Psalm 119:19 (KJV)
I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.
This world is not my home; I'm just passing through. My treasure is not found in what this world has to offer. The things of this life will fade away. I am a foreigner - a sojourner - a wanderer. I'm only here temporarily. The "home" of my body will one day be traded for a spiritual body made in the complete image of Jesus Christ. The physical address where I currently live is also temporary. While I'm grateful for my bride and children who make our house a "home," we also realize that it is not permanent. Our home is eternal in the heavens.
In the land of the free and the home of the brave, I fear we've allowed the American Dream to overcome Apostolic Vision! We aspire to have affluence and desire to fulfill destiny, and define success by corporate standards rather than by Christ's statutes!
Have we become like the Church of the Laodiceans: "rich and increased with goods, having need of nothing?" The Laodiceans had influence and affluence. The sign and the bulletin said "Church" but something was missing. Actually, "Someone" was missing. Jesus tells the Laodiceans, "Behold I stand at the door and knock." Jesus wasn't even inside their church, and yet they didn't even realize it.
Are we so consumed with keeping a schedule that we're no longer led by the Spirit? Have we grown so used to the ways of the world that we've forgotten the will of God's Word?
I am not an alarmist by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, with recent news from China and Egypt, specifically, something in my spirit is connecting with the Holy Spirit. We don't have much time left. Don't become so comfortable on this earth fellow laborers. We are to strangers in the earth, not permanent residents!
I long for the day when I hear the last trumpet sound and this mortal is traded for immortality and this corruption is traded for incorruption! Yes, I have my hand to the plow and I'm planting and watering expecting God to give the increase. But I am also looking up because any day now, my redemption could draw near. I'm looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This world is not my home, I am simply a stranger in the earth!
This worlds wealth pales in comparison to the crown of glory that awaits me. Popularity and position are cheap imitations of enjoying the Presence of Almighty God. My name may never be engraved in Hollywood. I may never be in the Fortune 500 Club. But, my name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and I am a part of the Bride of Christ. That trumps any and every other earthly affiliation!
In the "Hall of Faith," (Hebrews 11), we read quite the epitaph of some Godly heroes...
Hebrews 11:13-16 (KJV)
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
Hebrews 11:38 (KJV)
(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
These heroes of faith made mistakes, but they are not defined by them because they overcame through repentance. What sets these apart, is that they realized that the "promise" of God was of greater value than anything on or in the earth.
I care not what society thinks of me. Lazarus was a beggar and regarded with disdain. However, while Lazarus never possessed this earth's wealth or prestige, when he died, he was carried to Abraham's bosom. In the same parable, Jesus explains that the rich man who saw Lazarus daily at his own gate, when he died, went to hell. This parable does not imply that wealthy people will automatically go to hell and beggars will automatically go to heaven. What is does teach, though, is that one had treasure where it mattered most! Do you?
Examine the account of your life today fellow laborer. Take stock of your priorities. What do you value? Where is your treasure? I cannot examine for you, but as for me, I am a stranger in the earth. My home is eternity with Jesus Christ.
