A World Without Homes

All of the scary movies have been put away.  The ghoulish costumes will soon be up for sale on eBay. The buildings recently haunted have returned to their normal states.  But that does not mean that everything scary has gone away.  As we know, reality is often much more frightening than the fantasies we revel in each October.  Listen to these words preached in 1937,

“Where is the Christian to be found who is not interested in the welfare of his home and family?  For the home and the family is of divine origin, a divine institution, and the Christian home is one of the most important institutions on earth. It’s existence, it’s welfare, it’s problems are matters of vital concern to the church, to human society, to us as individuals, to our country and to the world at large. Just imagine a world without homes."

Those last words are haunting to me.  Imagine a world without homes.  That is not an exercise that I would want to engage in for very long.  A world without homes is indeed a terrifying idea.  And yet it not something that requires much of a leap from reality for all too many people.  For many people the idea of home is not one that brings relief, but stress, anxiety, and sometimes fear.  Many people already within their own personal world know nothing of the comfort the word home has generally delivered throughout the ages.  And it continues to get worse.

As Christian people, we should well know that there is but one way to restore something good and holy that has become broken and unclean.  And that is to let the Holy One, Jesus, touch it.  We read in 1 Timothy 4:4-5, “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.”  Each of us must admit that to one extent or another our homes are not what the should be.  And that means each of us needs to allow God to make holy our homes by bathing them in the Word of God and prayer. 

To this end, my friend Pastor Dan Galchutt and I have started up a website called LivingPlanted.com.  It offers free resources aimed at helping you live out the Christian life at home.  I hope you might check it out and share it with others.  Also, you can connect to our effort by liking our facebook page.

I know this might sound odd.  But I am more concerned these days with with our members are doing in their homes than I am about what we do at Church.  That is not because Church is unimportant.  Our gathering to Jesus on Sunday is the key event of each week for us as God’s people.  But I feel like we have longstanding habits for our time at Church that are good and pleasing to the Lord.  I am worried that the same can not be said always for our homes. 

I do not want to imagine a world without homes.  I do not want to live is a world where Christian homes are not the place of refuge God intends them to be.  I do not want to live in a world where prayer and the Word cannot find a place in the homes of God’s people.  Let me leave you with another portion of that sermon preached so many years ago,

“Let your…church mean more to you than a mere place for you worship a short hour during divine service.  Permit its teachings to reflect in your homes and in your family life and you will never regret it for then you have the assurance of God’s blessing resting upon your home."