This is part __5___ in our home series. Check out parts 1-4 if you haven’t listened to them. We’ve had some great conversations!
Today we are talking about homemaking in light of our eternal home. The apostle Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:13 that we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, according to his promise.
After Jesus told his disciples that he was leaving them, they got really upset and here is how he comforted them: (John 14)
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Jesus the Way to the Father
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
So to set the stage for our discussion today about how our homes can reflect and anticipate our eternal home, we want to be clear. Jesus himself said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” To enjoy an eternal home on a renewed earth, then we must trust and follow Jesus. Surrender totally to him.
A couple of points here before we get into our practical advice:
Jesus was raised to EARTH. Ian K Smith writes at crossway.org, “We should not confuse the resurrection and the ascension. The grave of Joseph of Arimathea was empty. After his resurrection, Jesus’s body was transformed, but it was still the very same physical body that was laid in the tomb. This resurrection is the firstfruits of the general resurrection (see 1 Cor 15:20,23). Our bodies will also be raised in a way that will allow us to live in the new heavens and the new earth. We do not know all the details of what this will look like, but we know that ‘we shall be like him’ (1 John 3:2). Christianity is a resurrection religion.
The other really beautiful thing to notice is that Jesus himself has ascended to the heavens to prepare a place for us. He makes the statement that His Father’s house has many rooms… and he’s making them ready for us!
So, too, we can make the rooms of our house a place of welcome for Jesus and for others. Rosaria Butterfield puts it like this, “The Gospel comes with a house key.” So how can we make our homes gospel-centered?
Focus on the Family has some excellent resources to help us do just that. These ideas are taken from a Q&A section of their website, where a listener/reader whose childhood home was a place of spiritual hypocrisy. They truly were at a loss when their spouse said they wanted a Christ-centered home. So, if that resonates with you, you aren’t alone. There are plenty of people who want to do things differently than they experienced. And many times when people say that they don’t love Christianity, it’s not the principles of following Jesus they dislike, it’s how people in their lives actually fell woefully short of living the truth found in the Bible.
So, how can our homes be focused on the gospel with an eye to the eternal?
- Joy is characteristic of a truly Christian home.
Having said this, it’s important to understand that joy and happiness are not necessarily the same thing. Happiness is a result of what happens to us. Joy has deeper roots. Every marriage and every family will experience trials and hardships of various kinds, but there is no circumstance that can rob us of our joy if we know that the key to our present welfare and future destiny lies in Christ alone.
- A Christian home is orderly.
As the apostle Paul says, “God is not the author of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33). In an important sense, this home is guided by Thoreau’s famous dictum: “Simplify, simplify, simplify!” It is purposely not in chaos. The tyranny and bedlam of the world are required to stay outside. The members of the household regularly review everything that’s allowed in. Should it stay? Does it build up the family? Does it encourage people to value one another over things?
Work was something Adam was made to do, “God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Gen2:15). The reality is that God made work and it was part of the very good earth before sin entered the world. It is only after Adam’s sin that work is cursed; and it’s the curse that makes our work difficult – in our homes and outside of them.
So what do we do? We try to make the work of keeping our homes a team effort. A partnership with our husbands and consciously and continually involving our children with more responsibility as they prove themselves faithful and capable.
- A Christ-centered home should be marked by grace.
It should be a safe place to mess up. Family members need the ointment of grace applied to the wounds of their hearts. They need to remember that love, not perfection, is the goal. There’s enough hostility, judgment, sarcasm, biting humor, and antagonism out in the world. Home should be a retreat where the hurting can find comfort, rest and healing.
How do you find the balance between joking/good fun and sarcasm or antagonism?
- A Christian home is a place of service.
Its atmosphere is tempered and flavored with acts of kindness, respect, humility, and love. This is where husbands and wives discover that serving each other in Christ is primary; that service to others in the outside world is built upon an attitude of selflessness at home; and that all of life, including the mundane duties of laundry, housekeeping, and lawn-mowing, can be sacred.
How did we encourage our kids to serve the family and others in our homes?
- A Christ-centered home is a place where the spiritual disciplines are practiced.
It provides an environment where every member of the family learns how to live by studying the Scriptures, praying, meditating on God’s Word, and spending time alone in the presence of the Lord.
In case some of our listeners don’t know what those may be, we will list them here. Richard Foster has a beautiful little book called Celebration of Discipline that goes into more detail with each one. So good!
The inward disciplines: Meditation Prayer Fasting Study (Which did we do well? Not so well?)
The outward disciplines (inward realities resulting in outward lifestyles): Simplicity Solitude Submission Service (Which did we do well, not so well?)
The corporate disciplines Confession Worship Guidance Celebration (Which did we do well, not so well?)
- A Christian home is based on God’s purposes for every member of the household.
It’s a place where the family’s goals are founded upon His values and where the corporate vision of the future is consistent with His plan. Developing a family “Mission Statement” can be a wonderful place to start crafting a genuinely Christ-centered home. The guiding principles embodied in this document should be flexible but consistent. From beginning to end, they should reflect your eternal focus and express your deep hope of seeing Jesus face to face one day.
Did we have mission statements?
What about other ways (spiritual gifts inventories, personality assessments, knowing your kids etc) to help everyone understand God’s purposes for their lives?
Who inspires you? What causes get you all jazzed up? Those are hints to what purposes God has in store for you.
Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
So, we commit the work of homemaking to the Lord, and our plans will be established. Pray that prayer for your family and your home: Establish the work of our hands! God gives us the honor and dignity of making our lives count well beyond our years on this earth. Step into that with humility and strength!
- A Christian home is temporary. It’s not where we store up treasures. None of it is ours and none of it goes with us. Let that inform your perspective on “stuff” and its relative importance. In America, if you own a home, that’s where a big chunk (or most) of your wealth is, and it is good stewardship to grow equity, take a home loan that’s not more than you can handle, and think of your family’s security. But we have to ultimately know that’s not where our security and value lie.
Is there a place here to talk about WHY we feel the loss of a home so traumatically? If we experience a house fire, flood, natural disaster, foreclosure…. (like a lot of people did in 2008-09)… that’s the thing the news fixates on. It resonates with something key in us, I think, that fundamental lack of HOME with all our special memories and objects.