Settling In....Everything New.

Home again. Home again. Jiggity Jig. (as Mom and Grandma Robinson would often say upon returning home)

What is home? :-)

Luke 9

The Cost of Following Jesus
57As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."

58Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

59He said to another man, "Follow me."
But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."

60Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

61 Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family."

62Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

Well, I have thought of this topic so many times and for so long. As a young woman who owns a house in Michigan and yet has been called all over the country and the world, I have often thought about the concept of home.

I think we all have a longing for a resting place.

Psalm 84

1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O LORD Almighty!

2 My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.

3 Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you.
Selah

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools. [b]

7 They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.

8 Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty;
listen to me, O God of Jacob.
Selah

9 Look upon our shield, [c] O God;
look with favor on your anointed one.

10 Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.

12 O LORD Almighty,
blessed is the man who trusts in you.

It has not actually bothered me that I haven't had a permanant place of residence b/c truly to me, home IS where the heart is and my heart almost always finds a spot to rest in relationship with God and others. On occasion I DO have a desire to UNPACK my bags!!! :-) and for SOMEONE to know what my life is really like in the unfolding of this journey in the earth! Every heart is longing for a home--for intimacy--to be known....

There is this concept of having community in the Body of Christ--a FAMILY--a group of people to "do life" with. I am totally into this concept--promoting and demonstrating this all through high school and college--in residence life and the Ontario house for the last 5 years--as well as the various groups and communities I have been a part of leading and planting.

This last year, I have traveled 3 months at at time--building family and friends in new communities and expanding my borders in terms of the Body of Christ as a whole.

I have never been one who belonged to just one group, organization, or culture. I have been interested in other cultures and crossed denominational borders and social statuses all throughout childhood and into my early adult life. I see no red tape. I acknowledge no cultural or traditional barriers that others may say might hold me back.

If Christ is the Head of a Body of believers that are fulfilling HIS assignments and partnering with Him in His purposes in the earth--it makes sense to me that I would have both a local role in whatever location I am currently in and also an overall purpose as He is working out His plans THROUGHOUT THE EARTH!!! and He is joining us together as a net--in relationship--for our ENJOYMENT and for HIS PURPOSES!! And we are like a net woven together to strengthen each other and to contain and hold more together than we ever could as one strand that is isolated from the whole and dangling purposely all alone! :-)

Jesus is coming and the NATIONS of the earth will give Him PRAISE and GLORY! He is working out an overall plan to bring redemption and restoration in the earth. There is a plan purposed in the heart of the GOD going out over all the world for Christ to come and receive His Bride in the earth--His colorful and beautiful Bride of many nations, many colors, languages, traditions, dances, foods, and peoples! I am so excited for that day! The nations will praise the King of Kings! The Lord of ALL the earth! There is ONE GOD and ONE WAY TO GOD through JESUS CHRIST our LORD.

I have a heart to see the nations of the earth worshipping and healthy families, societies, and cultures living in the fullness of what God intended for them since the beginning of time before sin entered the world and the brokenness and fallenness of man and creation brought such an effect on the nations of the world. Sin leads to death and brings destruction.

We see so much brokenness, longing, destruction, and pain in the nations of the world and in the lives of ourselves and those around us! God is longing to bring restoration and He is preparing a people who will KNOW HIM and bring HIM praise! And HE is receiving a BRIDE of many colors and many nations with multifaceted beauties and parts! This Bride will partner with Him when the time for TRUE RESTORATION IN ITS FULLNESS comes!

We all need a place to belong. A role--an assignment. A piece of connection with the ground on which we walk that tells us we are part of a larger whole. Culture provides us with that sense of identity. It is both our sameness and our otherness that makes us a celebrated smaller part of an even more spectacular whole.

There is a church without walls. There is a Bride that is being prepared by non-traditional means to be united in the earth with the Man Jesus. God became man and dwelt among us once...and HE WILL COME AGAIN. Will the whole church be ready?

Will we fulfill our role as individuals in believing communities that make up the Greater Body of Christ as a whole throughout the earth.

There is a sense of largeness and a sense of smallness. I am ready to connect again with a body of believers in which my life can take root and be intertwined for a while. Probably (as with all my other relationships) for life. It is hard to do that in some ways starting over completely in a totally new land with a totally different culture and value system. Perhaps I haven't felt fully prepared. But we are prepared. We are always prepared for what and where the Lord really calls us.
I have felt overwhelmed at evidence of the goodness of the Lord and yet wide eyed at all that is new to me in this season.

I love you O Lord my strength! :-) Thank you for giving me a home in your arms of love. THANK YOU for the DIVINE CONNECTIONS along THE WAY!

I pray for peace and joy in the journey for other fellow travelors--as I have been blessed with peace, joy, and love!

I am looking for good friends along the way. I am thanking God for good, new friends in Southern California and for divine connections and friends along the way. I pray my heart can plant here in relationships whether my body stays long in this soil or just uses this as a home base for the time of the Lord's leading!

God, give me the ground on which I walk and relationships here that are ROOTED along the way. I need my feet on the ground in this season in some way! Whatever that looks like, I pray that it be established for me quickly!

I love you O Lord my strength!

Home is being KNOWN!!!

~Sarah A. Weichhand