Crucified...

“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”    Galatians 2:20

And if this is true in my life, what good riddance! Dean and his ego are out of the way, and Jesus Christ reigns in his life!

“I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.”  Romans 12:1

That means, “Here I am! Do what you want with me as you wish!  And if we believe this, why in heaven’s name to we complain and whine so much when our sovereign father uses us as He pleases?

…… Am I so identified with the cross and death of Jesus that I am not of much use for anything else in the world but Him?  Is my love and affection for Him so intense that any other love, by comparison, would appear to be hate?  Do you know people in our community who love Jesus like that?  Such was the love the apostles, martyrs, and devotees to Jesus Christ had. They are the heroes of old.  But where are those heroes today?  They might be right here in this room tonight. That’s what I want to be said of me as well. What about you?

Am I truly “crucified” with Christ? Is my life a “poured offering” for Him and those He died to redeem?  Am I living a life in which nothing is impossible because of my connection to Him and my determination and resolve to be His alone? Or is my life compromised by my ambition, my obligations, my personal “bucket list”, my doubts, my imperfect history, the guilt I carry or something else?

Since my realization of Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, whether it was last week or 50 years ago, am I now permanently and terminally homesick for heaven?  Has the realization of His love and His call upon my life “spoiled me” and “ruined me”, in the best possible sense of the word, for anything less than serving Him?  Am I that devoted and focused?  If not, why??

Know this, a person with their eyes set upon Jesus does not become a hopeless dreamer of heaven or a worse friend, negligent parent, absent spouse, indifferent boss, or lazy employee.  It’s the opposite. The more we pine and dream of Him and His place for us, the more we find ourselves drawn into Him and His nature. We become, in fact, the sons or daughters, the parent, spouse, friend, boss, and employee He always wanted us to be.  But I would defy anyone who has met Him personally, not vicariously, but on a spiritual and intimate level, to not be prepared to leave home, family, personal comforts, and dreams to embrace Him—— because He is that “pearl of great price”.  Look at the life of Abraham,  Moses, the great prophets, Paul, and the others who were in love with God—they would, and did, abandon everything to follow Him.

I don’t want to use too many personal anecdotes to illustrate a point when I speak, but one of the greatest problems we face each summer at our camp with campers and staff is homesickness. You might not consider this to be a big concern, but homesickness is contagious and can ruin the summer. If a little girl is homesick and does not recover soon, her cabin-mates soon begin to get homesick as well. And the worst thing that can occur is when the counselor is homesick. If he is overcome with this malaise, the whole cabin could be lost.

The best way to combat homesickness is to keep the camper or staff so busy and preoccupied that they have no time to think about their pets, family, and friends back home.  Busy campers are much happier and less homesick than bored campers.  So we do all we can to keep them busy and focused on anything but home.  Competitions, the upcoming party, the trip to Carowinds theme park, etc.—— anything but thinking about home!

And yet, one fact that I face almost every day is that I, too, am homesick. Not homesick for returning to my childhood home in Lake Mary, Florida. That house is long gone, and the memories are fading. No, I am homesick for my real home—— the home that He has gone to prepare for me. Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously said that, “No one has yet believed in God and the kingdom of God, no one has yet heard about the realm of the resurrected, and not been homesick from that hour, waiting and looking forward to being released from bodily existence.  Whether we are young or old makes no difference. What are twenty or forty or eighty years in the sight of God? And which of us knows how near he or she may already be to the goal? That life only really begins when it ends here on earth,  all that is here is only the prologue before the curtain goes up - that is (the thing) for young and old alike to think about. Why are we so afraid when we think about death? ... Death is only dreadful for those who have reason to live in dread and fear of it. Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can be still and hold fast to God's Promise……..Death is grace, the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in him. ….. it beckons to us with heavenly power, if only we realize that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace.”

As you might know, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by Adolf Hitler just a few days before the American army freed all the prisoners where he was being held. He was hanged with piano wire. The prison doctor who witnessed the execution wrote: “I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer…kneeling on the floor, praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”

We’re all going to die, but are we dreading it or embracing that happy day? The knowledge of my “homesickness” for God and His Kingdom is present with me all day. I realize that things on this earth are not the way they should be.   I don’t behave the way I want to, and those I love don’t do as they should—I am keenly aware of this. Pain, suffering, injustice, arrogance, greed, selfishness, death, deterioration, and decay: I know that all these things are not what God originally intended—they are not, and will not be a part of my real and eternal home.

The closer I draw to Him, and the longer I think about Him and His Kingdom, the more I feel I have nothing in common with the manner and operations of this present home we call earth. Yes, I am homesick for my future home, and the more I ponder about it, the more I “remember” how things will be and the more I pine for His touch and presence…the less I feel that I “fit in” here.

Are we a “living sacrifice”?  Living sacrifices have a tendency to squirm and wiggle and have been known to crawl off the table.  God never asked us to kill ourselves or give up living, but rather abdicate on our personal ambitions and our proclivity to gather and hoard for ourselves and instead live for Him and let Him bless us as He chooses.

As “living sacrifices,” we have two obligations: To abandon ourselves into living and breathing devotees for Him—the One who loves us far more than we can imagine— and to love, with reckless abandon,  the “others” He places in our lives.  All the laws, commandments, and requirements are summed up in those two laws—it’s living them out and not making excuses for them that causes so much heartache in churches, families, and communities—and in our nation’s capital today.

But in heaven, we will love one another —and it will be that perfect love that does not seek to impress or manipulate or gain the advantage.  It will be a love that has at its source God. We will learn, or perhaps “remember” what loving is supposed to be about in the first place.

Do you know Him?  Have you come to understand His love?  Are you ready to meet Him face-to-face, or do you have any dread or trepidation within your mind as you consider spending eternity with Him?

When you meet Him on this earth, maybe in this room,  as you lie on your bed, or on bended knees…. when you really meet Him, I challenge you to be afraid of Him-it’s not possible. His love dispels that fear.

And friends, the devil wants to keep me from being homesick. The LAST THING he wants is for me to dwell on my heavenly inheritance—— because the more I miss “home,” the less satisfied  I am with what he wants to tempt me to embrace.  I become somewhat “useless” except for eternal purposes.

“Jim Reeves once wrote these words:

This world is not my home, I'm just passing through

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue

The angels beckon me from heaven's open door

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore

Oh, Lord, you know I have no friend like you

If heaven's not my home, then Lord, what will I do

The angels beckon me from heaven's open door

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.”

I pray that we might lead others to not fit in on this earth. Pray that we might offer the good news of our eternal home in such a compelling manner that others might be homesick for the home that He has gone to prepare for us.

Take this home, please:

1- Become that living sacrifice by surrendering yourself to Him. Become the hero that a non-believing world is hoping to find.

2- Crucify—that is, put to death-the desires of the flesh and this earth, and let Him come in and give you the abundance that is yours for the taking

3- Believe in Him and His Kingdom, and don’t deny that you are homesick— let that homesickness infect your family, your community and this county, and may we never recover from that sickness.