* SIGN OF THE TIMES - ON OUR WAY HOME

 

Sometimes in a world in turmoil we just need a moment of quiet and reflection, a moment of peace.  So here it is.

We believers in Jesus are on our way home.  We are always on our way home and have been ever since (1) he rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven, and (2) we accepted Jesus as our Lord.  Up to now this going home has always involved the process of physically dying, but now we are so close to the Lord’s return to collect his believers that we realize many living believers will never die physically but will go with Jesus when he comes to collect his believers.

We have never felt truly at home here have we, not on this planet with so much mayhem and confusion and godlessness and evil around.  The whole world is under the control of the evil one, as John tells us in 1 John 5:19.  Our true home is where Jesus and the Father are.  Eternal life is being with them. 

Over the years I’ve written often about home, and I’ve been thinking about that wonderful subject again. One of my favorite writers, Robert Frost, wrote about home long ago in his Death of the Hired Man poem.  In a conversation there between a husband and wife, one says:

                             'Home is the place where, when you have to go there,

                        They have to take you in.'

The other replies:

                        'I should have called it

                        Something you somehow haven't to deserve.'

These two incredible sentences capture it all, don’t they.  Home is a place you don’t have to deserve.  Heaven is our home, being with the Lord, with God.  We can’t deserve that.  We don’t deserve that.  But we believers get in anyway.  Why?  They have to take us in, because we are believers in Jesus! 

We don’t deserve to be there, but because of Jesus and our faith in him they have to take us in.

Home.  I’m ready for that place, and I expect you are too.

Here is my own poem on this subject written years ago.  You may have already seen it.

 

                              WE ARE NEVER HOME     

                                     by John Newlin

 

                        We are never home.

                        Not now.  Not here.

                        No matter how we try.

                        We cannot get there.

 

                        The moments of joy

                        Family and friends bring

                        Cannot dispel

                        The longing of our hearts.

 

                        Harsh though the words,

                        God’s children are

                        Strangers in a foreign land,

                        Aliens on planet earth.

 

                        This is not our world.

                        But we will soon be home,

                        That we know.

                        Our hope is secure.

    

There is no doubt we believers are on our way home.

**********

                                                                  Copyright © 2026 by John Newlin

                                                                                                     March 2026

 Please forward copies of this to whomever you would.

KEEP YOUR EYES ON JESUS!

JOHN NEWLIN MINISTRIES
P O BOX 1038
CARY, NC 27518
https://johnnewlinministries.org
email: john@johnnewlinministries.org
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Blog: johnnewlin.blogspot.com
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NEVER HOME - ALIENS ON PLANET EARTH

One of God's calls on my life is to write. For several years after my encounter with God in the car on the New Jersey Turnpike, I did write...and then years later there was another period of intense writing. Today, most of my writing goes into the various ministry activities and products.


Specifically, God defined the writing call as writing poems and hymns, and other works. Over the years I've written many poems - and many have been published, several by publications affiliated with Christian groups.


Now in this extraordinary period in which we live, one so close to the return of Jesus, one in which the secular world is filled with steps by leaders and media and other groups so out of line with the path with which believers would identify, I find that the poems written years ago fit very well. I intend from time to time to include a few here, intermixed with the essays, insights, and revelations. Sometimes we need a break. And besides, poetry often can say things prose cannot.


This poem presents the way I think many believers in Jesus feel today. Well, we should. Because it is true.

WE ARE NEVER HOME
(Copyright 2004 by John Newlin)

We are never home.
Not now. Not here.
No matter how we try.
We cannot get there.

The moments of joy
Family and friends bring
Cannot dispel
The longing of our hearts.

Harsh though the words,
God’s children are
Strangers in a foreign land,
Aliens on planet earth.

This is not our world.
But we will soon be home,
That we know.
Our hope is secure.

[published in Standard January 11, 2004]

That's right, this is not our home, not this secular lost society of fear and misdirection. That's why we often feel alone, craving to be truly home. That home is with Jesus and the Father. That home is soon to be realized.

Aliens