64 Sermon Illustrations on Home

Home is home, be it ever so homely. An Englishman's house is his castle. — English. — To every bird its nest is fair. — French. — East and west, at home the best. — German. — The reek of my own house is better than the fire of another's. — Spanish. — Home, my own home, tiny though thou be, to me thou seemest an abbey. My home, my mother's breast. Every dog is a lion at home. — Italian. — To Adam, paradise was home. To the good among his descendants, home is paradise. Hare.

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How few people go into raptures over home. Helen T. Churchill did at least in this poem:

One spot alone on earth Is fair to me-- There centers all the mirth, There I would be. There, only there, God’s sunlight pierces through And all the heaven paints with stainless blue.

You praise this land as fair, Its streams, its bow’rs; The common weeds are there As rarest flow’rs-- The fields Elysian. Ah, why should we roam? One spot alone enchants--we call it home! (Text.)--_The Woman’s Home Companion._

Sermon in Family series.

Joshua 24:14-22

"WHOM DOES YOUR FAMILY SERVE?"

I. Is Christ in your home?

A. The family has a critical role in passing on the faith.

B. Many families neglect their duty.

C. Church and Sunday School show the signs of decline.

II. Put God first in your family.

A. Do you know where your loved ones stand spiritually?

B. Develop spiritual habits in your family.

C. Church should not be an afterthought.

III. Exhibit real faith in your home. 2 Tim 3:14f

A. Teach spiritual principles as well as the standard stories.

B. Be real - don't make faith yucky.

C. Be loving and caring.

IV. What if your family is divided? 1 Cor 7:14; 1 Pet 3:1

A. Jesus knew this could happen, and warned of its pain. Matt 10:34

B. Christians have a sanctifying effect on EVERY relationship.

V. Who will lead the way?

A. We need leaders like Joshua, who stood up for what he believed.

B. Will your family commit itself to Jesus today?

#2360

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Discusses ways to buy a house without long-term crushing debt. Secret is to start in a smaller house and save the difference, then plow that into a bigger house. A biblical view of debt and savings is applied.

Homesickness for heaven is healthy. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible teems with ancient accounts of displaced men and women. Adam and Eve were the first to be kicked out of their home. Abraham obeyed God and left his home.

Christians should meditate on heaven.

1. I am in good company.

a. Bible heroes longed for "home."

b. Heaven is my home.

2. Meditating on heaven transforms us.

a. Encouragement to press on.

b. A passion for Scripture.

c. A thankful spirit.

"Family values" are the subject of intense debate in contemporary American society. Many commentators believe that if we hope to make any headway against some of our most acute social problems, families must be strengthened. Others, however, dismiss the call for family values as rhetoric that masks a narrowly conservative agenda.

Evangelicals have played a significant part in bringing this issue to national attention, having been the forerunners of family promotion. Nevertheless, author Rodney Clapp says in "Families at the Crossroads," evangelicals need to rethink their concept of family. To assist the process, he presents readable, thought-provoking challenges to current widely accepted views.

Clapp claims that evangelicals often defend a nineteenth-century concept of family rather than a biblical one. The idea of "home" as a mother-made preserve of intimacy in a cruel world of economic competition bears little resemblance to the extended households of the Bible, he argues.

Instead, a Christian's "first family," according to Scripture, is meant to be the church, taking priority even over the biological family. This "runs counter to the interpretation of many evangelical traditionalists" who regard the family as the main building block of the kingdom of God. Clapp's perspective is that families were meant to be "launching pads for mission" through outward-focused attitudes of hospitality.

Even though this is a book about families, Clapp includes a chapter on singleness. He reminds readers that the Bible honors singleness as much as marriage: "A defective interpretation of Christian family is [one] that...denigrates and dishonors singleness."

Another novel concept that Clapp presents is that the church needs to be wary of falling prey to a market-driven way of thinking. " 'The family that prays together, stays together' is not such an innocent statement," Clapp writes. "If we worship and pray to God because that will strengthen our family, then we make worship and prayer (and God) into investment techniques that serve our ends."

