“My Father’s House”

Some of you know that I have been blessed to have bought a house recently and have really enjoyed remodeling it over the last 4 months or so. Most of you do not know that this is the house my dad grew up in. His dad bought the house new on March 28th, 1961 when dad was 12. My mamaw lived in this house until she went to see Jesus on March 28th, 2009. I finally moved in on March 28th, 2010. Yes, that is amazing, isn’t it? The Beasley family is the only family to ever live in this house and that is very special to me.

The next weekend after I moved in was Easter. One song we sang in our choir special was titled “My Father’s House”. As we practiced this song for weeks it started to speak to me differently. The story behind this song is found in Luke 2:41-52. Jesus and his parents had gone into the city. His parents left and didn’t realize Jesus had stayed behind. When they went back searching for him, he was found teaching in his father’s house. They were told that they should have known exactly where to find him. I have asked my aunt to paint this over my kitchen counter, “This is the home of my dad and his before him, but now this is “My Father’s House”. I know more than ever that God gives us everything we have and everything we need.

Realizing this to be a truth, I wish to dedicate my house and the home of any future family I may be blessed with, to God. I do this because I have owned a couple homes before this one and I am ashamed to say I may have been more sinful in those two places than anywhere on this planet. Have you ever noticed that we sometimes treat total strangers in public better than our own family when we get home? Ever have a bad day at work and take it out on everyone at home? Ever figured you would have a few at the house because no one would really know? I guess I always told myself either no one would know or it was my house and I will do as I please. Or maybe we take it for granted that family always forgives or overlooks our short comings? Well guess what? Our Father always knows and he got sick of it! Even if family forgives, what kind of example are we being at home? What if they don’t forgive? I pray my house doesn’t experience any of this ever again.

When people come into my house in the future I hope they find me obeying my father as if I were truly living in his house. Well actually I am! I also have this verse above my counter, “as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” Joshua 24:15.

This may be something you have never struggled with, you may have never thought about it really, but I bet more often this sounds too familiar. Either way, I challenge all of you, especially men. Live like it is “Your Father’s House”. There are many things out of our control in this world, but this ain’t one of them! We were given the task of being the heads of the household and as a Christian we better start realizing these houses were a gift from our Heavenly Father. Make sure he would recognize his own house. He sure wouldn’t have at mine before now. He told us he is coming to stop by again soon.

While studying I realized the word “house” or forms of the word were in 1,895 verses in my bible. That is pretty amazing considering the word "love" is only in 697 verses and it is our greatest command. I believe the respect of a man’s household should be a timeless message. God has emphasized this. If you read the entire 24th chapter of Joshua, he is calling out the heads of the houses. Country paraphrasing is “I ain’t sure bout you guys, but my family is servin tha LORD”. What would our answer have been? Would Joshua have believed us?

I love all of you and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it!

BEZ