Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

Daily Encouragement for the Family of God by Kenton Cheek

14 December 2024

Reading From Colossians 1-4

“For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.”

–Colossians 2:5

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” –Colossians 3:1-11

     There are many deep, spiritual truths packed into the relatively brief letter to the church gathered at Colossae, which is in Phrygia, Asia Minor.  Even when Paul is not physically present with the believers there, he speaks of being with them “in spirit.”  Every born again follower of Jesus has the Holy Spirit living within them and therefore we are all connected with one another by the same Spirit.  Wherever we are, nothing can sever that connection. 

     Paul takes this concept further in speaking of our connection with the Lord Jesus.  When we are born again, we die to our old way of life.  Unfortunately, the old ways are familiar and sin is torturously deceitful.  Before we found Jesus, we chased after all kinds of ways to self-medicate and we would try in vain to find satisfaction, each time we indulged thinking that maybe this time something will click and we’ll finally have fulfillment. 

     Like Dr. Frankenstein, we can at times be tempted to think that maybe we could bring our old, dead selves back to life again and attempt once again to enjoy some momentary pleasure.  This is how tantalizing deception is.  But that momentary pleasure of sin brings spiritual corrosion and eternal death.  Leave your old self in the grave.  Don’t be deceived by the enemy of your soul. There is nothing left for you there.  The only Source of true joy, satisfaction and fulfillment in all the universe is found in healthy, balanced, life-giving relationship with God the Father accessed through God the Son and made alive by God the Holy Spirit.  He alone brings true happiness.

     This same Holy Spirit applies the blood of Jesus to the life of whosoever will believe and receive His free gift of salvation.  We are sealed with the Spirit unto the Day of Redemption.  As Paul writes here in this letter, we die to sin and we are now hidden with Christ in God.  No one can snatch us from the hand of our Heavenly Father.  Just as His Word stands firm in the heavens, so too are we hidden there safe and secure in the heavenly realms, the spiritual dimension.  Our citizenship is now in Heaven, we are only here in our present reality as temporary residents. 

Our position with God in Christ is not only a future promise, it is real for us right now in this moment.  The worldly pleasures all around us are so tempting, but they don’t hold a candle to the abundant life He provides and what awaits us in glory!  Keep moving forward toward the goal of our faith, which is perfect unity and harmony with God in Christ.  Someday soon we will be forever home with our Father and our eternal family.

“Lord Jesus, thank You for the new life we have in You.  Better is one day in Your courts that thousands elsewhere.  May we savor the pleasures of Your Presence.  The fleeting pleasures of this world have nothing on You.  You satisfy all our deepest yearnings and desires with Your great love.  Help us to forsake all others and press onward toward the goal.  Bless us with contentment in You.  In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray these things, Amen.”

This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue;
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door,
And I cannot feel at home in this world anymore.

–Albert E. Brumley, “This World Is Not My Home”

For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit.

 –I Corinthians 5:3a

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.

–John 10:28-29

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

–Ephesians 2:4-7

Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

 –Philippians 3:17-21