An Older Place than Eden: by Joe Chambers

An Older Place than Eden

Posted on December 23, 2013by Joe Chambers

There is no place like home. ~~Frank Baum

 You can’t go home again. ~~Thomas C. Wolfe

Which is it?

For most of us the idea of home has a powerful gravitational pull in our emotional life and our imagination.  Home evokes deep desire that all of us share for belonging—for security.

It calls out of us a deep desire for place.     

Many feel like nomads.  They’ve moved so many times they don’t know where to call home.  This sense of “home” is absent in our lives.  I read recently that 43 million Americans move every year. That is about 16% of the population.  The average American will move 14 times in their lifetime.  I wonder what that transiency does to the soul.

People move, ostensibly, for work.  Their job takes them to different parts of the country.  Often those are choices that we make to further our careers.  And for many Americans career has usurped “place” in terms of the Summum bonum of life.  The ultimate value is my career. But I wonder if underneath our transience there is a deeper dynamic at work here.  I think for many the narrative they live by; that keeps them packing boxes and renting U-Haul’s again and again, is that after they get where they think they will find security and significance they discover that all the places are pretty much the same.

Being exiled is one of the primary images of the Bible to depict a life being lived in separation from God.  We have all been exiled east of Eden.  We are estranged from our Creator.  It is why we are profoundly restless.  We were created to be deeply at home in God’s presence, glory and love—and we have wandered away.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way…  Isaiah 53:6

Sheep don’t get lost because they go on a dead run away from the Shepherd, they nibble from one clump of grass to the next until they raise their little nappy head, look around, and wonder, “Where is the Shepherd?  How can he be so cruel to abandon me?  Where is he?”

Away from the Shepherd they find themselves in a far country either by their own nibbling or from the circumstances of life—and they feel displaced.

Most people assume that the Bible presents a world view that mankind is primarily a rule-breaker and that Christianity is basically a set of rules to be kept and as long as you keep the rules you are in good standing with an irritated God.  They think that Christianity is about a list of things that must be done and a longer list of things that must NOT be done.  Sin, therefore, is rule breaking.

If the essence of sin is rule-breaking or rule-keeping then the best Christian in my home is Bella the Wonder Dog.  Because except for her pathological addiction to unguarded trash which she can’t seem to say no to, she keeps the rules better than anyone.

But the bible teaches a much more profound and sophisticated picture of what is wrong with us in this world.  It tells a story that we all were originally created to be home with God, to walk with him in the cool of the afternoon, to have an intimate fellowship with Him—but we literally nibbled our way out of His presence and hid in the underbrush and we have been homeless and homesick ever since.

We are in exile east of Eden.

“Thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.”~~St. Augustine

Our main problem is not that we have broken a few ancient rules or modern day social conventions, our main problem is that we were made to find our home in God and we are looking for home in all the wrong places.

But there is good news; we could have a homecoming. 

A highway shall be there,

    and it shall be called the Holy Way;

the unclean shall not travel on it,

    but it shall be for God’s people;

    no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,

and come to Zion with singing;

everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain joy and gladness,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.  Isaiah 35:8, 10

Historically that actually happened. When the Babylonian empire fell the Israelites were allowed to return to their homeland.  But, of course, as caravan after caravan arrived on the banks of the Jordan River you know that the birds didn’t begin singing and the flowers suddenly begin to blossom again.  Creation didn’t begin to dance upon their return.

Why, then, does Isaiah say this is so in such picturesque language?  Because even though they had returned to their homeland—they aren’t home yet.   They were home but they weren’t all the way home.  They got what they wanted—but it wasn’t enough.  They were still exiled from their Creator-God.  That even though they were home with their land they were yet to be home with their Lord. God has something larger in mind than a change of geographic location.  God pictures a day in which He would act in the world in such a way that the Universe itself would break forth in song.

Paul said the earth groans for the day when the King would return; Jesus said that the rocks, the very stones are willing and ready to shout praises to the King of Kings.  Isaiah is promising that a day is coming when all that is wrong is going to be put to rights.

“Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,

At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,

When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,

And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

We are restless, homeless, and homesick because we are exiled from God.  But, in Jesus, God brings us home again.

In fact, in Jesus, God is willing to become homeless Himself in order to bring us home. Jesus is born homeless, in a rodent-infested, damp, low-ceilinged cave of a barn and placed in a common feed trough.  He was displaced.  And soon after His birth, the family fled to Egypt to escape the murderous Herod.  Jesus lived most of his ministry without a home.

Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath no where to lay his head.          Luke 9:58

…Jesus also suffered outside the city gate…  Hebrews 13:12 (NRSV)

Jesus died outside of the city, away from hearth and home; away from family and friends. He died alone far away from Nazareth but even further away from Heaven.  God became homeless so we could come home.  Jesus became exiled so we could have a homecoming.

The House of Christmas

By G.K. Chesterton

A Child in a foul stable,

Where the beasts feed and foam;

Only where He was homeless

Are you and I at home;

We have hands that fashion and heads that know,

But our hearts we lost – how long ago!

In a place no chart nor ship can show

Under the sky’s dome.

To an open house in the evening

Home shall men come,

To an older place than Eden

And a taller town than Rome.

To the end of the way of the wandering star,

To the things that cannot be and that are,

To the place where God was homeless

And all men are at home.

We are all limping our way back home to God, you might consider joining us on the road and limp along with us.  We won’t always limp.  When we get home we will dance.  And the joy of the Lord will be our strength.

Heaven in Human Space

Heaven in Human Space
(the springboard for these thoughts is "The Divine Conspiracy" by Dallas Willard)

There are three heavens mentioned in the Bible (2 Corinthians 12:2).

1^st heaven – earthly environment in which we “live and breathe” (Acts 17:27-28)

2^nd heaven – the physical “above us” from atmosphere to galaxies (Genesis 1:1)

3^rd heaven – the home of God and every redeemed soul (John 14:2-3)

Acts 17:27 says “in Him we live and move and have our being”

God is all around us. We live in His presence. But what kind of God? Is it a god who loves us through gritted teeth? Or is it God our Savior who loves us joyfully and completely (John 15:11)? What is our view of God?

Adam Clarke defined God this way (plow through this thoughtfully and carefully):

“The eternal, independent, self-existent Being; the Being whose purposes and actions spring from Himself, without foreign motive or influence; He who is resolute in dominion; the most pure, the most simple, the most spiritual of all essences, infinitely perfect; and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing that He has made; illimitable in His immensity, inconceivable in His mode of existence, and indescribable in His essence; known fully only by Himself, because an infinite mind can only be fully comprehended by itself. In a word, a Being who, from His infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived, and from His infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just, and right, and kind.”

This definition is arrived at through a careful study of the position of Jesus on the subject of God. Jesus simply operated from this orientation. 

Imagine how different life would be if we simply walked through our day conscious of THIS God all around us. Imagine every action, slightest thought, or inclination motivated by this reality. That is living in God’s kingdom. How safe and secure would life be living in this kingdom consciousness. Jesus, in Matthew 6 taught from this frame of reference saying, “Don’t worry about anything that is going to happen to you: about what you will eat or drink, about what clothes to wear. Your life does not consist of eating, and there is much more to your body than clothing. Take a lesson from the birds of heaven (meaning the 'first' heaven: flying around in the presence of God). They don’t sow or reap or hoard away in granaries, and your Father-in the heavens around you-sees to it that they have food. Aren’t you more important than birds? Who can change their physical features by worrying about them? And as for worrying about clothes, well, look at the little flowers of the fields. They just pop right up! They don’t slave away getting or making clothes. But King Solomon in his best outfit was not as glorious as one of these. Now if God so adorns the wild grasses-which are here for today and the next day are burned for fuel-won’t He do even better by you? You of little faith!

            So don’t worry about things, saying, “What are we going to eat?” or “What will we wear?” (People who don’t know God at all do that!) For your Father-the One in the heavens around you-knows you need these things. Instead, make it your top priority to be a part of what God is doing and to have the kind of goodness He has. Everything else you need will be provided.

