home in Heaven. He wrote: My wife walked into the room and found me poking my head inside the cabinet of our grandfather clock. “What are you doing?” she asked. “This clock smells just like my parents’ house,” I answered sheepishly, closing the door. “I guess you could say I was going home for a moment.”
The sense of smell can evoke powerful memories. We had moved the clock across the country from my parents’ house nearly twenty years ago, but the aroma of the wood inside it still takes me back to my childhood.
Are we, in Christ, living today, knowing that we’ll one day return to the home now prepared for all who believe and follow Christ … just as He promised to His disciples in that upper room [see John 14 passage above] and just before He went to the cross to make that return to Him a reality?
The Apostle Paul knew that his life and his ministry was a time of life merely preparing for his return home [see the Philippians 3 passage]. And the Author of Hebrews wrote (see highlight passage above) that all of God’s family hope and live for a Heavenly home to be with God forever.
Personally, I know where I’m headed! … Do you?
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … My life here on earth is now a journey homeward. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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