No More Camping!

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Awaiting the New Body

5 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
I have never been one that has liked going camping. I don't sleep all that well in a regular bed and sleeping on the ground in a hot and stuffy tent is not my idea of a vacation.  Paul uses the analogy of a tent when talking about our earthly bodies.  A tent is temporary.  It is a place of shelter for a short period of time.  When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, they kept the ark of the Lord in a tent, they called the tabernacle.  The tabernacle representing God's presence went where the Israelites went, until it found a permanent home in the temple. 
Paul likens our earthly life to living in a temporary tent, though we long to be clothed with our heavenly home.  Although God has made us in His image, we live in bodies that are temporary.  Our bodies get old and eventually we die, yet inward we are being renewed day by day in Christ.  And God has given us His Holy Spirit as a downpayment of our future inheritance.  The Holy Spirit gives us confidence that though we will die one day, we will enter our eternal home.  
The Holy Spirit is a downpayment on our heavenly home.  The Holy Spirit lives in us and reminds us that all of God's promises are true in Christ.  Through the Holy Spirit we utter prayers and praises to God in anticipation to the day when we will be in His presence praising him night and day.  
When I am camping all week, I can't wait to come home and be in my own bed.  As we continue our pilgrimmage on earth we know that there is a place Jesus has prepared for us.  We have a home in heaven where God's perpetual light will shine on us.    And I am happy heaven won't involve any camping in tents!

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