Unlike other analysts, Clapp does not make rampant secularism the main culprit for the modern family's problems; instead, he points to capitalism. The mindset of the market, Clapp suggests, is the real reason why families are weak. Spouses treat marriage as a business deal, not as an everlasting covenant. Similarly, parents find it difficult to sacrifice on behalf of children. After all, what will they get out of it?

His indictment of capitalism, though insightful, makes capitalism too important. If the market mindset were so potent, why did 150 years go by before it invaded and destroyed the home? Other factors must have been involved. Capitalism only became the universal solvent, dissolving all values into what's in it for me? after a deeper revolution occurred -- the revolution against God. Thus, the church can be a powerful countervailing "first family" on one condition: that it fears God.

Moreover, while Clapp's analysis of the excesses of evangelical attitudes toward the family is persuasive, he doesn't adequately place those attitudes in the context of a society so lacking in moral consensus that the very definition of what constitutes a family is a matter for acrimonious controversy. It is not without reason that many evangelicals feel that the family is under siege.

Clapp is at his best when dealing with biblical material. Christians will find solid arguments here to help them move past the current trend to glorify family for family's sake. Clapp is right that appealing to "traditional values" will change nothing, for these are not traditional times.

Neither will indicting capitalism's values stop people from pursuing anything that makes them feel bigger, unless they truly believe that, one day, they must answer to Someone before whom they are really very small. And in today's society, this is a value worth promoting.

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"Families At The Crossroads: Beyond Traditional And Modern Options," by Rodney Clapp (InterVarsity, 240 pp.; $10.99, paper). Reviewed by Tim Stafford. Copyright (c) 1994 Christianity Today, Inc./CHRISTIANITY TODAY magazine

LAUGHTER IN THE WALLS

Bob Benson

I pass a lot of houses on my way home, some pretty, some expensive, some inviting, but my heart always skips a beat when I turn down the road and see my house nestled against the hill. I guess I'm especially proud of the house and the way it looks because I drew the plans myself. It started out large enough for us-- I even had a study; two teenage boys now reside in there. And it had a guest room; my girl and nine dolls are permanent guests. It had a small room Peg had hoped would be her sewing room; the two boys swinging on the Dutch door have claimed this room as their own.

So it really doesn't look right now as if I'm much of an architect. But it will get larger again. One by one they will go away-- to work, to college, to the service, to their own houses. And then there will be room-- a guest room, a study, and a sewing room-- for just the two of us.

But it won't be empty; every corner, every room, every nick in the coffee table will be crowded with memories-- memories of picnics, parties, Christmases, bedside vigils, summers, fires, doing dishes, winters, going barefoot, leaving for vacation, cats, conversations, black eyes, graduations, first dates, ballgames, doing dishes, arguments, washing dishes, bicycles, dogs, boat rides, getting home from vacation, meals, rabbits and a thousand other things that fill the lives of those who would raise five. And Peg and I will sit quietly by the fire and listen to the laughter in the walls.

Avenue B church of Christ bulletin, Ballinger, TX

The Green, Green Grass of Home

by Erma Bombeck, written November 1971

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When Mike was 2, he wanted a sandbox, and his father said: "There goes the yard. We'll have kids over here day and night, and they'll throw sand into the flower beds, and cats will make a mess in it, and it'll kill the grass for sure."

And Mike's mother said, "It'll come back."

When Mike was 5, he wanted a jungle gym set with swings that would take his breath away and bars to take him to the summit, and his father said: "Good grief, I've seen those things in back yards, and do you know what they look like? Mud holes in a pasture. Kids digging their gym shoes in the ground. It'll kill the grass."

And Mike's mother said, "It'll come back."

Between breaths, when Daddy was blowing up the plastic swimming pool, he warned: "You know what they're going to do to this place? They're going to condemn it and use it for a missile site. I hope you know what you're doing. They'll track water everywhere and have a million water fights, and you won't be able to take out the garbage without stepping in mud up to your neck. When we take this down, we'll have the only brown lawn on the block."

"It'll come back," Mike's mother said.

When Mike was 12, he volunteered his yard for a campout. As they hoisted the tents and drove in the spikes, his father stood at the window and observed, "Why don't I just put the grass seed out in cereal bowls for the birds and save myself the trouble of spreading it around? You know for a fact that those tents and all those big feet are going to trample down every single blade of grass, don't you. Don't bother to answer. I know what you're going to say...

