| FATHER'S BED AND BREAKFAST You are at the end of your rope. Your can has broken down with all your worldly possessions inside. You are broke. Your cards are maxed out and not accepted. You were on your way to find another opportunity. You begin looking for help along the road. Suddenly, you are standing in front a beautiful wrought iron gate before a manicured lawn with a castle in the distance. Children are playing freely on the lawn. Adults are talking with laughter. The sign on the front gate reads: GOD’S REST
ALLWAYS OPEN ALL PEOPLE WELCOME AND LOVED NONE REJECTED YOUR INDIVIDUALLY DECORATED ROOM IS READY COMFORT GUARANTEED THE BANQUET IS SET THE OWNER WILL GREET YOU PLEASE ENTER NOW LEAVE YOU BAGAGE AT THE DOOR A NEW WARDROBE WILL BE PROVIDED STAY AND REST FOREVER
As you stand there wondering if you are dressed appropriately for such an awesome place, your Father approaches, opens the gate and invites you in. He tells you to put down your bags and walks you to your room. The door opens on the room of your dreams. It has been designed especially for you. You look in the closet and see cloths that are your exact size. The hangers are marked, “Love, joy, peace and patience, kindness, goodness and self control.” You relax in a comfortable chair and realize you have found the place you were looking for all your life. Dinner is a joy with all races, nations, and tribes. Father is at one end; Jesus at the other. The Holy Spirit is serving. All the great saints of the past are there from Noah to Abraham to Moses to David to John to Paul to C. S. Lewis to George MacDonald. Not only are you interested in them, but they are genuinely interested in listening to you. The next morning Jesus knocks on your door and tells you it is time to go with Him into the world and lead others to His place. You used to tell people about His place, but had never really lived there. It was a dream in the future. Now you tell others of what you have seen and experienced. Now you do it with Him, not for Him. There is suffering with Him, because he is still mocked, rejected, and misrepresented, but your friendship with Jesus carries you through. This is not fiction. This is reality. There is a new world sitting right on top of this old dark world. It is a parallel universe that we can live in now by the eyes of faith. Our father has created this beautiful place with a mansion with many rooms for us to discover and is disappointed when we fail to come to his banquet. (Heb. 4:1,2) It is called, “God’s rest.” What is God’s rest? It is ceasing from our own works as God did from His after creation, and living in His finished work. It is called the “Sabbath Rest” – living in God’s seventh day with Him where creation is complete. Why do we fail to enter this rest? Because after hearing the good news of our complete salvation we “do not share the faith of those who obeyed” (Heb. 4:2). We simply do not believe it. So how can we enter God’s rest? We must know there “remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Heb. 4:11), and we must believe it is true for us to the point of obedience. The picture here is the Israelites who heard about the new land waiting for them, but who did not go in because they didn’t believe God would conquer the enemies. How can we know about this rest and have faith to enter? The way in is by the “alive and active” Word of God that transforms our thinking to the new way (Rom. 12:2), and builds our faith (Rom. 10:17). When we take in God’s word we catch up our minds to what has already happened to us. The Word silences the lies that this can’t be true. So it is essential to consistently meditate on God’s Word for ourselves to enter God’s rest. What does God’s rest look like? It consists of many rooms at his place as defined by the “in Him’s.” Jesus said, “Do not let your heart be troubled. In my Father’s house are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you. There are at least 172 beautifully furnished rooms at our Father’s mansion. Here are just a few of them: simplicity (II Cor. 11:3) freedom (Gal. 2:4, 5:1) completeness (Col. 2:10), new life (I Cor. 5:22; II Cor. 5:17), no condemnation (Rom. 8:1), purpose (Eph. 1:11, 12) peace (Jn. 16:33) all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3) and where all sin is forgiven for the whole world (I Jn. 2:2). Discovering these rooms at His place is an exciting adventure. We are like kids running from room to room opening doors of discovery and marveling at God’s work and ways. The first step in moving on to maturity is “repentance from dead works” (Heb. 6:1). Dead works are the good things not built on the foundation of Christ. They are things we do for Christ that he never asked us to do. They are the “wood, hay and stubble” of I Cor. 3:10-15 that burn us out and get burned up. They are usually done out of self-made religion (even Christianity) and not out of relationship with Christ. So leave the dead works at the gate and come in God’s rest with Him. Don’t wait for heaven. His rest is now. |