A beginning to this journey:
These words were spoken by the writer of Hebrews to the Saints of the diaspora who were living as sojourners in a strange land that no longer held for them the promise of ultimate satisfaction or fulfillment. These words were spoken to a people looking forward to a better place because they faced the reality that this world was no longer their home. The audience of the writer of Hebrews was (and is) a people living daily in the tension between present grace observed and future glory yet to be had, as those who could call upon Christ as Lord, Savior, and master of their home, present and future.
I write this as a fellow sojourner. One who has tasted of the glory of the Risen Christ only in part, longing for the day when my eyes shall see Him face to face. Yet, I confess that as a sojourner, my affections are not yet what they will be, crying out with the multitude, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” (Rev. 5:12) My identity in Christ means that I am saved, and yet as a sojourner I am “being saved,” daily being delivered from the power of sin that deceives by the power of the Holy Spirit that works to put to death what is earthly in me. (Col. 3:5-6)
Why write about affections for the glory of God and then follow with a confession of my still pitiful state? Why not write as if I have seen God and been forever changed, in all things joyful and hopeful? I write the way I do because I am familiar with the experience of identifying as a disciple of Christ while at the same time being painfully aware that I still possess within me certain inclinations of the heart that would identify me more with those who nailed Him to His cross.
I write because I too need constant reminding of what lies ahead in the future and what is at stake in the present, that I might live as a faithful member of the household of God. As a faithful member of a local Body of Christ and in the bigger story of Redemption in Christ, I need constant reminding of what my Lord promises me in exchange for the daily death to my own desires and every cheap pleasure that calls for my attention. Thus saith my Lord, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” (Matt. 19:29)
Finally, I write for those who are reading. I write with the earnest desire that our Lord would use the truths He has shown me to encourage, instruct, and challenge other members of God’s house to live faithfully as ambassadors of King Jesus. If you have read this far then you must believe that something here is worth the value of your time. It is my hope that I might steward the gifts given me to increase in you, the reader, a hunger to know God through His Word (living and written), and apply it to your life as obedient servants. I write in hopes that the spiritually hungry and thirsty would come and drink from the fountain and find fresh strength in words that carry the sweet aroma of a crucified and risen Savior who still speaks through redeemed sinners for the sake of His glory. May the Word of the Lord “speed ahead and be honored” (2 Thess. 3:1) as the world sees “those of His house” increase in their knowledge and enjoyment of Jesus Christ.
To those of His house, may we walk faithfully in the wisdom and grace of our Lord, stewarding the gifts He has graciously bestowed on us for His glory to be made known in our lives.
To Those of His House,
Your Fellow Partaker in Glory
“but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.”
Hebrews 3:6
To Those of His House 