'It'll come back.'"

The basketball hoop on the side of the garage attracted more crowds than the Olympics. And a small patch of lawn that started out with a barren spot the size of a garbage can lid soon drew to encompass the entire side yard.

Just when it looked as if the new seed might take root, the winter came and the sled runners beat it into ridges. Mike's father shook his head and said, "I never asked for much in this life - only a patch of grass."

And his wife smiled and said, "It'll come back."

The lawn this fall was beautiful. It was green and alive and rolled out like a sponge carpet along the drive where gym shoes had trod... along the garage where bicycles used to fall ... and around all the flower beds where little boys used to dig with iced-tea spoons.

But Mike's father never saw it. He anxiously looked beyond the yard and asked with a catch in his voice.... "He'll come back, won't he?"

“Please come home early.” This was the most unreasonable request ever made by my wife of almost 40 years. She didn't make this request often. It came mostly on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, but it seemed that I always had so many things to do that in spite of her gentle urging, I rarely came home early. I don't want to give the impression that I was never at home. I was at home a lot. We rarely did anything out of the ordinary. We enjoyed the kids and the grandchildren. We listened to music, read the paper, and had meals together. Sometimes we would just talk about how the day had gone.

Now I know why she asked me so often to “Please come home early.” She wasn't just lonely, she was lonely for me. When she passed away a short time ago, I learned firsthand what loneliness is all about. I have a supportive family and many good friends. I'm free now to go places and do things, but I'm lonesome. Lonesome for her. Now that she's gone, I've found the time to “come home early,” but there is nobody to come home to. There is nobody to do those simple little things with, such as watching the evening news, listening to music, and reading the paper. And nobody cares how my day went. If I should get a call from the good Lord to “Please come home early,” I won't fight it.

Once I had a conversation with Dwight D. Eisenhower when he

was President. I said, "Mr. President, you have known every

great man of our time. Who is the greatest man you ever met?" Without

an instant's hesitation he said, "The greatest person I

ever met wasn't a man. It was a woman. It was my mother. She

never had much schooling but she was wise in God's wisdom. She

went to school to the greatest of all books, the Bible. And she

acquired real wisdom." He said, "Once when I was a boy, my

brothers and I were playing a game with my mother. The game was

with cards -- not regular playing cards because she was too

straight-laced for that -- but a hand of cards was dealt and I

remember this night Mother dealt me an utterly impossible hand.

And I began to complain about it.

"She said, 'Boys, put your cards down. I want to tell you

something, especially you, Dwight. You are playing a game in your

home with your mother under loving circumstances. We all love each

other here and I have dealt you a bad hand. Now,' she said, 'when you

get out in life where they don't love you so much, you are going to be

dealt many a bad hand. What are you to do? You are to pray to God.

You are to trust God and like a man you are to play out the

hand that is dealt you.' "And," said Dwight Eisenhower, "that is one

of the wisest things I learned in my youth." --Norman Vincent Peale

I recently heard of four scholars who were arguing over Bible

translations. One said he preferred the King James Version

because of its beautiful, eloquent old English. Another said he

preferred the American Standard Bible for its literalism, the

way it moves the reader from passage to passage with confident

feelings of accuracy from the original text. A third man

preferred Moffatt because of its quaint, penetrating use of

words, the turn of a phrase that captures the attention of the

reader. After giving the issue further thought, the fourth

scholar admitted, "I have personally preferred my mother's

translation." When the other scholars chuckled, he responded,

"Yes she translated it. She translated each page of the Bible

into life. It is the most convincing translation I ever saw."

A fierce storm was sweeping the great lakes. A steam tug towing a

barge began to founder. The captain and his mates took to a small

boat. All night long they tossed to and fro, every instant in jeopardy

of their lives. In the morning they were rescued by a passing ship.

