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希伯来书：11:13-16：13这些人都是存着信心死的，并没有得着所应许的，却从远处望见，且欢喜迎接，又承认自己在世上是客旅，是寄居的。14说这样话的人，是表明自己要找一个家乡。15他们若想念所离开的家乡，还有可以回去的机会。16他们却羡慕一个更美的家乡，就是在天上的。所以神被称为他们的神，并不以为耻，因为他已经给他们预备了一座城。
当我读这些经文的时候，我想到的不是一个关于信心的故事，而是一个关于不信的故事。还记得罗得的妻子吗？上帝命令他们逃离所多玛和蛾摩拉，而且不能回头。当他们逃到山上的时候，大火从天而降，灭了这两座城市。罗得的妻子回头看，就变成一根盐柱。她舍不得离开城里漂亮的家。。
你也许听说过这个说法：“心在哪里，家就在哪里。” 但这又引出了另一个问题。你的家在哪里？对于上帝的子民来说，我们的家不在此生的生命里，也不在这个世上。我们有一个更美的家在天上，我们是天国的子民。耶稣在约翰福音第14章给出了一个美丽的应许。“在我父的家里有许多住处；若是没有，我就早已告诉你们了；我去原是为你们预备地方去。我若去为你们预备了地方，就必再来接你们到我那里去；我在哪里，叫你们也在那里。”
义人因信得生。比起上帝为我们在天上预备的家，我们在地上的家贫穷又黯淡无光。我们都知道这是一个堕落世界，充满了悲伤。我们期待耶稣再来并荣耀我们的那一刻，那时我们将在转眼之间被改变，。这个世界给我们很多闪闪发光的小钱，但也仅仅如此，只是小钱而已。我们真正的财宝在天上。
祷告：主耶稣，愿你快来。我期待能永远和你在一起，这样我就能得到真正的安歇，从此不再经历悲伤和失望。让我的眼目，特别是我的心，专注在你和天上的家乡。如此，这个世界那些闪闪发光的东西就无法再诱惑我。我这样祈求是奉你的名。阿们。
Hebrews 11: 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
The story that comes to mind as I read these verses is not a story of faith, but a story of unbelief. Remember Lot’s wife? They were told to flee the city of Sodom and Gomorrah and not look back. As they fled to the mountains and fire rained down on the city, Lot’s wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt. She couldn’t bear to leave her nice home in the city behind.
You’ve heard the expression, “Home is where the heart is.” But that begs another question. Where is your home? For God’s people, our home is not here in his life or on this earth. We are citizens of a better country, a heavenly one. Jesus gave us such a beautiful promise in John 14. ““In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am.”
The righteous live by faith. We consider our home here lackluster and poor compared to the home that God has prepared for us in heaven. We know this is a fallen world and filled with sorrows and we wait for our life to be changed in a moment when Jesus comes again and glorifies us. This world offers us lots of shiny pennies, but that’s all that they are. Just pennies. Our real treasure is in heaven.
Prayer: Even so, Lord Jesus, come! Come quickly! I long to be at rest with you forever, to experience a life that knows no sorrow or disappointment. Keep my eyes and especially my heart focused on you and on my heavenly home so that they glittery offerings of this world will not tempt me. I ask this in your name. Amen.