The Apostle Paul confessed to the
Philippians that he had "a desire to depart and to be with Christ"
(Phil. 1:23). But he went on to explain that as his work was not yet completed
he realized that his longings for home had to be restrained. In writing to the
Corinthians he had expressed this same yearning:"Willing rather to be
absent from the body and to be present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8).

 

Does this sound morbid? Was it
wrong for Paul to long for his heavenly home? Paul was no mere mystic. He was a
worker if ever there was one. He organized famine relief, he gave much time and
thought to marriage guidance, and he was a man full of concern for the aged and
needy. Most of all, he was a tireless messenger of the gospel. He knew of God’s
longing to fill His home with redeemed sons and daughters and so he never tired
of inviting people to come out of the cold of this world’s dark night into the
warmth and light of the Father’s love.

 

"Sunday school
sentiment," say the scoffers. "Pie in the sky when you die,"
sneer the materialists. Let them mock and jeer. God says that the real fools
are those who are trying to find permanence and security in earthly possessions
(Luke 12:20,21). I would rather be called a fool by men than by God. The truth
is that we Christians are here on earth to do a job for God and have no wish to
give that up prematurely. However, when that job is finished, far from
struggling and pleading to go on existing here, we should look forward with
pleasure to the joys of going home to God.

 

Have you ever appreciated
Christ’s comforting words to the dying thief? His words revealed His total
confidence in being in paradise Himself first. "Verily," "in
paradise," "today"—these were His words. He was going home! The
thrill to us is that He also assured the penitent thief that when he reached
the garden home of God he would be welcomed there by Someone he knew, even by
the Lord Himself.

 

There is so much that we do not
know about the state of the blessed dead as they await—with us—the second
coming of Christ. However, the New Testament gives us every reason to think and
talk in terms of arrival at God’s home, to be welcomed there by the One whom we
already know as the Son over God’s house. "I will … receive you unto
Myself’ were the consoling words of Jesus to the disciples with troubled hearts
(John 14:1-3).

 

We live in a world where death is
regarded as the ultimate calamity; where every effort must be made and no
expense spared to keep alive just a little longer. That is quite understandable
for those who will be eternally homeless, but for us it should be very
different. We want to live out our lives. We want to finish whatever job God
has given us to do. But when He sees that our task is accomplished, then we
want Him to take us home to Himself. If we keep our thoughts on the Father’s
house of many mansions we shall be able to obey the command of the Lord Jesus:
"Let not your heart be troubled" (John 14:1,2). Not a few people have
been won for Christ by seeing how Christians face death.

 

(From Toward the Mark,
Vol. 6.)