The captain afterward testified that all the long night as they were

beaten and tossed by the tempest there was one thing which nerved

their arms and kept their hearts from sinking in despair. It was this:

shining through the darkness and the storm they saw the lights of

home. --James H McConkey

Please read General Douglas MacArthur's prayer for his son. Build

me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when

he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid;

one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble

and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should

be; a son who will know Thee and that to know himself is the

foundation stone of knowledge. Lead him, I pray, not in the path of

ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and

challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him

learn compassion for those who fail.

Build me a son whose heart will be clean, whose goal will be high;

a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one

who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will

reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense

of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too

seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the

simplicity of greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of

true strength. Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, "I have not

lived in vain."

Major Whittle's daughter said to her father who was soon to

preach on short notice to a large crowd in an opera house in

Pittsburgh: "Papa, tell them to come!" He did so, and God

wonderfully blessed it to the conversion of many souls.

I'm sure we all felt bad over the tragic death of Christina

Onassis at the age of 38. Many of her problems stemmed from the

poverty she experienced at home as she was growing up. As her

stepsister Henrietta Gelber commented:

"She lacked a sense of achievement, what she was striving for was

just to be a normal human being with normal family relationships,

which was virtually impossible in her situation. She had houses all

over the world, but she never really had a home." --People Magazine

Some months ago I heard a touching story about a humble,

consecrated pastor whose young son had become very ill. After

the boy had undergone an exhaustive series of tests, the father

was told the shocking news that his son had a terminal illness.

The youngster had accepted Christ as his Savior, so the minister

knew that death would usher him into Glory; but he wondered how

to inform one in the bloom of youth that he soon would die.

After earnestly seeking the direction of the Holy Spirit, he

went with a heavy heart through the hospital ward to the boy's

bedside. First he read a passage of Scripture and had a time of

prayer with his dear child. Then he gently told him that the

doctors could promise him only a few more days to live. "Are

you afraid to meet Jesus, my boy?" asked his devout father.

Blinking away a few tears, the little fellow said bravely, "No,

not if He's like you, Dad!"

Ross Perot seems not only to be an interesting character, but to have character. When asked several years ago about whether he considered himself a success, he replied that he wouldn't know until his five children had grown to adulthood.

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The Columbus Dispatch

As I stood in the midst of one of the busiest sections of Delhi, India, I looked around desperately trying to find a place to eat and get out of the heat and humidity. I had been in India -- nearly half a world away from my southern Indiana home -- for almost two weeks. As a lifelong meat eater in a vegetarian society, I felt homesick.

That's when I spotted those famed golden arches -- a gentle reminder of home for many of us 20-somethings who grew up on a regular diet of grease. But on my first bite into that burger, I realized this wasn't home. It was a lamb burger not a hamburger. The beautiful golden arches and smell of greasy fries had been a carefully constructed ploy.

It wasn't as much the physical distance between me and the house where I grew up or even being far away from my family. I was nearly a year into a two-year stint as journeyman missionary with the International Mission Board and was getting used to those obvious, physical symptoms of homesickness. But that day in Delhi, it was the values and societal rules I was having trouble understanding.

That's not the first time I felt that way. Whether it was listening to raw conversations in the workplace or watching friends fight and claw their way toward the almighty dollar, the feeling is the same as that day in Delhi. For Christians, that feeling of homesickness is part of our spiritual journey.

The author of Hebrews calls us "strangers and exiles" on our way to a heavenly home. Ever since we accepted Christ as our personal Savior, we've felt it. We knew that we don't seem to understand the rules of this world.

Unfortunately, many of us spend much of our lives trying to make ourselves at home in this world. We work long hours, we build dizzying social calendars and buy the biggest earthly home we can afford. We try to dull our homesickness.

C.S. Lewis called this building "inns" along the way. There's nothing wrong with inns -- as long as we don't make them home. No job, friendship or family can equal the joy of heaven. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:20 that we are citizens of heaven -- that's where we belong.

But as believers we aren't the only ones with heaven's call. Non-believers -- all made in the image of God and spiritual creatures as well -- long for a place where they can be with him. But no one has told them what they are longing for.

That's why as Christians our lives need to point others to their heavenly home. If we live as strangers and exiles, our neighbors and friends as well as the billions who live in darkness around the world just might want us to show them where we are going.

But how do we live as pilgrims in this world? In short: Call home, read your map and don't unpack.

