If one claims to be a citizen of God’s country; then by default they
cannot be a citizen of the world. The converse is also true; if you claim
to be a citizen of the world then you cannot be a citizen of God’s
country. You are either known there and a stranger here or you are known
here and a stranger there. This is Biblical truth, so the question then
becomes, where do you call home? Where is your citizenship?
“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.” – Hebrews 11:13
What we say and what we do can often be two very different things. Cain
hated his brother Abel and slew him, not because of what Abel SAID but because
of what he DID. (1 John 3:12) The righteousness of Abel’s heart was
fleshed out in the works that he did; and the unrighteousness of Cain’s heart
was fleshed out in the works that he did. Where your citizenship is, is
not determined by lip service, but by heart service. Take for
example military personal that are called to serve in a foreign country for a
short period of time, you find that there is certain things they do not do.
They do not buy homes, they typically do not marry those of that nation, they
do not assimilate into the culture, they do not invest a lot of time in gaining
the things that the citizens of that country hold dear…….Why is
this? Simply because that’s not where their heart is, that’s not
where their allegiance is, and they don’t plan to stay there very long.
US soldiers don’t want to live in Afghanistan; they want to come home! I believe one of the devils strongest temptations
is right along these lines. He wants the Christian to believe that this
world is his home. He wants us to get acclimated, plan to stay awhile,
build up OUR kingdom, and forget about God’s. While we live in houses
that are more shelter than we need, drive cars that we can’t afford, work,
work, work, and buy, buy, buy. All the while this type of lifestyle takes
TIME and EFFORT. But whose time are we spending? We are all living
on borrowed time; God’s time.
The lie that we belong here is constantly being sown into our
lives. When in reality, if we are truly children of God we will never
feel at home in this world, nor endeavor to be at home; we will remain pilgrims. We must remain pilgrims here, if we seek a
home up there.
“18 And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear
the word, 19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and
the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh
unfruitful.” – Mark 4: 18 & 19
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