Hallowed Be This House: Finding Signs of Heaven in Your Home
by Thomas howard
Anselm’s Take:
Almost every Evangelical believer is taught, at some point, that material things don’t matter—so when we make our houses into homes through the cozy, beautiful, comfortable things we own, we do it with some guilt: but Howard teaches that our homes are the embodiment of sacred truth.
Howard’s book walks through each room of a house and explores its spiritual significance. He takes us from the four walls and front door that both set the home apart and welcome people in (like a holy place) to the sacred life-and-death nature of the bedroom. Each room becomes a window into sacrificial theology, and carries an image of the character or the work of God in our lives.
This book has the power to shape your hospitality towards yourself, your family and your guests. The truths he establishes not only restore significance and meaning to our very homes, but show us the rhythm of our place within it
If you have never thought that ceremony and pomp have a place in your home, Howard’s chapter “The Entryway” will have you reconsidering.
If your kitchen is a place of humdrum work and sacrifice, you may be surprised to learn that that is as it should be—and “this ordinariness…is the vehicle given to us by which we may move toward…glory.”
If you want to know how obedience eventually becomes mastery (because how is that possible?!) then you may find chapter 5, “The Living Room” fascinating or even inspiring.
Publisher’s Description:
“Thomas Howard shows us that every room of your house-the living room, the kitchen, the bedroom, and even the bathroom-is a holy place where God's grace awaits you, if only you know how to recognize His presence there. With a rich awareness of God's all-encompassing love, Howard takes you on a spiritual tour through your own home and shows you how everything in it can lead you closer to God.
In each room, Howard shows you the surprising ways you can meet God there. With wonderful insights, he reveals how, even in your daily activities you can meet the same God who came to Israel in the terror, smoke and fire in the Tabernacle, and the God who died for us on Cross. But they're by no means confined to a lofty spiritual plane: Howard sees chances to love and serve God, and sees His gentle hand, in the most seemingly dull and ordinary of places and actions.
So take up this book to find out how cooking and cleaning, having family dinners together, and all the other commonplace actions that make up the fabric of your daily life can actually disclose God's presence to you. Your daily life as well as your devotional life will be forever transformed by this unusual look at how lovingly God awaits us even in the smallest things.”
Learn more about the book on Bookshop.
Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life, by Tish Harrison Warren (IVP, 2019)