Today I see him as a country, a place to which we can move to begin again, to fashion a joyful re-ending to lives shredded by loss, heartbreak, abuse, wild living.
God the Charter offers his way to chart a new course. His is the governing structure--freedom in Christ, guidance from the Holy Spirit, allegiance to the One True God. From the beginning of time, he knew his country would be the one that rescues and in the end, reigns as the only real place to find home.
Hebrews 11 spells out the founding charter of this country:
The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see...by faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see.To unbelievers, this must sound completely nonsensical. Yet, because we are created by God the Charter, with a homing device (see God the Bank, Oct. 18 post), there is something mysteriously unsettling within all of us.
Hebrews 11 continues with tribute to Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah for their faith in something they never saw chronicled in their lifetime. They banked on redemption yet to be fulfilled, as hundreds of years would pass before Jesus came to complete the promise by which they walked. They simply responded to what lies within each of us today:
Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that--heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.That mysterious unsettling force within us, if allowed to create its tension, becomes the homesickness to which we respond. It leads us to God the Charter, the place to which our souls--the part of us that continues into eternity--somehow know is our true country of origin.
My prayer is that we find this tension unbearable until we respond to the call of God the Charter. He has a place for each of us in his country. This country of faith is, after all, ours to inhabit and the reason we came to be.
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