Christian Living

Going Out And Coming In

by Terry Barlow
07/21/14
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   The 23rd psalm closes with the following musical verse; "Surely mercy and goodness shall follow (chase, pursue) me all the days of my life and I will dwell in (return to) the house of the LORD as long as I live (for length of days). It's a welcome idea that we can be pursued by the blessings of goodness and mercy knowing they will eventually catch up to us in increasing measures. And that we keep "returning" to the house of God implies that we're going out on one venture or another day after day at the Good Shepherd's leading. "Dwelling" in the house of the Lord is by no means a static or stagnant arrangement or condition of being, but rather a very active one. We set out and we experience what has been reserved and assigned to us to experience, 'the good works that God prepared ahead of time for us to walk in,' (Ephesians 2 v. 10) and then we return to the house of the LORD where we tell our family of these works and process them, and pray for the Spirit of God to follow through and to follow up, sealing what we have done colaboring with God to make it fruitful in some way for God's glory. Then we make any necessary adjustments before re-energizing and going out again on the next "field trip." In a natural family the children are continually going out and coming in, inviting in friends, and chattering about their experiences and activities with parents and siblings, before eating, resting and preparing for the next outing or round of routine, and such is as it should be! Hopefully there is a lot of evaluating and reevaluating going on at home potentially to make the days more meaningful for each family member. The psalm ends by saying we will return in this way to the house of the Lord as long as we live or for length of days. When we are active with and for our LORD our days tend to be fuller and longer with experiences and encounters on which to reflect. Boredom is not an issue, especially when we think of its definition as "an over-accumulation of unexamined experience." Going out and then coming back in, we are taking the time to examine and learn from our encounters and experiences alone and with other family members. Our lives are becoming more and more worth living because we would amen Socrates in his famous saying almost five hundred years before Christ's birth, "the unexamined life is not worth living." We also are discovering more and more of ourselves in Daniel where it says," Those who know their God shall be strong and do exploits(take action)!" (Daniel 11 v.32)