            Tomorrow? Don’t worry about it. You can do your worrying about tomorrow tomorrow. And anyway, enough will happen today to keep you in things to worry about until bedtime.”Matthew 6:25-34 Msg

God is. I will live in Him today. I will attempt to join Him in what He is doing. I will do this by faith, not worrying about the future. “Yard by yard life is hard. Inch by inch, life is a cinch.” 

Here and Now

The Bible is misunderstood and misused. Why? Simply put, it's always misused when we don't understand the intent. When we don't understand its intent, we use it to create dogma (telling people what they must/have to believe) or moral law (how people must behave so as not to be punished by God). The intent of the Bible is this: God is always and progressively unveiling His desire to be with us. He wants to be with us now, not just in the hereafter. From Genesis 1 through Revelation 22, the entire Bible is an expression of God's desire to be with us. Jesus Christ, as God come down to man, had a descriptive name, Emmanuel. This name means 'God with us'. Redemption history is culminated in the book of Revelation with this expression, "I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever!" (Revelation 21:3-4). Here and now, He wants to be with us. Hereafter, God wants to be with us. Jesus Christ is Emmanuel - God with us! Life with God is the awareness, moment by moment, that He is present and participating. Real life happens right now. It is bursting forth with interesting, relevant, frightening, amazing things and people. Jesus is the *I am*. He is always in the moment with us. He and His words are "spirit and life" for every instant (John 6:63).


How does this affect real life? I will have to blog more than I comfortable with to explain all the ways, but for now how about this? You cannot make a wrong decision if you make it with Him. Have you ever worried about making the wrong decision? If you are in the moment with Jesus, you cannot make a wrong decision. This is what the writer of Proverbs was getting at in the Old Testament when he said,


"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths."


In the New Testament, Gospel of John, Jesus is:


The Divine Word (John 1:1, 14), Life and Light (John 1:4), The Way, Truth, and Life (John 14:6).


So, when we choose to believe in Jesus and receive Him into our lives (John 1:12), He comes into our 'here and now'. To the extent that we break free from the stranglehold of ideas that naturally push Jesus out of our real-time thought processes, we make right, good, blessed decisions that without fail result in personal peace and the propogation of light-filled love. So, with Jesus, life simply works because He is life (John 1:4). Without Jesus, we accumulate regrets or worse, we sear our conscience and lose feeling at our deepest level... the soul.


So, God wants to be with us, with you. The question is, "Do we want to be with God?" If so, tell Him. Invite Jesus into your life...your real, everyday, moment by moment life.

I Doubt It: How Your Doubts Can Strengthen Your Faith

I have always struggled with doubts. There. I said it. I am a Christian pastor and missionary and I doubt at times. And...I believe my doubts (at least how I have responded to them thus far) have strengthened my faith. Let me try and explain why.

I believe the time has passed for mindless faith. That is, inherited faith. The faith that says, "that's what mama and daddy believed so that is what I believe." To say we are living in the 'information age' is an understatement. I was teaching a class yesterday and a retired long-shoreman in the class was taking notes on his iPad. We are not in the stone age anymore.

We are all going to encounter two things in life: tragedy and skeptics. When these occur, if we have not been through the spiritual exercise of doubt, the subsequent exploration of why we believe, receiving the illumination of reasonable answers, our spiritual knees will collapse. 

I have lost a child, a teenage daughter. I have been criticized for my faith by people I care about deeply. If I hadn't wrestled with doubt before and been through the aforementioned process, I certainly could not be teaching people about Jesus and encouraging them to believe in and follow Him. 

Something else that has created resolve in my Christian faith has been watching people who love Jesus deeply journey through the pains of this life. There is something truly different about them. They are anchored. I've watched them leave this life in peace, knowing they are going home as a trophy of Divine grace. 

If you are a Christian and find yourself at a doubting place, it's ok. 

