Heart Tracks - Has Salvation Come To Your Home?

"When Jesus came by He looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name, 'Zacchaeus,' He said, 'Quick, come down! For I must be a guest in your home today......Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a son of Abraham.' " Luke 19:5,9...."We prepare our household to serve the Lord by instructing them. We take care to see that every person under our roof has all such knowledge necessary to salvation. It is our responsibility to see that our spouse and children are taught those things which belong to their eternal peace. Plan especially for the Lord's Day, that all may attend the public services for instruction. And take care that they have time daily for reading, meditation, and prayer. Neither should any day pass without family prayer, seriously performed." John Wesley

I love the story of the conversion of the tax collector Zacchaeus, but this is not about Zacchaeus, but of the statement of Jesus. Two statements actually. The first is His declaring that He must be in Zacchaeus' home that day, and secondly, that as He entered that home, so did His salvation for all within. Along with those statements, I add a question; If you are a professing believer and follower of Christ, has salvation truly come to your home?

I included the lengthy above quote from Wesley because of it's convicting power. I have to confess how short I fell in living out his instructions, which are undeniably from the heart of the Lord. I recognize that we can make things like Bible study, prayer, and church attendance legalistic duties, and many have, but the heart and spirit of Christ cannot be missed in what he says, and the presence or absence of these are the true indicators of whether salvation has come to our homes or not.

I'm not judging as to whether or not you've come to know Christ in a saving knowledge. What I'm asking is, has that saving knowledge come to mark all that goes on in your home, in the lives of you and your mate, you and your children? What pains do we take to teach our children the ways of the King and His Kingdom? How diligently do we live out those ways ourselves? Where does prayer with our mate come in, or with our children? I came to Him at a time when a "family altar" was spoken of much in the Body. How many of us even know what that is anymore?We invest huge amounts of time in our jobs, our and our children's activities, our leisure, even in our "church work" and ministries. We are running in a thousand different directions from each other over the course of any day. What part of that day is spent coming together in Him? The enemy has wooed us away from Him in uncountable ways. Salvation may have come to us, but there is little, if any evidence that it has come to our homes....to our marriages and families.

We have taken the lazy and cowardly path of putting it upon the church to keep our family and marriage together. Or worse, we assume that because we are believers, all will be well. I was guilty of this. Maybe you are as well. The words of a father whose daughter walked away from the Lord during her college years ring in my mind and heart, "We raised her in church. We didn't raise her in Christ." We have set the lives of our families and of our marriages upon foundations of sand, and they cannot, will not stand amidst the storms of life. It will always be so where His Word is not lovingly shared, taught, and lived out. It will be so when prayerlessness marks our walk with our mates and children. It will always be so when salvation does not come to our home..... Here's another deeper, more biting question; What, if anything, sets our homes apart from those who would make no real profession of faith or enter through the doors of a church? What looks different in our homes from any of theirs? In our marriages, our family relationships, our spiritual lives? In how, where, and with what we spend our time?

Do Christ's words pierce your heart today? He says clearly that He must come to your home, not as guest only, but as Lord. He will bring His salvation with Him. Do you bid Him come? Or, does His salvation pass you, your marriage, family, and home, by?

Blessings,
Pastor O