1. CALL HOME

The ultimate example of someone who lived as a sojourner was Jesus. He knew heaven's glory yet he gave up his home to live as a pilgrim on earth. No one has ever experienced so much estrangement as Jesus.

But for Jesus, the key was talking to his Father. Look at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. If ever the ways of earth aren't the ways of heaven, it's at Gethsemane. When earth's values say to split when things get tough, heaven's values say go on. That's when Jesus prays. In those moments instead of facing execution, he's facing his Father.

Like a college student calling home before a big exam, we don't call home for answers to the next day's questions; we call home to hear someone say "keep going." For just like that college student, it's not the grade we make on the test that matters, it's the prize waiting for us at the end.

2. READ YOUR MAP

A good map is the product of several travelers' journeys into unknown lands. They show the obstacles and boundaries that earlier travelers ran into and how to avoid making the same mistakes they did.

That's exactly what the Bible is. It's a record of what other pilgrims found along the way in their journey home. Look at the lives of Abraham, King David, Paul and the apostles. Their lives weren't smooth sailing, but their mistakes on the journey can help us know what to avoid.

We also get an accurate picture of where we are and where we are going. A journey without a beginning and end is just walking in circles. Even though parts of it were written more than 3,000 years ago, it's still the best source available on the human condition. And as we read about the Bible's description of heaven, we are reminded the destination is worth the wait.

3. DON'T UNPACK

If you've ever spent a significant time away from the place you call home, you know that the minute you put up pictures and hang up clothes, homesickness begins. Suddenly you realize nothing is going to make the new place quite like home.

In order to truly live like a pilgrim in this world, we can't set up residence. None of the "inns" along the way are worth making you forget about where you're going. A good job, good family and friends and money in the bank are nice stops along the way, but they aren't home.

By not making homes out of inns, we give ourselves the freedom to follow God to the next part of the journey. God's purpose for this trip is that we might bring as many people home with us as we can. That might mean moving to a different part of the world, where people might have never heard about Jesus. If we don't set up residence in the "inns" of money, lust and power, then the journey across the street or across continents to share the love of Christ won't be near as difficult.

That ache in your heart for something more to the Christian life is normal. It's God's gentle call of heaven.

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Max Lucado tells a story about flying home to San Antonio one evening and as the wheels of the plane hit the runway, he said all through the plane you could hear the unfastening of seatbelts. As the voice came over the intercom saying, 'Please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened until the plane comes to a complete stop,' he said, no one was paying attention. People were already out of their seats, opening the overhead compartments, getting their stuff out. Why? Because they were home. Their final destination was not that plane. They wanted to get off of that plane, and get out, and get home with those they love. He said he didn't see any of the stewardesses having to struggle to pull people out of their seats, with people going, 'Wait a minute. I want to stay on the plane for a few more hours. The food is really good. These seats are so comfy, I want to stay.' No. They were home. They wanted to get off of that plane.

Why then, as Christians, are we so clutching when it comes to this world? This is not our true home. By the way, if you are a Christian when you die, where do you go? You don't go to heaven. When Jesus died He didn't even go to heaven. He went to hell. He went to hell to close the gates of hell for all who place their trust in him. But if you are a believer, when you die you don't go to heaven either. Where do you go?

When you and I die, we are not quite yet home then either. Remember when Jesus was nailed on the cross and the thief on his side trusted in him? Jesus looked at him and said, 'Today you will be with me.' Not in heaven, "in paradise". Paradise is where you and I go when we die. Yes, we will be in the unveiled glorious presence of God. But we are not yet in heaven. We are not yet home.

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Sermon on the meaning of coming home. Hebrews 11:8-10

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

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I. My daughter Rebecca arrives home from college in California.

II. We yearn for home.

A. "I'll Be Home For Christmas," popular with soldiers & students.

B. Our unspoken yearning for something deeper in life.

C. Deeper fulfillment can be found in God.

III. Our hopes can seem bigger than the reality.

A. Home isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

B. Sometimes we get disillusioned about God.

IV. Returning home.

A. Often the problem is not in the home but in us.

B. Prodigal sons wander still.

C. The journey lasts a lifetime.

V. Long ago, God made his home among us.

A. Like Abraham, he "tabernacled." John 1:14

B. His accommodations were temporary, but his salvation is eternal.

C. Are you heading home to Jesus?

Recipe for a Happy Home:

4 C love,

2 C loyalty,

mix with 4 Qts of faith.

