"So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life."
(Genesis 3:23-24)

The word home evokes all kinds of different thoughts and feelings, but whether we have been fortunate to experience a positive home environment or not, deep down we all have a yearning for a place we can call home. We imagine a place where we feel at ease, where we can truly be ourselves, where we are known and loved and cherished. This is home.

As we read the first few chapters of Genesis, we learn where this feeling comes from. This world we live in right now is not our home. We were created to live in perfect harmony with God and with each other in a place called Eden. The story has been told so many times now that many people conceive of this as little more than a metaphor, an imaginative exercise in examining our origins. But our hearts and Scripture reveal otherwise. However wonderful our actual homes may be, we sense deep down that something is not right. Our true home is with our creator, God, but clearly we do not experience that any more.

Genesis 3 explains why. Although we were created for relationship with God, and enjoyed that glorious experience for a time, something dreadful happened. Because Adam and Eve turned away from God, they were expelled from paradise. The punishment for their sin was separation and estrangement from God. The Bible is clear that this alienation extends to us also. Just as Adam and Eve couldn't live in God's country because of their sin-because they were loving themselves more than loving God-so our sin and indifference extend our separation from Him.

We can never be close to God if we distance ourselves by sin. But He loved us so much that He figured out a way we could be restored in relationship with Him.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Isaiah 53:6.

Although we can never go back to Eden, we can have hope in the One who has conquered death and provided a way for us to come back home, accepted and loved in the presence of God.

It's a downward spiral from eviction. Ejected from "paradise," humanity stumbles into familial conflict (Cain and Abel), catastrophe (Noah), and societal fracturing (Babel). But God initiates a reversal -- a "conspiracy of grace" begun through one family to reclaim a corrupt and chaotic world.

Yet the promise of reversal arrives packaged with a jarring demand... MOVE. The LORD said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will bless you . . . and you will be a blessing . . . [to] all peoples on earth" (12:1-3).

So Abram left, as the LORD told him. (12:4) But it was hardly a smooth landing. Arriving in "the Promised Land," the sojourner found himself detoured by famine to a neighboring country. Fearful, Abram, the immigrant, stretches the truth at the border (12:11-12) and is later evicted from Egypt because of his deception.

Abram then "went from place to place until he came to Bethel . . . where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the LORD" (13:3-4). In his wandering and vulnerability, he called out again and again to God.

Over decades in the new land-wondering -- Where do we go from here? -- Abram grows in intimacy and faith in the God Most High. He learns to trust the One who tells him, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward!" (15:1) And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD credited it to him as righteousness (15:6).

God confides to Abram that his descendants will face similar setbacks and sojournings. "Know for certain your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. . ." (15:13). However, the story will not end there. God explains ". . . afterward they will come out with great possessions . . . [and] come back here. . . . To your descendants I give this land" (15:14-18).

Although Abram spent most of his life as a sojourner and exile, God promised that He would bless the nations through his descendants in the coming Messiah.

by James Misner, Pastor of Global Mobilization

As Exodus opens we see the nation of Israel displaced. They had left their homeland because of a famine and migrated to Egypt. Later they became enslaved. These were God's chosen people, Abraham's descendents. Didn't God say He would bless the whole world through this group of people? How is it that they are now enslaved? The story seems off-track. Where do we go from here? What is God doing?

God was on a mission. He wanted to bless the world through Abraham's descendents. He wanted to use the nation of Israel to debunk the false gods of the region. He wanted the hearts of the nations turned to Him so that they could be blessed by being in a right relationship with God Almighty. God wanted to usurp Pharaoh so that His own power and His own name might be proclaimed in all the earth. He did this through rescuing Israel from the oppressive hand of Egypt.

Read Exodus 9:13-16. In a tremendous display of power God proved Himself to be more powerful than Pharaoh and any gods that the Egyptians had worshiped.

God wanted to make an eternal name for Himself and He did.

Read Isaiah 63:11-14 and Nehemiah 9:9-10. The enslavement and the exodus of Israel from Egypt was not a fluke. It was part of God's plan to make His name known throughout all the earth. God was on a mission to promote Himself as the one true God, a mission that would come to fruition when Christ came and 'dwelt among us', conquered death and provided a way so that all men could come into a restored relationship with God. Read Philippians 2: 5-11.

