You gonna unpack?

That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home. (Ephesians 2:19-22 MSG)

God is building a home - not just a residence, but a home. When most of us think of home, we think of a place where one is welcomed, settles in, and is able to really feel safe. Some may not have come from a very 'safe' or 'welcoming' home life, though, so their interpretation of Jesus 'building a home' might not be quite like ours. One thing we need to see today is that Jesus DESIRES to use us as his dwelling place - regardless of how we got here today. He desires us - let that sink in a bit and you might just realize how intense his love for us really is.

You belong here - in Christ Jesus - you belong. That may be the first time anyone has told you that you belong somewhere, but if you have said YES to Jesus, you belong in his family. It matters not your background or what you may have done. It doesn't matter that you are rich or poor. strong or weak, sober or strung out - he desires to build his home in your life. Irrespective of how we get to the point of saying YES to Jesus - he is waiting to find his home in your heart. That makes us no longer 'outsiders' and it makes him an 'insider'!

Many of us welcome Jesus into our lives, knowing that we bring a whole lot of 'baggage' and not much else. There will be a whole lot for him to 'unpack' when we take up residence in our new home and when he builds his home within us. I say it is his work of 'unpacking' all that baggage because we don't really think most of it should be unpacked, nor have we been very successful of unpacking it ourselves. Hurts, hangups, and habits that have just hung on forever all need to be unpacked. We don't deal with the 'dirty laundry' of our lives until it is!

God's plan is to make us into a holy temple - all of us built from the inside out, built together, fitting perfectly into the place he has prepared for us in this family of God. It may not seem like much, but the work Jesus begins the moment we say YES to him, we find our true 'fit'. We soon realize the more he works within us, the more we begin to see how he desires to be used by us within his family. He is building a home - first within us, then with us so that others begin to realize they need him to build his home in their hearts, as well. Our lives are taking shape - we just need to trust the builder to do his work - even when it includes a little bit of discomfort with unpacking what we didn't really want unpacked. Just sayin!