#24: OUR GUARANTEE
A house not made with hands.
Hello fellow sojourners. Welcome back to our weekly newsletter. This is where you can find prayers, promises, and treasures on the narrow way. Written for the one in need of a drink of living water.
A few weeks ago on The Saturday Newsletter:
As we sow our perishable resources into the imperishable kingdom of God, it will look like death to our natural eye. This requires bearing the reproach of men's misunderstanding and comments of "what a waste". But there will come a day when the perishable meets the imperishable. When Jesus returns all of our shame will be transformed into glory in the greatest worldwide display. This is the day we are waiting for.
Enjoy this week’s newsletter.
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For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. (2 Cor. 5:1-5)
A life with Jesus begins with our emptiness. I am sure most of our testimonies with God are more similar than we realize. We all had a moment when we came to the end of ourselves and the beginning of Christ. We realized we are sinners and helpless to save ourselves from despair.
It is God’s mercy to show us who we are without Christ. In this revelation, we were saved.
We live in the age of a tent. It is temporary, uncomfortable, weak, and subject to the weather conditions around it. We have to endure storms out of our control. We walk through the consequences of sin and live in a world where things break and our bodies ache.
It is incredible how much time we spend fixing broken things. It was never meant to be this way.
Jesus told the zealous scribe excited to follow Him: The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head (Matt. 8:20). While foxes have fox holes and birds have nests—disciples of Jesus have no place to rest. They have no home here but are constantly penalized, marginalized, and subject to the storm of evil trying to take them out. Although polluted with sin, this barren land unveils the beauty of our eternal home.
Great darkness reveals great light. Jesus came to set a plan in motion: to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth (Eph. 1:9-10). The greatest longing in God’s heart is to become One with His creation. This was the cry of Jesus in the garden and the mystery of God's will revealed.
Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. (Jn. 17:11)
Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee that this prayer will be answered. In the fullness of time, all things in heaven and earth will be united in Christ. Jesus is still praying for this on the throne and invites us to join His ministry of intercession. It is the cry of the Bridegroom and Bride: "Let us become one."
God has prepared us to long for what is mortal to be swallowed up by life. We must not run from the emptiness of our lives but allow God to fill it. Only when we hunger and thirst in this age will we touch the riches of eternal life (Lk. 6:25).
The burden of laboring for eternity is what drives our pursuit of Christ. It is our motivation to get up early in the morning and go to bed late at night. It is what keeps us awake to pray in the garden of Gethsemane.
If the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
There is a city that will come out of heaven and meet earth. It is called the New Jerusalem, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Abraham looked for this same city whose designer and builder is God. (Heb. 11:10). God Himself will dwell among us and this is what He will do:
He will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Rev. 21:4-5)
As we lay our heads in the dust of this age, let us cling to hope that the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord (Rev. 11:15). In the meantime, we ask Jesus to teach us how to pray. We labor with Him for heaven and earth to become one.
The beauty of this calling is that it happens in the middle of our messy lives. We will always wrestle through our short attention spans and responsibilities that take up most of our day. But Jesus works amid everything else (as long as we seek Him). It's incredible.
I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me. (Ps. 119:30)
The Psalmist sets the word of God before him. We will follow what we are looking at.
To walk in the way of faithfulness, we must set the word of God before our eyes. It is easy to overcomplicate a life of faith and make excuses for our lack of closeness to God. It is not because God is far away, but our hearts are set on so many other things. We will not notice or acknowledge God if His word is not the primary thing we put before us. The Lord does not compete with other affections but patiently waits until we come to Him.
The Lord is teaching me how to behold Him. It's funny because He is not teaching me this in a church but at my cubicle during my 9-5 job. I have felt challenged that anyone can meet God in church, but can I meet Him in my day-to-day work? Can I touch the presence of God in the middle of daily stress and piles of work that need to get done?
I wrote Psalm 119:30 on a piece of paper at my desk this week. I want to learn how to walk in the way of faithfulness. In the words of the Psalmist, that happens by setting God's word before me.
A life with Jesus is all day—every day. I pray the Holy Spirit will teach us how to walk faithfully in every moment (big and small).
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Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matt. 4:4)