Sharon, my wife, and I decided to downsize. We sold a nice larger home on a big lot in the country the first of July, and looked for a lot in Waxahachie, TX near Southwestern Assemblies of God University where I’ve served for over 30 years. While our house was being planned, and built, we moved into Regent apartments at the University – a little apartment of less than 700 square feet designed for student occupancy… very basic: No oven, two burner hotplate, and a microwave/convection combination. So it’s been ten months in a student apartment while our lot was procured, the house planned, approvals gotten and then the house built. I’ve griped a bit, been frustrated a time or two, and experienced “cabin fever” … But we’ve finally got our certificate of occupancy for our new home and it looks like we’ll be finally be moving in the first part of next week! Can’t wait … it’s nice!!!
And this was my Bible reading this morning… No kidding!
“We know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands! We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies… We will put on heavenly bodies! … While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life! God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord… Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him.” (From 2 Corinthians 5:1–9 NLT)
So this is what I jotted in my Bible this morning… “Right now I’m living in temporary housing but I’m waiting for my eternal home in heaven! I may feel frustrated at times with what life brings, but this house is temporary! I’m expecting a house in heaven, an eternal body made by God Himself and it will be grand! It will be worth the wait! Lord help me to wait patiently and never lose my sense of expectancy!”
The Lord’s blessing is rich, wonderful and GOOD! Oh, and better yet, it overflows – it’s profuse and abundant! The tragedy is, if we’re not careful, it gets heavily seasoned with the sad sauce of selfishness… it becomes all about us!
God has been so merciful and gracious to us! He has given us much more than we deserve… In fact if He were to give us what we deserve, it’s frightening! He saves us from our sin! He hears and answers our prayers! He delivers us from all kinds of calamities! He works miracles on our behalf! His love, grace and goodness are boundless! We need to praise him! A word came to mind this morning as I thought about the goodness and grace of the Lord and my need to praise Him as I was reading Psalm 66 in the Bible… Here it is – my praise should be “effusive!”
Coffee With The Lord 