{"id":16884,"date":"2025-05-15T15:42:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T06:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myuchisoto.org\/en\/?post_type=lesson&#038;p=16884"},"modified":"2025-10-28T10:02:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T01:02:54","slug":"my-uchi-soto-lesson-10","status":"publish","type":"lesson","link":"https:\/\/myuchisoto.org\/en\/lesson\/my-uchi-soto-lesson-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Heavenly Furusato (Homeland)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Opening Questions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What does \u201chome\u201d (<em>uchi<\/em>) mean to you?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What would a perfect home (<em>uchi<\/em>) be like?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>If you can remember back to our very first study, we started by thinking about the house (<em>uchi<\/em>) of the <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">Lord<\/span> as the ultimate circle of fellowship. In our last study, we come \u201cfull circle\u201d and discover that the Bible predicts a day when God will dwell with human beings, and heaven will come to a renewed earth&#8230; and everyone who believes in Jesus can be part of it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s try to sum up our nine studies so far, as simply as possible:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Jesus Christ is the one who can bring us to his Father\u2019s house (<em>uchi<\/em>) \u2013 the place of ultimate security and acceptance. (<strong>This is the main theme of our entire series.<\/strong>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>God exists eternally as three Persons in the ultimate <em>uchi<\/em> fellowship of love, and of his free, overflowing goodness, he desires to share this love with his creatures.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The whole created universe was made \u201cvery good\u201d as a place for God to live with human beings created as his image. Humans enjoyed <em>uchi<\/em> fellowship with God in paradise.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The first humans disobeyed God, preferring to be outside (<em>soto<\/em>) God\u2019s loving authority. As a result, they were banished outside (<em>soto<\/em>) paradise.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>God chose not to treat sinful humans as we deserve. Instead, he gave gracious promises, committing himself to defeating sin and death, that we might return to him (<em>uchi<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>God fulfilled his promise in time, as the eternal Son of God left the <em>uchi<\/em> fellowship of heaven to enter our <em>soto<\/em> world as the God-man Jesus Christ.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sinful human beings rejected Jesus, and cast him out (<em>soto<\/em>) of God\u2019s holy city to die on a cross. But the Bible says this was in fact a victory. By dying for sinners, Jesus invites us to come home (<em>uchi<\/em>) and promises we will never be cast out (<em>soto<\/em>) again.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Jesus rose triumphant from death. Now, he pours out the gift of his Holy Spirit \u2013 God himself \u2013 to live inside (<em>uchi<\/em>) believers, transforming us into temples\/dwellings of God.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Believers come together to form a composite temple of God\u2019s Spirit \u2013 the Church. In the church, we share a foretaste of <em>uchi<\/em> fellowship, and share the good news outside (<em>soto<\/em>).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Uchi<\/em> fellowship with God and his people is possible now in foretaste. In the future, it will be perfected. Let\u2019s see how the Bible describes this, in a wonderful vision of the end of time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea<sup><strong><a href=\"#footnote1\">1<\/a><\/strong><\/sup> was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,<sup><strong><a href=\"#footnote2\">2<\/a><\/strong><\/sup>coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, \u201cBehold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<cite>Revelation 21:1-4<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>How would you describe the ultimate <em>uchi<\/em> fellowship that God will create for his people?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cDwelling place\u201d in verse 3 is literally \u201ctabernacle\u201d. Do you remember where we have seen this concept before in our studies? What does it mean?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What do you find particularly attractive about this description?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It is important to understand that the Bible teaches some people will be cast out (<em>soto<\/em>) of this ultimate and everlasting <em>uchi<\/em> fellowship. Here is how the Bible passage above continues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>And he who was seated on the throne said, \u201cBehold, I am making all things new.\u201d Also he said, \u201cWrite this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.\u201d And he said to me, \u201cIt is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega,<sup><strong><a href=\"#footnote3\">3<\/a><\/strong><\/sup> the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.\u201d<\/p>\n<cite>Revelation 21:5-8<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>We must not misunderstand this. The Bible does not say that \u201cgood\u201d people will be welcomed and \u201cbad\u201d people will be cast outside. Remember, according to the Bible, we are all sinners. To \u201cconquer\u201d in this context means to believe in Jesus as our Saviour and keep trusting him until the end. He is our only hope, and the only way to enjoy <em>uchi<\/em> fellowship with God.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Concluding Questions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Bible describes believers in Jesus as \u201ccitizens of heaven\u201d (Philippians 3:20). That points to a true home for believers which is not of this world. Would you like to belong there?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We must believe in Jesus and repent of our sin to enter God\u2019s house (<em>uchi<\/em>). Will you?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:1.2rem\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/myuchisoto.org\/en\/manga\/my-uchi-soto-lesson-10-manga\/\">View the Lesson 10 Manga<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:1.2rem\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Footnotes<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><a id=\"footnote1\">[1]<\/a> The \u201csea\u201d is a metaphor for earthly rebellion against God, or what we have called in these studies <em>soto<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a id=\"footnote2\">[2]<\/a> The \u201choly city, new Jerusalem\u201d is a metaphor for the whole church or the people of God who believe in Jesus, in which we enjoy now a foretaste of <em>uchi<\/em> fellowship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a id=\"footnote3\">[3]<\/a> Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. The New Testament of the Bible was originally written in Greek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>The ESV Bible<\/em>. Crossway, 2001, www.esv.org\/.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16826,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true},"class_list":["post-16884","lesson","type-lesson","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"single_language_page":false,"og_url":"","og_type":"article","og_title":"","og_description":"","og_image":16826,"og_image_type":"","og_image_width":"","og_image_height":"","twitter_card":"","twitter_site":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myuchisoto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lesson\/16884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myuchisoto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lesson"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myuchisoto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/lesson"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myuchisoto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myuchisoto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}