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My Heart, Christ’s Home

by Robert Boyd Munger
©1954 by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the United States of America

I remember reading this wonderful classic years ago as part of a two-year-long discipleship course. It impacted me then, and it hasn’t lost its potency or relevance today.

The basis is simple: the believer is a host to the indwelling Christ. Perhaps that is why this book has had such widespread appeal. Home ties are personal, emotional and strong. The reader, rather than viewing Christ’s presence with a sense of detachment, is inescapably drawn into a personal encounter with Him. He senses His presence existentially as an engagement with a living person, right where life is being lived.

Since Christians are Christ’s dwelling place—the temple of His Holy Spirit—intrinsic areas of the reader’s life are viewed as rooms. The library, for example, is the study of the  mind. Christ views the bookcases and coffee tables with a discerning eye, and the reader becomes uncomfortable—embarrassed that some of his reading material is unsuitable.

In the dining room, the reader’s appetites and desires are examined. The workroom challenges readers to gauge whether what they are producing is fit for the kingdom of God, while the rec room (what today we call the den) urges readers to carefully scrutinize what they do for entertainment. The bedroom will spur both husbands and wives to assess whether they are cherishing their spouses as they should.

The most formidable confrontation occurs in the hall closet, where Christ probes and finds “dead and rotting things left over from the old life.” Not necessarily wicked things, but things simply not right or good to have in a Christian life. Jesus gently reminds the owner of the home that He cannot be expected to stay in a place with the stench of a hall closet. When the owner rather reluctantly gives Him the key to the closet, Jesus removes the putrefying elements and does a thorough cleaning.

Robert Boyd Munger first preached the sermon “My Heart, Christ’s Home” in 1947. Through a series of circumstances with the encouragement of friends, a copy of his sermon fell into the hands of an editor at InterVarsity Press. And the rest—as they say—is history. More than ten million copies of this book have been distributed in more than a dozen languages throughout the world.

PATTY KENNEDY is assistant web content editor for the national Women’s Ministries Department. She also writes book and music reviews for Pages and Tunes, a free e-newsletter provided by the national Women’s Ministries Department.

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