Steven Hawthorne (Joshua Project) says, "God established His reputation as one greater and absolutely different than every other deity ever dreamed up by man-an exquisite, almighty, resplendent God. The Exodus was to be a reference point for all subsequent revelation to the world of His (God's) character, His holiness, and His power." (Taken from an article entitled, "The Story of His Glory," in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement Reader.)

"Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!"  (Psalm 67:4-5, ESV)

It is not a coincidence that the Psalmist starts Psalm 67 with the same words Moses used to bless the people of Israel: "The LORD bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you." (Numbers 6:24-25) This was originally the priestly blessing over God's people. But here in Psalms it prefaces a declaration, "That your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations."

God's promise to His people was that He would judge the poor with righteousness and decide with equity for the meek (Isaiah 11:3-4). The psalmist knows that this blessing is not only for his people but also for all the nations of the world, for the Gentiles, for the poor, and for the aliens and strangers.

This prayer was to be fulfilled when Christ, The Messiah, came to proclaim Good News to the poor, release to the captives, relief to the oppressed and to take upon Himself the punishments of our sin. (Read Luke 4: 14-19.) He came to carry the shame and the guilt of all our wrongs and rose up from the grave. He conquered death and became our Defender and Protector; the Shepherd who guides the nations of the earth.

Imagine the joy you would feel today when you heard that someone would represent you at no cost before a judge. Now, imagine the infinite joy of knowing Someone mediated with His own life to pay the penalty before the Eternal Judge, and now you can go free!

After hearing such good news, we can't stay silent but must say: "Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!"

"Because of the LORD'S great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.' " (Lamentations 3:22-24)

What breaks your heart? Maybe a better, more direct question is, "What causes your heart to grieve?" Webster's Dictionary defines grief as, "to cause to suffer." In essence, "What causes your heart to suffer?" Do you feel heartache when the drive-through gets your order wrong? How about when you get a speeding ticket? More significantly, do you feel pain when you have to discipline your child? Deeper still, what is the heart-impact of the death of a loved one? Does your heart ache when confronted with the reality of AIDS in Africa? Does your heart suffer more for things done to you or things done to God?

Jeremiah is often referred to as the weeping prophet. His heart was grieved at the way God's people turned away from -- even turned against -- God. Jeremiah didn't simply weep over his own suffering. He wept because God's name was being abused and ignored. The journaled outpouring of this grief is the book of Lamentations, believed to be written by Jeremiah himself. Spend time today reading this short five chapter book, thinking about the current status of western Christianity. What does our heart break for today? What are the ethical implications of our faith in God? How are we supposed to live in light of what God has done for us? What impact would a renewed sense of God's holiness have on our feelings of compassion for the hurting, broken, hungry, widows, poor, refugees, displaced people and, most importantly, those around the world that do not have access to the message of Christ?

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)

by Jeff Walser, Pastor of Adult Discipleship and Development

Often borders and boundaries define who we are, controlling our identity. Crossing borders without permission can cause tension in everything from families all the way up to the nation states we call home. For anyone who reads the news, this is especially true today. How should we respond?

As people committed to the gospel, it is important that we let our words and actions be informed by our faith and by our understanding of the greatest "border crossing" of all time, the incarnation. Read John 1.

Reflecting back on the incarnation, Paul wrote to the church in Philippi (Phillipians 2) about the incredible reality that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, left His home in Heaven to take on the form of a mere man. He humbly embraced the role of an immigrant, crossing the border from His eternal throne room of heaven into our messy, broken world. What's more, in ultimate humility and love, He became obedient unto death that we might have a relationship with Him and embrace the abundant life He created us to live.

History tells us that at the time of the birth of Jesus, the world, under Roman rule, found itself at a unique time of expectation and anticipation. The Gospel of John tells us that at this profound moment in history the Word of God in the person of Jesus Christ came to live among us as a sojourner from a kingdom of a different realm. Our faith and our heritage remind us that God's love expressed in this supernatural border crossing was and continues to be the only hope for all men and women on our planet.

For us to be the people of God, we are called to see all people as God sees them; made in His image and yet lost, broken and in need of a Savior. Our hearts need to be broken by things that break God's heart. In his Word, He repeatedly asks us to align our thoughts, time, energy and resources with His redemptive purposes in the world and to organize our efforts around His eternal plans to draw people from all nations to Himself.