HoHum:
In the Ice Age movies a squirrel is on a never ending quest for the acorn. He tries and he tries to get that acorn, and meets with a variety of misadventures along the way. He never succeeds in getting the acorn.
In one of these movies, the squirrel has a "near death" experience, and finds himself at the gates of Squirrel Heaven. A place where the streets are paved (of course) with acorns. The squirrel grins, and dances, and gathers up acorns, and feels more at home than he has ever felt back in the ice age. And then he sees it. The mother of all acorns - a giant acorn to put all other acorns to shame. And just as he is about to grasp the giant acorn......someone back in the ice age gives him mouth-to-mouth, and brings him back to life. That was one very unhappy squirrel, who would never again feel at home in the ice age.
WBTU:
This word “strangers” is used several times in the Bible but the most in 1 Peter:
“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,” 1 Peter 1:1, NIV.
“Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.” 1 Peter 1:17, NIV.
“Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” 1 Peter 2:11, NIV.
Several other words can be used like pilgrims, foreigners, temporary residents, refugees. We often hear of illegal aliens, talking about people from other countries coming here illegally. We are transients, vagabonds, out of towner’s, people just passing through. “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through”
Think of the immigrants who came to America 150 to 200 years ago. They had to learn a new language, secure new sources of income, make new friends, adapt to strange new customs. The common bonds they had in their homeland were now gone.
Making the transition from sinner to saint can also be difficult because it means giving up many things that are familiar to us. We have to give up old habits, old hangouts, old practices, and maybe some old friends. Think of a person who has rarely been to church who comes forward and is baptized. Come to church the next Sunday and they are unsure of themselves. Feel like a stranger in a foreign land.
Thesis: As Christians we are to be different
For instances:
We have a different citizenship
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,” Philippians 3:20, NIV.
While our primary loyalty is to the Kingdom of God this does not mean we ignore all our responsibilities to the nation in which we live during our temporary stay on planet earth. We should work and pray for the good of the place where we live. This is what the Israelites were commanded to do when they went into exile from the Promised Land to Babylon. Jeremiah 29:7 tells the Israelites: “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Good advice for Christians as well.
This country is getting more obsessed with politics every day. How long is the election season now? Do we know that there are 435 days until the election on November 8, 2016? So many wrap their hopes and dreams in this country and this country’s leaders. They have nothing else except this country and their particular political views. While we should engage in the political process, and pray for our country, we must realize that our hopes and dreams are not in the USA. We should remember that we are citizens of another country.
“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one.” Hebrews 11:13-16, NIV.
We have a different lifestyle
“Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” 1 Peter 2:11, 12, NIV. Two things here:
1. Abstain from sinful desires-
To abstain means “to hold oneself constantly back from.” Every Christian faces a lifelong struggle against fleshly lusts which, if yielded to, will enslave a person and destroy him. These lusts wage war against the soul, meaning the total person but especially the mind. The battle against sin is waged in the mind. If we can win the war against sin in our thought life, we will win in our behavior. All sin starts in the mind and must be defeated there.
We cannot expect to have healthy minds if we constantly feed our minds from the garbage cans of the world. We need to be choosy about the magazines we read and the TV shows and movies that we watch. “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:2, NIV.
An old Cherokee told his grandson: “My son, a battle between two wolves is going on inside us all. One is evil. The other is good.” The boy thought about it, and asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins?” The old man quietly replied, “The one you feed.”
2. See our good deeds
Our lives should be marked by “good deeds” which conform to God’s Word, but which also, in a lesser sense, are viewed by even a godless culture as pleasing. The world should look at the lives of Christians and admit, even if they don’t like it, that we are good people.
Note that the pagans observe our good deeds. Even though we are unaware, unbelievers are watching our lives. Missionaries who have gone to primitive cultures tell of how the natives will often come and stand at their open windows, watching everything they do to see how they do it.
Peter is not so naive as to think that our good deeds will result in the immediate conversion of the lost. Rather, out of jealousy, guilt, or insecurity, they may slander us. Often they will try to get us to break down and be just like them. “They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you.” 1 Peter 4:4, NIV.
We have different priorities
What we do with money shows where we put our priorities. Concerning possessions are we acting like fully invested citizens of this world, or like strangers in this world?
This world loves the temporary. Use all that we have for things that will not last! Little investment in things eternal. ““Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21, NIV.
There once was a rich man who was near death. He was very grieved because he had worked so hard for his money and he wanted to be able to take it with him to heaven. So he began to pray that he might be able to take some of his wealth with him. An angel hears his plea and appears to him. "Sorry, but you can't take your wealth with you." The man implores the angel to speak to God to see if He might bend the rules. The man continues to pray that his wealth could follow him. The angel reappears and informs the man that God has decided to allow him to take one suitcase with him. Overjoyed, the man gathers his largest suitcase and fills it with pure gold bars and places it beside his bed. Soon afterward the man dies and shows up at the Gates of Heaven to greet St. Peter. St. Peter seeing the suitcase says, "Hold on, you can't bring that in here!" But, the man explains to St. Peter that he has permission and asks him to verify his story with the Lord. Sure enough, St. Peter checks and comes back saying, "You're right. You are allowed one carry-on bag, but I'm supposed to check its contents before letting it through." St. Peter opens the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the man found too precious to leave behind and exclaims, "You brought pavement?!!!"
We have a different hope
We hope for many things- a good job with fringe benefits and the promise of a secure retirement income; children who are good citizens; a nice retirement home in one of the warmer parts of our country; a life free from sickness and accidents.
We who are strangers and aliens in this world have a different kind of hope. True, we hope for many of the things the people of this world hope for but we know life is uncertain. Our hope goes beyond this life and this world. WE have a hope that one day we will dwell with the King of the universe in a land that is “fairer than day.”
“For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Romans 8:24, 25, NIV.
Life without Christ is a hopeless end; life with Christ is an endless hope.
