Aliens in This World

The immigration issue is a hot topic right now. Tucked away in my insulated mid-atlantic corner, I don’t pretend to know much about the issues involved. So I’m not weighing in on that discussion at all… in the political realm. But spiritually speaking, I think we all need to make sure we aren’t trying the same thing that some southern neighbors have been doing.

“What?” you say, a bit miffed. “I’ve never tried to infiltrate another country… gone incognito to the workplace… bought into programs and benefits that were meant for another. I’ve never even wanted to change my citizenship, never as much as looked longingly at another country. I loudly voice my allegiance. I proudly display my flag. There’s nothing underhanded or disguised about me.”

Good for you. But I haven’t always been able to say that, and neither have a good many other Christians over the last two thousand years. The apostle Paul had to write to those of us who sometimes struggle with our spiritual citizenship:

“For I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many [believers] live as enemies of the cross of Christ… Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:18-20 NIV). “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Pt. 2:9 NIV). “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires… Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of wrongdoing, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Pt. 2:11-12 NIV).

My citizenship isn’t here, but sometimes I’ve tried to hide that fact. Tried to get around it. Tried to look and act like I fit right in around here and have a right to the full benefits and complete acceptance that come naturally to the natives of this world. I’ve been offended when they were denied, even tempted to compromise to get them.

Paul calls us to proudly (although not obnoxiously) display our true colors as citizens of heaven. To lift up the flag of our country – the cross of Christ. To cling to it and maintain full allegiance to the Kingdom of God and the King we have sworn to serve. It will mean living as aliens now – upside down, a bit lonely and out-of-step, sometimes something of a problem to those around us, and the brunt of some genuine protest and persecution…

But it’s treason to pretend otherwise. We’re strictly immigrants, in this world on a temporary visa. We’ve got every right to pass through, but not to settle in and put down roots and put up permanent dwellings and build monuments to ourselves.

Because we’re headed for a border crossing, confidently following the footsteps of Guide Who has already cheated death, forded the river and entered the Homeland. No guard will turn us away. No fence will keep us out. It’s where we’ll truly belong; we’ll be finally Home.

Expectation: An Attitude that Pleases God

I had a lesson on faith this week …

I lost my keys. Not for a few hours or a day, but for four days. I didn’t share the good news right away, because I knew there were a couple costly-to-replace keys on that ring and I was hoping they would just show up, but I finally fessed up. That initiated much mental backtracking and a house-wide search more thorough than the two I’d already conducted. No keys.

Well, maybe when taking the groceries out of the back of our car, I’d laid the keys on the bumper, and they’d fallen off when I made a later trip (using a spare key of course!). So I headed down the driveway and up the road, head down, scouring the sides of the road. And as I walked uphill, my attitude slid down. I lost those keys four days ago. How likely is it that they will still be lying around here? Cars go by, joggers go by, people walk their dogs past here…

Then the Lord seemed to speak to me. You don’t really expect to find those keys. You’re asking Me to do something, yet you have little hope. And a verse popped into my mind: “Whatever does not come from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23).

Now I don’t think God was necessarily calling my lack of expectation sin, yet I felt a little chided, and deservedly so. Without faith it is impossible to please Him, so I certainly wasn’t a pretty sight to Him, trudging up that road, asking for something I doubted I’d receive, and looking for something I didn’t expect to find.

Alright then, I would trust that if God had led me down that road, He could supply the answer exactly if and when He pleased - and now was as likely a time as any! I turned to come home the opposite side, and had nearly reached our driveway, when I saw Dave coming out of the house, giving me the thumbs up. He had thought to call my mom, who discovered she’d accidentally put my keys in her purse when visiting several days earlier. The lost was found.

All that to say this: We at FAC are looking for some answers. We are headed down a road, looking for a senior pastor. It’s not a one-day search, not even a four-day! As the process unfolds, we may have growing fears and misgivings. We may find ourselves questioning the likelihood of finding, or agreeing upon, the “key” person. We may fear that a key prospect will be discovered by another and stolen from us, or the process somehow interfered with so that God can’t provide His answer. If we succumb to such fears, we’ll find ourselves trucking up this hill with our heads and attitudes down, no pretty sight to God, no source of pride or joy to His heart.

