I've got a friend who is a Canadian citizen, but lives here in Lodi, has actually lived in the U.S. more time than in his native land. However, he's chosen not to become a U.S. citizen, because doing so would mean losing his Canadian citizenship. He's got a card much like this one that allows him to live and work in this country (his picture is on it, not this lady). It actually says "Resident Alien" on it. He even said they make you show your right ear, for enhanced security. They can use your right ear as well as your face to determine your identity.
All of this to say that this guy has a regular reminder that this country is not his permanent home. He is a citizen of another land. He lives among us, works among us, but this country isn't his home.
What a cool analogy as we think about our identity as aliens, sojourners, foreigners in this world. Heaven is our eternal home. It's our destination. It's our goal, and is promised to us if we trust Jesus for our salvation. Heaven ought to inform our values, inspire our obedience, and give us a purpose in life.
At the same time, we are called to live in this world. We are even called to influence this world for God. We ought to have significant relationship with lost people. We ought to engage our culture, to examine it, to challenge those who are tied up in it.
A common saying I've heard is "Don't be so heavenly-minded that you're of no earthly good." And the converse is also true, "Don't be so earthy, so tied to this world, that you forget you're a citizen of heaven."
If either of these statements describes you, this sermon series on 1 Peter should have much to say to you. I pray we let the Lord speak to all of us.
"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." (1 Peter 2.9-12)
1 comment:
We are aliens, so be heavenly-minded!
I never liked the statement, "You are so heavenly-minded that you are of no earthly good" for several reasons:
Jesus was (and is) heavenly-minded. (He is the Only One Who truly is.)
Jesus is our Lord, and He was (and is) our Perfect Example. "Follow Me." Matt 4:19
Paul says, "Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." (Col 3:1-3)
Peter calls us "aliens", and we as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ realize that our eternal home is heaven.
Since "our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ", there will be a day when God "will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself." (Phil 3:20-21)
John reminds us that we should not be surprised when the world rejects us because the world rejected the Savior! In fact, we are to be set apart from the world. "See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1John 3:1-3)
So, therefore, let us act as citizens of heaven by being heavenly-minded!
Sean
7-2-09
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