October 11, 2019
Acts 21:1-6
After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara.  We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail.  After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo.  We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.  When it was time to leave, we left and continued on our way. All of them, including wives and children, accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray.  After saying goodbye to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.
New International Version (NIV)
Where is home for you?  When I ask this question, I often get a puzzled look.  Sometimes people give me their address.  Some will speak about their home town.  At other times, they will ask, “What do you mean?”

As one who grew up moving with my father’s work for our government, I understand how difficult it is to answer.  Eddy Hallock and I once compared notes about how many different homes each of us had lived in.  We stopped counting in the twenties. 

Where was home for Paul?  He was born to a Jewish family with Roman citizenship in the town of Tarsus.  At some point he studied at the feet of Gamaliel in Jerusalem.  He met Jesus on the road to Damascus.  Then after returning to Jerusalem, he ended up in Arabia.  Barnabas took him to Antioch and from there he traveled the known world.

Now he was headed back to Jerusalem, the ancestral place of worship for Jews.  In its own way, it was home for Paul, but everyone told him not to go.   As with the Ephesian elders Paul prayed on the beach and then headed to Jerusalem.  The disciples headed to their homes.

So where is home for you?  I asked missionaries that question once in a gathering in Greece.  They shrugged.  I know the quotes:  “Home is where the heart is.”  Robert Frost wrote, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”  Chesterton said that when he thought of heaven he realized why he sometimes felt homesick in his own house.

For believers the old spiritual captures the truth:  “This world is not my home.  I’m just a passin’ through.”  Bill Osborne, a wise leader in our church used to quote that line to me.  Then he went home.  Someday we are all going somewhere.  The Psalmist put it best, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.”  Home is where God is, and when we see him, we will know that we are finally home.
Pray with me:       
Father, on the sojourn of our lives, help us to dwell in the shelter of the Most High so that we may rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  Help us to come home to you again and again when we feel lost in this world.  Say to our souls that you are preparing a place for us, and please prepare us for that place.  We pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen. 
This year our Every Day with Jesus readings will follow The Bible Project Read Scripture Plan.  Copies of this reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download 
the app at readscripture.org.  Read through the Bible with us in 2019!
Joyfully, 
Duane 

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