Nehemiah Excerpt 2

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="002a11c3.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Home Page"><U>HOME</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Book Page"><U>BOOKS   </U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Articles"><U>ARTICLES</U></A></div> <bR> <div>  <A HREF="id7.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tapes"><U>TAPES</U></A>   </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Spiritual Warfare/Occult "><U>SPIRITUAL WARFARE, OCCULT   </U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sexual Abuse Issues"><U>SEXUAL ABUSE ISSUES</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id11.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Exposing the Darkness Seminar"><U>***EXPOSING THE DARKNESS SEMINAR***</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:greid@elp.rr.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:greid@elp.rr.com"><U> <img src="HTMLobj-737/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="67" height="50">  </U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#BBBBBB" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <B>                                              </B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" ><B>Going Home</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>   "If  it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight,</B></div> <div> <B>let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I</B></div> <div> <B>can rebuild it." (Nehemiah 2:5)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   Home.  It's one of the sweetest words in the whole world.  What does it</B></div> <div> <B>mean to the heart?  Many things.  Security.  Comfort.  Familiarity.  Family.</B></div> <div> <B> Warmth.  Laughter.  Love.  Peace.  Protection.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   I suppose many of us have memories that come to us when we hear, "Home".</B></div> <div> <B> Warm blankets on a chilly night.  The smell and sounds of bacon and eggs</B></div> <div> <B>cooking and hot coffee brewing on a winter's morning;  the excitement and</B></div> <div> <B>little child joy of Christmas scents and Christmas carols.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   For many, these things are things longed for and ached for but never</B></div> <div> <B>known, remembering  rather angry fights and rejection, abuse and deprivation.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   But the longing is there.  What is that longing, if not an eternal, inborn</B></div> <div> <B>need to belong?  To be loved?  It is universal.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   God's people were living in exile.  They grew, they prospered.  But</B></div> <div> <B>something was missing.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   This was not home.  They were homesick.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   They were homesick  for God.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   And so they began to return to the land where God said, "I will dwell among</B></div> <div> <B>them".</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   Writers have spoken of man being "in search of the lost chord".  It's the</B></div> <div> <B>knowing that something in us is missing... is lost... is homesick for something</B></div> <div> <B>we don't even understand.  It's an indefinable ache.  Sometimes it's in the</B></div> <div> <B>blazing colors of a crimson sunset.  Sometimes it's in the scent and breeze of</B></div> <div> <B>the early days of fall.  Sometimes it's one rift of a melody from a song that</B></div> <div> <B>tugs at something so deep in your heart that tears come to your eyes and you</B></div> <div> <B>play it over and over just to hear those few notes, like trying to grasp an</B></div> <div> <B>elusive butterfly.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   Someone called it a God-shaped void.  It is that, and more.  It is a longing</B></div> <div> <B>for all that He is - kindness, and beauty, purity and strength, tenderness and</B></div> <div> <B>love.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   For the children of Israel in exile, it was homesickness for Jerusalem, the</B></div> <div> <B>City of God.  And so they began to return, to find the One they had</B></div> <div> <B>abandoned and now were homesick for.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   We, too, are homesick.  It drives us to come Home to a Savior who wants</B></div> <div> <B>to forgive our sins and give us an Eternal Home with Him.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   Even then, for Christians, the longing is there.  In the busy times we block</B></div> <div> <B>it out.  But in times of sorrow, of solitude, of loneliness, we feel it.  "I miss</B></div> <div> <B>you, God."  And so He draws near.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   Just as the returning exiles once again built the House for God to come and</B></div> <div> <B>dwell with  them, we too must prepare our hearts for Him; clean out the</B></div> <div> <B>rubble, cleanse the mind, and welcome Him.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   Even then, the homesickness remains.  We long to see and touch the One</B></div> <div> <B>who had no place to lay His head.  It will be so until we finish our course and</B></div> <div> <B>lay down these temporary houses of flesh for an Eternal City, for we</B></div> <div> <B>acknowledge that we are pilgrims and strangers in this world, and that here,</B></div> <div> <B>we have no permanent home, but we are looking for a city and a Home which is</B></div> <div> <B>to come - made by the Father Himself, in heaven. (1 Peter 2:11, Hebrews</B></div> <div> <B>11:9,10) </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   The life of a Christian is often lonely and hard.  I've taken great comfort</B></div> <div> <B>from this story:</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   A missionary couple during President Teddy Roosevelt's office worked</B></div> <div> <B>diligently, thanklessly and faithfully in Africa.  When they came home to</B></div> <div> <B>retire, Roosevelt, returning from an African hunt, was on their ship.  As they</B></div> <div> <B>docked in New York, thousands of people showed up to cheer and welcome</B></div> <div> <B>Roosevelt back.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   But for the couple, there were no crowds.  Not one soul came to greet</B></div> <div> <B>them.  The wife wept.  "Why is there no one to welcome us home?", she</B></div> <div> <B>cried.  "Honey," the loving husband replied, "We're not home yet."</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Nehemiah Order"><U><B>How To Order</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>