What is Home?

On Monday I went to All County YoungLife at Church of the Holy Spirit.  It's a place for kids from Cave Spring, Hidden Valley, and PH to go and just fellowship and have a great time.  After all the crazy games and songs the lights dimmed and a song was showing up on the huge screen against the wall.  It was a song called "I'm coming home" by Diddy.  Now in my opinion, he is a bad influence and has a foul mouth in most of his songs, but this one got to me.  In one part of it the background singers say "I'm coming home, coming home. Tell the world that I'm coming home. Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday.  I know my kingdom awaits and they've forgiven my mistakes. I'm coming home." The whole song was basically about how you can have it all but in the end, you really have nothing unless you know where you are going.

After the song was over everyone was clapping and those lyrics just kept running through my head over and over.  Goody, the leader of the YoungLife at PH told a story about a women who had internal bleeding for 12 years of her life.  However, when she touched the cloak of Jesus she was instantly healed.  That was brought on by faith.  She didn't know who she was. Everyone thought she was rotten and disgusting because she had a disease, but she had faith that God could heal her.  Not only did he heal her though, but he forgave her of every sin she had commited and told her to go live in peace.  I think that's what it's like for alot of us.  We want to be healed, but don't have the faith that God can do it for us.  This is especially the case because we know we are sinners and screw up most of the time.

It's so easy to try to find comfort in being popular, having a sexual relationship with someone, or dealing drugs.  We feel accepted.  However, these are false sources of comfort and healing.  Whether you admit it or not, everyone wants to know where they are going and what they have to look forward to in this life.  Toward the end of the song, Diddy says
"Lot of fights, lot of scars, lot of battles
Lot of cars, lot of ups, lot of downs
Made it back, lost my dog
And here I stand, a better man!
Thank you Lord. I'm coming home!"
God will pull us through anything if we have the faith and believe that he will do so.  There is a place out there that is far better than we could ever begin to imagine.  A house isn't a home without the people you love, and who would be better to love than Jesus Christ? 

There's a place out there that God has planned out for us in Heaven that has so much to offer.  We can't settle for anything less than what He has already created for us.  Don't try to get used to this life for too long, because to God, our lives are like a blink of an eye.  Whether you have a home full of struggles and hurt or a functional family, this is not home.  We all need to find  the place where we belong, and that's in His presence.   Alot of people say the safest place a baby can be is in his or her mother's arms.  I'm here today to tell you that we are all God's children, and the safest place we will ever be is in his arms, in the kingdom we have been destined to live in for all eternity.

It takes faith to love and to hope and to trust.  It takes courage to want to do the right things for the right God.  This life is a privelege to take advantage of, and we have to believe that God can and WILL heal us of whatever struggles we have in our lives.  Find peace in Jesus. He is the ultimate shelter.  And if you don't have faith that He is here and always have been, well, just look at everything around you.  He created it all.

“Faith makes all things possible.... love makes all things easy.”