Blend it with 2 Tbsp tenderness,

2 Tsp kindness and

1 C understanding.

Add 1 C friendship,

5 Tbsp hope,

sprinkle generously with 3 C forgiveness.

Serve daily with 1 barrel laughter.

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On Family: One of the oldest human needs is having someone wonder where you are when you don’t come home at night. — Margaret Mead (1901–1978), Anthropologist, Cited in More of… The Best of BITS & PIECES

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You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to tell you where they’re going.

Homes in America are under an all-out attack from Satan, says Adrian Rogers, a three-time former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. “Satan is a home-wrecker. He has leveled all the artillery of hell against the home. He knows if he can hurt us at home, he knows he will hurt us all over.”

Rogers' message centered on Psalm 127: “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” He explained four aspects of the passage:

-- The construction of the home.

-- The conservation of the home.

-- The contentment of the home.

-- The children of the home.

“Jesus Christ is the greatest home builder. He built the first home in the garden of Eden,” Rogers said. “He is now building us a heavenly home. He builds church homes, and He also builds family homes.

“The [family] home didn't come from the swamps of immorality. It is the plan of God to meet the deepest psychological and emotional needs we have,” Rogers said.

He told the audience at the Phoenix Civic Plaza that a strong Christian home requires commitment. God hates divorce, he said, reminding listeners that if they expect their children to have strong homes they should teach them not to become unequally yoked.

“You marry a child of the devil and you'll have the devil for a father-in-law,” Rogers said.

The longtime pastor of the Memphis-area Bellevue Baptist Church likened the relationship between a man and wife in a Christian home to the cultivation of a flower.

“A flower needs to be watered and cared for,” he said. “The honey hasn't gone out of the honeymoon in my marriage. I call Joyce on the way home from work every evening and tell her that I am calling from lovemobile No. 1. I tell her to synthesize her lips because I'm almost home.”

The purpose of a Christian marriage, he said, is for a man and woman to become one flesh, stressing the difference between the sexes.

“Women are built for having babies, not fighting battles,” he stated. “It's insane to put a woman on the front line in war.”

Rogers said the conservation of the home is under serious attack. Loud applause greeted his mention of Congress considering a measure that would identify marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Concerning contentment in the home, Rogers said Christian mates should not try to find contentment in each other. “If you don't find contentment in Jesus, you won't find contentment,” he said.

Rogers concluded with remarks about the children of the home. He asked Christian parents if they had given their children to the Lord.

“Children are like arrows in a quiver,” he explained. “Arrows are intended to be shot at the enemy. I made a covenant with God when my four children were born that I desired that they be used as arrows against the enemy.

“I'd rather be Peter, James and John asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane than be a Christian asleep in these pregnant days of sin in which we live. May God wake us up to build Kingdom families.”

*

Nothing in my existence could have prepared me for what I saw on screen last night. There isn't even a sense that one has just watched a movie. It is an experience on a level of primary emotion that is scarcely comprehensible. Those were the raw feelings expressed by a big-city news anchor after watching The Passion of the Christ. She put into words what many of us who witnessed this movie have felt.

After an advance showing, Paul Harvey described the silence and the sobbing of the roomful of movers and shakers at the end of the movie. And speaking for himself, Paul Harvey said, “Frankly, I will never be the same.” [but see below] Mel Gibson said, “Everyone who worked on this movie was changed.”

It is almost impossible to remain unmoved and unchanged when you see before your eyes what Mel Gibson calls the enormity of His sacrifice. The impact we feel is because we finally realize that this cross of Jesus is so much more than just a historical event or a religious event. It's a deeply personal event one that can lead us to the spiritual homecoming that has eluded us for so long. Like a little boy lost.

Scotty was only four years old and lost in Brooklyn. A police officer spotted the little guy standing on a street corner, crying. He tried to help the boy by asking him has address which he didn't know. Then his phone number which couldn't remember.

