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Gleanings From The Word

Tag: This world is not my home

  • We Are All Displaced – Find a Home With Jesus

    agroup of displaced/ refugee children from World War 2

    I’ve mentioned before that the farm just up the hill from us is being developed into a subdivision. That has displaced many small animals and birds.

    That includes brown rats. There is a misconception that brown rats carry bubonic plague, but the biggest carrier of the plague during the Dark Ages was humans, followed by black rats. 

    Still, even brown rats can be pests.  Cute in their own way, and smart, but pests, nonetheless. I don’t mind them out in the wooded areas, but once they start visiting the yard, the rules change, and they have to go.

    I don’t blame the rats for moving down the hill. After all, their home has been turned into a construction zone. I can empathize.

    All believers are displaced people. We have been transferred out of the kingdom of this world into the Kingdom of God.  As the old song (whose authorship is disputed) “This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through, My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue; The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

    We are pilgrims, strangers in a hostile foreign land. That concept is threaded through Scripture but is particularly highlighted twice in Hebrews. “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” Hebrews 11:13 ESV

    “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” Hebrews 13:14 ESV

    Displaced pilgrims waiting to go home. Citizens of another land, refugees. Yet, we are far from homeless. The Kingdom of God is manifested in this life; we just won’t experience it in full until we get to glory.

    When times get hard, when discouragement comes, don’t despair. We’re not home yet.

    Hang fast, my dear friends, home is just around the corner.

    Be blessed

    Kevin

    __________________________________________ 

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  • Scrub Jays – Refugees from the fires

    Scrub Jays – Refugees from the fires

    California Scrub Jay

    Yesterday I was treated to the sight of a pair of California scrub jays at our little backyard feeder. They are a rare sight in these parts, although since the California wildfires of a few years ago, they are somewhat more common.

    While on our mini vacation, we spoke to a couple from Northern Alberta. A mountain sheep has been seen in their area. The sheep are typically found in the Jasper area, but were driven out by wildfires. Now they are attempting to make a home hundreds of miles from their home.

    The jays and the mountain sheep (and I’m sure many other species) refugees who fled a disaster, looking for a safe harbor. They are doing their best to make a way in an unfamiliar and, in many ways, hostile environment.

    There is a sense in which all Christians are refugees as well. We grow up in a fallen world that is hostile to the Christian worldview. When we do become believers, our citizenship becomes that of heaven, and instead of being enemies of God, we become enemies to the world.

    The once familiar is now strange. The former close friend now rejects and ridicules us. Things we once thought nothing of now cause us discomfort.

    Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 1 Peter 2:11 ESV

    If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. John 15:19 ESV

    We might be strangers, sojourners, even refugees in this world, but our home is secure.

    In the interim, we have the Word to strengthen us. We have other believers to walk with. Most importantly, we have the Spirit within us to guide us and testify to our status as children of God and coheirs with Christ. The Spirit is our passport into the kingdom, both here and forever in glory.

    Hold fast, my friends. The wandering time may seem long and hard at times, but we have victory in Him.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God)

    Be blessed, 

    Kevin

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