First aorist active infinitive of purpose- a title only an English major could love. Maybe the English or Greek majors among us already know what it means- I certainly did not when it came up in my Bible study this week. But it turned out to be the perfect fit for what I wanted to tell you, about what Sherri and I bought this week.
You see, Sherri and I and technically Jake, bought a house this past week in Maryville Missouri. It's not a new house, in fact I guess you'd have to say it's an old house since it was built in 1910. The idea is to have Jake stay there while in school at NW Missouri State and rent out the other 4 bedrooms to make the house payment and have a little left over for spending money. That's the plan anyway, we'll see, hopefully it works out that way.
Of course an old house has it's issues and that's where grandpa and grandma come in. They're going to go down with Jake in the next couple weeks to see what really needs to get done to prepare the house for 5 guys who in just a couple months will be fully devoted to study (insert smiley face here and roll eyes). I'm not sure if Jake liked the house because it had a master bath for him or because of the sorority house next door. Either way, there is work to be done there.
Lately it seems we watch a number of 'fix up the house' shows like 'Extreme Home Makeover', 'Designed to Sell' and 'Sell This House'. The places look sad at the beginning of the show and then are turned into gems with some interesting design combinations, hard work, and oh yeah- various amounts of money. We have visions of doing the same thing in Maryville- with very little money of course.
Anyway, all this got me to thinking about the 3rd house I have and the work going on there. Jesus talks about it in John 14:2 saying, '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 that last part made me smile, thinking of Jesus, the carpenter, in His own home improvement show fixing up the place for us. He's preparing the greatest home ever. Think about what He did in 7 days and then consider what He can do in 2000 years! We can't even imagine it. My guess is He's looking forward to the big reveal- so much so that He just had to give John and us a sneak peak in Revelation.
The title of our thought here describes the verb 'Etoimazw' which is the Greek word that means 'prepare'. The other words like 'aorist' mean 'expressing action'- as in Jesus is actively preparing a place for you and me with purpose. How cool is that? He's actively preparing on our behalf- can we really grasp the meaning of that? But I know it is true and happening because Jesus said it- He's all about getting the place ready for you and me. He said if it wasn't true, He wouldn't have said it.
If you've ever watched these improvement shows you know how the reveal works. The couple is brought into a room, eyes shut and then are told to open their eyes and see the results. Their first words are usually 'Oh my God'. I can easily imagine us having the same reaction on the heavenly big reveal. My 3rd house is going to really be something. Probably bring me to tears like you always see in Extreme Home Makeover. Well, enough about my three homes, see you Sunday in the house of the Lord where we can actively, purposefully prepare for His return!
Blest Regards,
Keith
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