"So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" - Ephesians 2:19
I am not a world traveler. So when I was in seminary and went to the Philippines with some professors and students, I felt very much out of my comfort zone.
And there was no time I felt more out of my comfort zone than when we had a layover in Seoul, Korea and when we first arrived in Manila, which is the capital city and the second largest city of the Philippines.
All we saw of Seoul was the inside of the International Airport terminal. Wee hours of the night, their time. Dark outside. Light inside. The terminal had no people. Not a seoul, er, I mean, soul. And our souls had no energy. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all white, hard, and sterile. Between exhaustion and environment, I felt totally like a "stranger and sojourner" (Ephesians 2:19). If I didn't know better, I would have thought I was in the train station scene of "Matrix Revolutions" (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NYpkrQc9PeA&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DNYpkrQc9PeA).
And then a few hours later, with maybe a few minutes of sleep, we arrived in Manila. And I thought I felt like a "stranger and sojourner" in Seoul. Seoul was easy compared to Manila. It was now the wee hours of the morning. Still very dark. We got off the plane and onto a "bus". I was looking out the bus window into this dark strange world. It felt like a scene from "Apocalypse Now" (http://www.fastenupyourseatbelts.com/apocalyseNow/apocalypseNowAnalysis.html). It forced me to wonder, "Should we trust the guy who's driving the bus? I don't even have a clue who even actually is driving the bus. Man-ila, er, Man, I don't have a clue even where I am!"
Have you ever felt that way in life? The world seems dark. Rest comes hard. And ya wonder, "Should I trust the guy who's driving the bus? I don't even have a clue who even actually is driving the bus." Ya feel like a stranger and sojourner in your own "world" and even at times to your own life.
(At this point, I might kindly ask you not to send me psychoanalytical responses, telling me I'm depressed. If your world is full of light and logic and inner calm and your life just totally makes sense, then today's Bible verse isn't even meant for you. But God inspired the words that are in the Bible because they meet real people where they often find themselves as we walk in faith in a fallen world. And God says, through Paul, that we often feel like strangers and sojourners.)
So, for all of you who have ever felt as strange and unsettled as God's Word says many of us sometimes do, then here's the Good News: God has an invitation for you. God has a promise for you to claim.
You have a place with God. A place in God's heart. And God wants to have a place in your heart. You have your own room in God to settle in. And God wants to settle into the room that is your heart.
No more sojourning. You're home in the Lord. Even while we're still sojourning in the world. In other words, even as our place in the world is temporary, our place with God is permanent. Our place with God is home. A place to rest. And be fed. And hear the voice of One who loves us.
Our place with God through faith in Jesus Christ is a place to be renewed.
For the rest of this temporary journey.
So that now, in Christ, as we walk sometimes wearily in and through this world, we have a promise to claim from One who's always faithful to His Word. And His promise to you is this: "So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (Ephesians 2:19).
Praise God!
(For an archive of "Day of Praise", please visit my daughter Calley's website at http://dayofpraisepc.blogspot.com/?m=1)
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
No comments:
Post a Comment