The officer was about to take him down to the police station when he thought of one final question - Little boy, is there anything near your house that I might recognize? For the first time, the child s eyes brightened. Yeah, he said. Next to my house, there's this big church, and it's got a big cross on the top. And, mister, if you can get me to the cross, I can find my way home.

So can you. Home to the love we look for our whole lives ... to the relationship that will finally fill the hole in your heart. And, one day, home to the heaven we all want to go to but none of us deserves. But finding the way home means first getting to the cross.

Not long ago, two men on an airplane were discussing their spiritual journeys. One said, As a young man, I left the church I'd been raised in to go on my own personal search for God. I've tried many religions, many spiritualities. Nothing ever satisfied my soul.

Then the man brightened as he related the surprising and abrupt way in which his quest found its answer. One day I stepped back into the church I'd grown up in. I was the only one there. Up in front, I saw the cross I'd looked at so many times as a kid. But suddenly something hit me that I had missed all these years. I found myself saying, “For me. That cross was for me.” That's where his long search finally ended.

That's where the spiritual search of millions has ended. Looking at that cross, seeing what Jesus did there, and suddenly saying those two words that change everything for me. What You did there, Jesus, is for me, isn't it? You're loving me there. You're dying there to pay my penalty for all my sin. Mel Gibson put it this way: “The full horror of what Jesus suffered for our redemption didn't really strike me. But when you finally see it, it makes you feel not only compassion, but also a debt.” You want to repay Him. You want to love Him in return.”

One bright light pointing the way to Him is what may be the twenty-six most important words in the Bible words you may have heard a thousand times or possibly never before. What matters is reading them now as if your life depends on them it does.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” - John 3:16

Yes, God loved the world by giving the most heart-rending gift He could possibly give His one and only Son. But the whoever brings His unspeakable sacrifice down to just one person. Facing the horror and the wonder of Jesus death on the cross, one Bible writer bottom lines it this way: “He loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Something amazing happens in your heart when you imagine yourself at the foot of Jesus cross and you say, “For me.”

Those twenty-six life-or-death words of John 3:16 spell out the alternative to a personal response to Jesus sacrifice. Whoever believes in Him shall not perish. The chilling fact is that, according to the Bible, every one of us has hijacked our life from the One who gave it to us and spiritual hijacking carries an eternal death penalty. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way ... your iniquities (all your wrongdoing) have separated you from your God ... for the wages of sin is death (Isaiah 53:6; Isaiah 59:2; Romans 6:23).

Even without reading the Bible, we know deep down inside that we've got trouble with God and that we need to do something about it or face some awful consequences. So we do good things, religious things to try to make things right with the One we will face after we take our last breath. But a death penalty cannot be paid by doing good. So it's possible to have lots of Christianity and to miss Christ. There's only one way a death penalty can be paid somebody has to die.

And Somebody did. On Skull Hill, that dark Friday afternoon. No one could take the life of the Son of God He would have to give it. And He did, in such an unspeakably awful way that the Romans had to invent a new way to describe the horror of crucifixion ex cruces from the cross. Today we describe unbearable pain as excruciating. Ex cruces. The most horrific pain of all. Suffered for you.

But the real hell of that cross was the moment when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” In that most devastating of all human experience, God the Father turned His back on His only Son. So He would never have to turn His back on you. Hell is eternal separation from God. Jesus took that so you don't ever have to. The real passion of Christ is loving you too much to lose you! Three days after Jesus died, history tells us that He walked out of His grave under His own power! Which means you can have a personal relationship with Him. Not a religion about Him, but a relationship with Him.

If you will make personal what He did on that cross by telling Him:

“Jesus, I believe that when You died, You were dying for me. You were paying for every wrong thing I ever did. And right now, with all the faith I've got, I'm putting my total trust in You to be my personal Rescuer from my personal sin. Beginning here and now, I'm Yours.”

At that moment, you trade your sin for His forgiveness, your emptiness for His peace, your hell for His heaven. The search of a lifetime ends at the foot of an old rugged cross. When you get to the cross, you can finally find your way home.

