Many Rooms

Two weeks ago, Anna Grace and I traveled to Asheville, NC to preside over the wedding ceremony of a lovely couple in our church, namely Dave and Katie Johnson.
The wedding was spectacularly located by a beautiful river near the Blue Ridge Mountains. During the day, Anna Grace and I had some free time, so we toured the Biltmore Estate. Have you seen this place?!

The Biltmore Home was built by the Vanderbilts over one hundred years ago. The Biltmore has 250 bedrooms, 43 toilets, a bowling alley, and a swimming pool. What kind of family needs 43 toilets? :-) It is positioned on 8,000 gorgeous acres of land in the western part of North Carolina. Truly, a magnificent place to behold.

I was struck by how many rooms this one house contained - 250! As I toured the rooms, I was reminded of Jesus’ words in the gospel of John, when He declared, “In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2)

And then it hit me - this place doesn't compare to my Father's Mansion in heaven! While the Vanderbilts might have 250 rooms, our heavenly Father has prepared a far greater home with an inexhaustible number of rooms for those who know and love Jesus! And check this out - the moment a person accepts Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of his or her life, our heavenly Father places a permanent and pending reservation for one of those rooms! That is too freakin cool. I can’t wait to visit my room. In fact, just thinking about it makes me a little home sick.

This Sunday, we continue our brand new series titled, “The Gospel." Last week, we saw hundreds of people either accept Christ or renew their faith and hope in Jesus' substitutionary atonement!

After such a Sunday, what now? Once we fully understand and receive this good news at the foot of the cross, where do we go from there? How do we appropriate this gospel?

That's our focus for this weekend...