Guarding my House

Words shift their meanings over time.  Sometime the meaning remains but it's just kind of buried.

Like the word "keep."  When we define it in English, we quickly realize that it has a range of meanings--just check out Webster's if you doubt me.  A farmer keeps sheep.  I have kept my promise.  A woman keeps house.  She is a "housekeeper."

The Scriptures exhort us to be "keepers at home." (Titus 2:5)  A number of things may come to mind hearing this phrase.  When we think of a "housekeeper" we typically think of a married woman who spends her time cooking, cleaning, and caring for children.  She doesn't work outside the home.  This is our modern, cultural, English definition.

But let's take a closer look at the Greek.  Behind this phrase is a single compound word: "house" and "keep" put together.  It can mean "housekeeper" in the sense of someone who performs domestic duties.  But it has a broader meaning.  I think we can understand this better if we look at other passages of Scripture.

Proverbs 14:1 states that a wise woman builds her "house."  Well, I must say that I don't think this indicates that women were engaged in construction in Bible days.  Instead we see the word "house" as it was commonly used in the Old Testament: a household, a family.  We could say the wise or godly woman "builds" her family.  Caring for her husband and children isn't on some "to-do" list--it's at the center of her being.

The woman described in Proverbs 31 is an example of this.  The heart of her husband "trusts" in her--he knows she's not going to speak ill of him to her neighbors, or run up a big balance on the credit card buying shoes.  No, instead she does things that help out the economic situation of the family, and though not much is said about her children, we discover at the end of the passage that they esteem her highly.  She does things outside the home and even engages in trade--but she's not trying to escape her family.  She's actively "building" it, no matter where she is.

The second part of the word in Titus is "keep."  In the Greek it carries with it the idea of guarding.  We see this in English as well: the farmer keeps sheep.  He manages them, feeds them, and protects them.  Likewise, we are to guard our family.

Husbands do this too, although their role in building and protecting looks different.  Ours is often behind the scenes but just as important.  We protect our children from illness by using good hygiene and cooking healthy meals.  Along with our husbands, we teach them the Scriptures, and do our best to protect them from destructive influences in the world.  We pray for them.  We encourage our husbands and children, enabling them to do right.

Ever see a cute dishtowel in the store, and purchase it because it coordinates with your kitchen colors?  Even cleaning and decorating our homes are part of the family safeguard.  Keeping our tongues--watching what we say--is even more important.  Physically and emotionally, we want our homes to be places of rest.  You can help guard your husband from temptation by creating a welcome environment at home.

But most of all, we want our own hearts to be guarded with gospel armor. (Eph 6:10-18)  Don't let the cart get before the horse.  The better we understand the gospel of grace, the better able we will be to serve the Lord as a "family guardian."

#IAmAChristian

"Are you a Christian?"

This was the question asked by a young man armed with several weapons, standing in the doorway of a classroom located on a small Oregon college campus.   He asked the instructor first.  When she responded affirmatively, he fired a fatal shot.  Some of the students also confessed Christ and died almost instantly.  Others who did not profess faith received flesh wounds.

In the end, nine were dead and a number of others wounded, some critically.

Almost immediately the story of their courage went viral on social media.  A presidential candidate was seen holding a sign in support reading "I am a Christian."  T-shirts were made with #IAmAChristian emblazoned on the front, in an attempt to identify with the slain and remember them.

It's not the only time I have thought about my own mortality.

Most of us deal with death by buying life insurance.  We do those things that everybody recommends, not able to deny the event intellectually but maybe, just maybe, not acknowledging it in any real way.

Christians know that this life is temporary, but often we live as though it were not.  I know that is true for me.  The days string along, one after another, and each gray hair or wrinkle just irritates me in a superficial way.  Well, what hair dye shall I buy this month?

But when we read the New Testament we see an entirely different attitude.  For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain, the Apostle Paul wrote.  He knew that death was a positive thing because it meant going home.  Going home to be with Christ.

Jesus spoke of these matters in very real and graphic terms.  He spoke of the the rich man dying and experiencing torments (Luke 16:19-31).  He spoke of the Day of Judgment and the Resurrection.

Peter wrote of the heavens "passing away" (II Peter 3:10) and the world burning up.  His epistles exhort us to live as "sojourners and pilgrims" (I Pet 2:11)--this place is only temporary, and our "real" home--and our real citizenship--is in heaven.

I needed to be reminded that anything less than a genuine longing for the "blessed hope"--the return of Christ--is an indication of worldliness and spiritual sloth on my part.

He may not return in my lifetime, but in a way, that's irrelevant.  I may die today and then I will see Him.  I will see the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  For me.

Those who lay dead in that classroom were ushered into glory.  They are Home.

#IAmAChristian.