[Holwick: The Paul Harvey quote is actually an urban legend. It was actually written by Keith A. Fournier, founder of the Catholic Way website. See http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_paul_harvey_passion.htm]

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

In the opening pages of his book Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, Richard J. Foster writes that God longs for us “to come home to where we belong, to come home to that for which we were created.” He describes God's love for us in a series of memorable rooms that He invites us into: “the dining room of his strength, where we can feast to our heart's delight... the study of his wisdom, where we can learn and grow and stretch...and ask all the questions we want...the bedroom of his rest, where new peace is found....”[1]

What strikes me about this metaphor of home is that I've been thinking as of late about what intimacy with God looks like, particularly in prayer. I imagine for many of us that when we reflect on the moments we spend in prayer, what often comes to mind is a particular place — a study, a bedroom, a patio perhaps (at least part of the year!). When we think of home what also comes to mind is a place, whether a childhood home with a mimosa tree in the front yard or a Depression house in a budding cotton field, like in the film PLACES IN THE HEART.

Yet undoubtedly for each of us home — like prayer — is ultimately tied to a person or persons. We talk to inhabitants in a house, but we share our lives and our very selves with those with whom we have a home. We live in or say goodbye to a house, but we rest in a home.

As I was saying, I've been thinking about one's relationship with God in prayer and then a journal came to me over the weekend addressing this very subject. Gary Moon, a Christian professor of psychology and spirituality, writes in the journal Conversations that Foster's metaphor of home and relationship transformed his own thinking on prayer. Foster leads Moon to ask, “Could it be that real prayer is a matter of falling in love with God and then returning home from a distant land of fear and self-sufficiency to enjoy his warm embrace?”[2]

Moon's question (and Foster's further reflections in his book) reveals that though we may long for rest in God's presence, our sinful prodigal hearts often steer us elsewhere. Just as in our relationships at home, this intimate landscape of prayer can challenge our course: “When we approach prayer as dialogue between two people deeply in love, somewhere inside we know we must give up things that keep us from total trust and reckless abandonment — things to which we may have become attached as anchors of security. This is frightening! ... Truly to pray is to turn around and head back home to God, but it also means leaving the places where we have learned to feel some measure of comfort and safety. To pray is to become honest with the one we love.”[3]

As human beings made in God's image, we long to know and to be known by another. Yet in the course of our relationships, and certainly with God, we are sometimes taken to places we'd rather not go — to a room we've long abandoned, having settled into our tattered easy chair or kitchen nook for some peace and quiet. Perhaps it is a room filled with fear or separation or confusion. And so we have shut the door and tiptoed (or maybe even run) down the hall.

Nevertheless as we pray, God opens such places in the heart and invites us to see that He is there, and has been there all along, even in the dust and darkness. (I recognize this potentially raises questions, namely “Where was God when...?” Yet in wrestling with Him, I believe He shows us evidence of our Redeemer's presence and assures us of his promise: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”) Then God in his grace beckons us back to that room, and ever so slowly opens the door. He invites us to step inside with Him, and underneath the clutter He shows us what we missed on the dining room table or the warm, morning light that streams in the bedroom when the heavy drapery is removed.

Here in prayer God desires to take us to such places in the heart, longing that one day in “the dining room of his strength” we might be able to feed on his faithfulness, and in “the bedroom of his rest” to dwell securely. For here we are home, not just in a place, with a Person who embraces us.

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1. Quoted by Gary Moon in his article “Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, An Interactive Interview with Richard J. Foster” in Conversations, Vol. 2:1 (Spring 2004), 28. To find Conversations, see www.conversationsjournal.com

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid., 28-29.

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Copyright © 2004 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

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When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. — 2 Timothy 1:5.

In Eunice we have an example of a faithful mother; and what an unspeakable blessing to thousands has the devout and modest home life of that simple-minded woman been. A large proportion of all Christians may trace their first impressions to godly mothers. Of the history of Eunice little is recorded, except that she also was the child of a devout mother. Who knows, patient Christian mother, but that the little boy that sits at your knee is being educated by you for some service on the grandest scale? — J. D.

Be ours the bliss, in wisdom’s way

to guide the feet of youth,

And show the mind Which went astray,

the Way, the Life, the Truth.