No Place Like Home

January 19th, 2024

Can you relate even a little to the nomadic life of the Israelites until they reached the Promised Land? For forty years, "They wandered in deserts and mountains . . ." (Hebrews 11:38 NKJV). Join us today as our own Frank Figueroa, Jr. gives us another glimpse into the traveling ministry he and April serve in for Reasons for Hope and how the Lord has used this to remind them of our forever home.

Over the past couple of years, I have learned what the saying, “There Is No Place Like Home” truly means.

Before joining Reasons For Hope full-time in June 2022, I never had to leave the property unless I ran an errand for an essential item. I was a pastor at a church that had a parsonage on its property. So, I would get up, get dressed, and walk across the parking lot to my office. Attending church was no more complicated. There was no need to even look for a parking space because my truck remained in the same spot it rested in for weeks. In fact, except for walking the dog and buying food, I never had to leave the property of Waipio GBC if I didn’t want to.

I would go home every night and cook dinner with the same pots and pans, eat off the same plates, and relax on the same reclining sofa. I would sleep in the same bed, use the same restroom, and gaze out the same window to watch the sunrise every morning. You might say it was comfortable if you wanted to sum up my living situation in a single word. But boy, has that changed . . .

Currently, April and I are on the road over 300 days a year. Our respite locations, as well as our sleeping accommodations, change from day to day. Our meal prep has also been drastically altered. Whether that means eating a meal we haphazardly prepared from Costco in a hotel room, eating out at a fast food place, or the occasional privilege of a home-cooked meal from a host family, the road has proven to be anything but home.

When we had days off, we were privileged to stay at a lake home on Lake Sarah, MN. We would relish seeing amazing sunsets, preparing home-cooked meals, and resting in “our own bed.” But we also knew that the place we called our respite, programmed into our GPS as “home” for the past two years, was not truly ours. Instead, our home was still in Hawaii, where we returned at least every six months for a brief period. We would remain there for a couple of weeks to do ministry and visit with loved ones, with the ultimate knowledge that we would just be there for a brief period before returning to the road in the contiguous 48 states.

To add to this nomadic experience, we are in the process of changing our earthly residence from Hawaii to Indiana. We have had to deal with many real estate agents and learn their methods of buying a new home and selling our current home. We have had to deal with moving companies and parting with many of our belongings due to the cost of shipping them across the Pacific Ocean. Studying new locations, tax systems, political climates, and cultural norms has been daunting and exhausting, but it was necessary to pick the best location to relocate to.

Hebrews 13:14 tells us, “For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.”

My bride and I now have a much better understanding of how the Israelites must have felt and the biblical truth that this world is not our home. Hebrews 13:14 tells us, “For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.” In other words, we are just passing through for now, but we no longer belong here because we are now citizens of heaven.

Jesus Himself said in John 14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” This passage can bring so much peace to our weary souls. Just as we trust in the Father for all provisions, we can also trust in the Son, our Bridegroom, that there will be a day when He will finally take us home to a place He has specifically prepared for us.

No more will we long to be home or feel out of place, but we will reside forever with the One who loves us enough to die for us and call us His own.

This dwelling will not be just a place where we exist; it will also be where we belong! The Apostle Paul declares that we already belong there: Philippians 3:20 “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Notice, since our citizenship is already there, we are just waiting for the day we will move there. No more will we long to be home or feel out of place, but we will reside forever with the One who loves us enough to die for us and call us His own.

Although April and I are excited about settling into a new earthly residence that we can call our own and be at “home again,” as believers in Jesus, we will never be truly at rest until we are in that eternal heavenly home that He is preparing for us. And although this world can offer us moments of respite, we are reminded daily to be eagerly waiting for our Savior, to Whom we belong, Who is building a place for us, and Who will return to take us there because . . . there is no place like home.

To learn more about Frank or to book him as a speaker at your upcoming events, please click HERE.

Download Our FREE App!

Click HERE to download our free app and encourage your family and friends to do the same. This resource provides hundreds of audio, visual, and print resources to answer questions and train you and your loved ones to be able to answer anyone who may ask you to share why you believe what you believe (1 Peter 3:15).