I guess the main point is this: Jesus can stand up to scrutiny. Some books I have read through the years that have strengthened reasonable faith in my times of doubt are:

The New Testament - New Living Translation, New King James Translation, The Message

The Case for Christ - Lee Strobel

More Than a Carpenter - Josh McDowell

and a current read...The Reason for God - Tim Keller

Decision Time

I received a question today from a young lady trying to make a good and godly decision about a career change. This is my response to her. Feel free to leave a comment about what has helped you make big decisions.

One of the paradoxes in life is that we get a sense of fulfillment from two polar opposite experiences: stability and variety. Part of us wants the security of sameness. The other part thrives on new experiences. 

I think there are two ways God speaks to us about these big decisions. The first way (and the one I prefer) is clear and direct, so clear and direct that you just know, and you know that if you don't do it you are being disobedient to His will. The second way is cumulative. It is a process. Laying it out on paper, discussing it with your spouse, getting input from wise and godly people, and time alone with God. If the positives outweigh the negatives, if your spouse is good with it, if godly people affirm it as a valid opportunity and don't admonish you away from it, and you still feel unsettled...the final piece is His peace. Is the Spirit of God saying, "Don't do it," or is it that part of you that wants the security of sameness? When I am wrestling with those questions I know it's time to get alone with Him. I need to get settled. I need to make sure I am willing to do what He says; then I ask Him. My prayer would be something like this: "Spirit of God, my Counselor and Teacher, my Comforter and Guide, please silence all other voices and settle my spirit. I need Your peace and direction. Is this new job what is best for my family and best for me?" Then it's time to listen. Be silent and still. Don't leap. Be led. That's all I've got. BTW, this was the way he led us to leave a job I dearly loved and was very comfortable with (being a pastor at MVC). I am still buoyed in the midst of many unknowns, with this peace...He led us here.

I Doubt it 2: Another Thought for Those of Us Who Have Doubts

Sometimes life is like learning to snowboard. The first time I snowboarded, I spent most of the day testing the surface of the snow with my rear. Once or twice I just stayed down there watching cloud formations. The second time was different. I was able to stay up most of the time. I eventually graduated to the intermediate slope and enjoyed a few top to bottom runs without going bottom up. A couple hours in I was tooling along thinking, "I got this!" That's when my board decided to take a hard left. I centrifugally launched on a straight trajectory that increased vertical distance to the ground on a path of descent (i.e. further out, further down). I landed on my right shoulder. Six years have past since that fall. I still haven't regained full range of motion.

Life is like that. You find yourself on auto-pilot thinking, "I've got this." You expect the slope of life to be well groomed. That is usually when you catch an edge. You are upended. What happens (spiritually) when that happens? Doubt happens. It happened to a man Jesus described as "the greatest man who ever lived" (Matthew 11:11). His name was John, a.k.a. John the Baptist. Think of all the biblical examples of faith and faithfulness. Think of every man or woman who has made an indelible, positive impact on humanity. According to Jesus, John is the apex, pinnacle, the top of that list. After a stellar life of faithfulness to God John was imprisoned (for telling the truth) and sentenced to die by beheading. Did this bastion of the faith, facing imminent death, do so with a settled mind and a steel spine? Did he toggle between praise songs and prayers until the axe met its mark? Hardly. 

^{Matthew 11:2-3}

² John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, ³ “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”

In other words, "I thought you were it Jesus? Have I totally wasted my life? This is not what I expected? I'm doubting everything." Did Jesus rebuke him? Did he use his struggle as an example of floundering faith to be avoided? No. Jesus did what Jesus-followers should but seldom do in similar situations. He sent John a message that affirmed his worth, encouraged his heart, settled his mind, and carried him through.

^{Matthew 11:4-5}

⁴ Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen— ⁵ the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor...

¹⁰ John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say,

‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
    and he will prepare your way before you.’

¹¹ “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist.

When people are struggling with doubt what should we do? Resist the urge to quote a verse. Stop judging for God's sake! Affirm their worth to God and to you. Let them know (if you are in a place to) that they can borrow some of your faith for awhile if they don't have any of their own. Repeat as often as necessary..."and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).