Page 29 - Grace150 Devotional

For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Hebrews 13:14

The Lord brought Judy and me and our young family to Illinois in 1977 to
join the staff of Grace Church as the first full-time Minister of Music. Early in
my ministry here, I was asked to speak at a College and Career class gathering.
I had been mulling over the verses in Hebrews 11 that mention the patriarchs
considering themselves to be “strangers and exiles” on this earth, desiring “a
better country…a heavenly one.”
Though I was barely 30 years old, I felt led to impress on these young adults (and
myself!) the importance of beginning to think about mortality, the brevity of life,
living each day in the light of eternity. We tend to ignore these things until much
later in life, and, often, have to live with the regret of not taking them seriously earlier.
I have had the opportunity to share that devotional in a few other settings both
at Grace and otherwise in subsequent years. Eventually, it was expanded and
developed into a full sermon that has become my “go-to” sermon when asked to
fill a pulpit.
The apostle Paul reminds us that the many and varied struggles of life are best
viewed and dealt with from an eternal perspective (2 Corinthians 4:17–18). The
author of Hebrews heartily concurs!

Deliver us, Lord, from a nearsightedness that hinders us from seeing beyond
this very temporal life.
– Gary Roseboom

Gary served as Grace’s minister of music (worship director) from 1977 to 1993. Gary and
his wife Judy have been ministering with Rural Home Missionary Association for the past
25 years.

devotions for the journey DAY 22