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VALLEY CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

A Homeward Journey

8/25/2014

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It was Irenaeus, one of the Church Fathers who said:  The glory of God is a man fully alive. As I have had a chance to reflect on my own journey I find for me this to be a season when I’m coming alive again.  I sense I’m where God wants me to be and that He is at work in my life preparing me for that which still lies ahead.  

In many ways, people would look at me and see an outward confidence and I am confident in what I do, but I have struggled internally with my own sense of self-worth. I often feel like I’m on the edge of my own strength and ability.  One of the reasons I sense a renewed spirit is because I’m learning again that my confidence is not in self but in the God I love and serve, who is at work in my life.  

I can see through my story how God has led and been at work in my life all along and this gives me a greater sense of confidence that He will continue to do so…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in me will complete it. (Philippians 1:6)  

Our lives are a journey, one that takes us beyond the experiences of just this life to the life we were ultimately made for in heaven.  I have to keep reminding myself there is coming a time when life will be as God intended; when the wounds of this life will be fully healed, the losses of this life fully redeemed and we will reign with Him forever.  

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.  (I Corinthians 2:9) 

The Apostle John writes…We are already God’s children and we can’t even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns.   But we know that when he comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.  (1 John 3:2)   

All of creation we are told in Scripture longs for this day. This truth resonates with us, for God has placed eternity in our hearts.  Something within us tells us that this life is not the end of our journey.  The life Christ promised begins in this life but it leads to our ultimate destination.   

At the end of The Chronicles of Narnia, the children are entering to Aslan’s country.  They soon discover that Narnia, everything that brought them joy in life, exists forever in Aslan’s country; only it’s richer and more real than ever. 

Lewis writes…It was the unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling.  He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried:  “I have come home at last!  This is my real country!  I belong here.  This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.  The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked like this." 

The joys and the adventure we experience in this life only foreshadow all that awaits us in heaven. One of the reasons our hearts long to be on / stay on this journey with God is because one day it will lead us home!

John Eldredge writes…Our search for the golden moment is not a search in vain; not at all.  We’ve only had the timing wrong.  We do not know exactly how God will do it, but we do know this:  the kingdom of God brings restoration.  The only things destroyed are the things outside of God’s realm—sin, disease, death.  But we who are God’s children, the heavens and the earth he has made, will go on forever.  The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and lion and the yearling together.  And the New Jerusalem will be known as the desirable place, the place of the fulfilment of all our desires.



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    Author

    Ken Clarke has been the Pastor at Valley since 2007. He lives in the Oliver area 
    with his wife Janice ; they have three adult children, Lisa, Scott & Tiffany (Riley) and Andrea & Jason.

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