Instead, may God quicken our hearts with growing confidence in Him. We’re asking for His will; we’re waiting for His timing. His answer may not lie just where we’re looking, but we can search in expectation that somewhere down this road, we will look up and see His “thumbs up” – the lost is found, our senior pastor is here.

CreationPower

The same creative power that was at work in Creation is today re-creating us in Christ’s image, making us sanctified and holy in God’s sight.

Pastor Phillips affirmed a wonderful truth Sunday: the same Spirit that hovered over the formless, dark, empty chaos at the beginning of time is the same Spirit who brooded over your life and mine before our life in Christ began. Darkness covered the depths of our hearts and minds. And into that darkness, the same voice that spoke at creation spoke to you and I individually, “Let there be light.”

That was Day One, the first stage of our spiritual journey. Our eyes were opened. The darkness of doubt was pierced, and the Light ruled the new day.

On the Second Day, the heavens were separated from the earth. Two worlds were defined, just as they gradually become clearer to us after we give our life to Christ. Earth is not all there is; in fact, it is simply a preparation-ground for heaven, and we are pilgrims, called to set our hearts on things above.

On Day Three, the seas made place for dry ground, and we got our spiritual footing. Soon new growth appeared, like branches from a Vine, and the potential for fruit was created.

Day Four, the moon and stars were created and organized. Discipline and order was being established, just as it is when the Spirit opens God’s Word to the developing Christian and helps him or her to establish regular rhythms of worship and study and self-examination.

Day Five: life began to take root everywhere. The silent skies filled with birds; the empty seas teemed with fish. So in us, places that were achingly empty and lifeless begin to come alive. There is the sound of singing in previously vacant areas of our inner beings, and a living Presence in the lonely places of our hearts.

On Day Six, God is moving to the fulfillment of His highest goal – the creation of someone in His image. He works up to it gradually... first wild animals, then domesticated livestock… and finally the crowning achievement –man and woman, made from clay yet bearing the very breath of God within.

So it is God’s intention all along to take our bodies of clay and breathe His Spirit into us, until we stand to take possession of all He’s prepared for us. To do the work for which He made us. To enjoy an intimate relationship with Him every day in the inner garden of our hearts.

Creation… re-creation… both are a process involving the very same God, the very same power, and the very same Voice which continually encourages our progress, saying with deep divine pleasure,

“It is good.”

Where’s the Power?

Power.

Gigantic earthmovers, mowing down boulders and trees and small mountains that stand in the path of progress. Space shuttles boiling huge clouds of exhaust in liftoffs that shake the earth for miles around. Prizefighters whose knockout punches instantly drop their opponent and send awestruck crowds into frenzied cheering.

Power is loud, we’re convinced. It’s in your face. It commands respect and it gets results. We bow to power. We step aside for it. We don’t argue with it. We stand back, impressed, and watch it work.

That’s why we Christians aren’t so sure we have it. Very few fireworks result from our prayers. Seldom are mountains moved by our service. Rarely are onlookers stunned by what’s happening in and through our lives. Yet Paul seemed so certain:

“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know… his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come” (Eph. 1:18-21 NIV).

But we’re not looking for the power that raised Christ; we’re looking for the power of his death – the sky turning black, the ground shaking, the dead coming back to life. In strange contrast, Resurrection power didn’t make any mountains tremble – it merely rolled a stone from a door, with only a few soldiers as an audience. It didn’t flatten any buildings; it stepped effortlessly through locked doors. It didn’t send fireworks blazing across the night sky; it rose without fanfare into the clouds and returned to the Father.

That’s the Resurrection power that’s in us. Power that’s amazingly, astonishingly effortless and often deceptively low-profile. Power that doesn’t comand attention and parade its full capabilities. Power that works under the radar and behind the scenes. Still, it tramples down evil and gets the job done.

That’s why we can pray tonight and instantly, as soon as the words are out of our mouth, encourage believers in a Chinese underground meeting halfway around the world. That’s why we can listen to a distraught friend for an hour, and respond with one word, one sentence… and it is the word that sets them free, that opens their eyes to a truth they desperately needed to see. That’s why we can set a foot into the dark and dangerous unknowns that lie ahead, and watch the waters part and the way become clear and the obstacles fall left and right as though a Hand is parting them for us…

Resurrection power. It is at work in us who believe, although we’re often looking for something different. May the eyes of our heart be opened to see the power of the reigning Christ working in us and flowing from us this day, by the Spirit of the Risen One.