This World Is Not My Home

"Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" - Ephesians 2:19

We all were once foreigners toward God, but no longer. We, once born again, are now strangers and foreigners in the world we live our physical lives in. That means that we are no longer part of the culture that we live in. I don’t know if you’ve ever traveled in a foreign country, where you didn’t speak the language or even understand it. Everyone who does is doing just fine. But you don’t understand what’s being said or why things are being done in a certain way.

Martie and I have traveled out of the country some. I’ve been deployed to foreign countries when I was in the Army. Martie and I have traveled to Belgium and lived in Haiti for a little over four years. Each time I picked up a little bit of the language but was never close to being fluent. To use that as an analogy, some Christians living in this country and others have learned to speak the language of the culture and even to identify with that culture as their own. Why wouldn't they since they were physically born into it. They accept its ways, embrace its values and becoming fluent in the "language" of the country in which they live. Some other Christians may only learn a few words and so when they speak the local people know they are foreigners. And of course there are travelers who don’t understand a word, don't "do as the Romans do when in Rome", and are aware that they are just visiting, just passing through and soon they will be going home.

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." - 1 John 2:15

The Bible makes it clear that we are not to embrace the culture that we live in. The one we were saved from. That our citizenship is in heaven. We belong to the family of God. We have a new ethnicity in Christ. Abraham's offspring though Isaac and Jesus.

"Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,  having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation." - 1 Peter 2:11-12

So what’s my point. It’s so important, especially in this day and time, to always keep who we are in Christ in the forefront of our thoughts. The fact that we are not part of the culture we live and work in, that we are strangers in a foreign land, should be apparent in the way we treat people, in what we value and in our devotion to God. And this is my encouragement to you today.

Think about it – Pray about it – Believe it – Walk in it. Let your light shine and give God the glory.

By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone