One of the things I love is coming home after a full day of work to the joy, peace and safety of my home and family. I especially feel this on a cold winter's night when here in Ontario it sometimes gets dark at 5:00 p.m. All of us who live here know what this is like. It's dark outside, the street lights are on, it may be snowing, the wind may be blowing - and you step through the front door and say, "I'm home!" Of course, it's the feeling of being home that matters most - not just the fact that I've stepped through the front door. There's just something about the security of knowing that I'm in a place where I'm loved and accepted for who I am. Psalm 90:1 says, "Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations" (NIV). As I read this short verse, I get the strong impression that the writer is talking about being at home in the presence of God. There in the utter privacy of His presence, the Psalmist could open his heart - open his soul - to the One who says, "I love you unconditionally - just be yourself here with me." How wonderful this is! To know that God's presence is "home" for the believer in Jesus Christ.
One of the challenges we face in our busy and impossibly full lives is to make sure we take adequate time to come home to the presence of God. Sometimes there is a need for us to just be silent, instead of always talking. Sometimes there is a need just to get some rest, for as one writer has said, "Without adequate time for rest, we lose the ability to be fully present" (Ruth Barton). She goes on to say, "When we are depleted, we become overly reliant on clamoring voices outside of us for direction." At such times, we simply need to "come home" where we will once again be calmed and refreshed by the peace of His presence.
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Hey Bill, thought this might encourage you... as I was reading today, dyslexia kicked in and I misread Canaan as Canada - the kids thought is was quite funny, but I could also see the truth of how God views Canada. Here is what I read - "They traveled all the way across the wilderness and made it to the border of 'Canada', the land flowing with milk and honey... the Promised Land, God's 'Dreamland' for them... a place of rich possession and fantastic future." As I explained to the girls prophetic words that I have heard over you, the Canadian Churches, and that this was exactly how God see you, they were quick to remember that you indeed had a Joshua and Caleb (our former GAPers). I have to say that is how we see you, a body of positive reporters, believing God's best and rejecting the negative report. You serve a God that is bigger and stronger and because of Him you are well able to possess the land!
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