STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS

STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS!

Heb 11:13

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.

1 Peter 2:11

11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.

           I went shopping with my wife yesterday evening. I am not as enthusiastic about shopping as she is so I will plant myself on a bench and watch what I call “culture on parade!” My comment to her as we walked through Dillard’s was that “it is time to call the Mother Ship to come and pick us up!” The world has gotten strange and we are strangers.

           Only twice do we see the word “pilgrim” in the New Testament. In Hebrews the Greek is parepidemos which means “‎an alien alongside, i.e. a resident foreigner.” In First Peter the word “stranger” is paroikos which, in the Greek, means “having a home nearby; a by-dweller. Think of one who lives just across the border! He is an alien.

           The message is clear to me! If the world seems strange to me it means that I am an alien in a foreign place. My citizenship is in heaven (See Philippians 3:20). I should not expect to feel at home here. I am a “by-dweller.” My true home is across the border in a land so far yet so close at hand. One day the Father-ship will come to pick me up.

Heb 11:16

16 But now they [we] 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.

Dear Lord, it seems the world is becoming more and more strange to me. I anxiously await your return to take me home. AMEN