Years ago I knew a hobo who journeyed from place to place by railway. He was not a bum or a vagrant or a beggar; he was a drifter who liked adventure. His address was: "Anywhere, U.S.A." He was a perpetual transient, adapting to each new environment as he wandered across the nation.
Until this year, I did not understand this idea of living temporarily for a time in a place, a stranger or alien in a foreign land. For the first time, I took notice of this beautiful concept of being a "sojourner" in 1 Peter 1:1.
Bible translations (King James, NIV, NASB, etc.) render the word differently: foreigners; strangers; scattered ones; aliens in a foreign land; people scattered by God; those from a foreign country who reside in a new land by the side of the native people; pilgrims; and God's chosen people who are temporary residents away from their true home.
As Christians, we are not permanent residents on this earth, but we are sojourners - we are strangers and exiles on this earth. We reside as aliens scattered throughout this world, but we are not of this world. Our true home, our native land, the one we yearn for or look to with deep homesickness is heaven. Heaven is our native country.
Pouring our money, talents, energies, and time into the "stuff" of this world, with the mindset that they are permanent, is succumbing to worldliness. Becoming entrenched or obsessed with a love for these transitory tools is idolatry.
"Our homeland is in heaven, and we are waiting for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven. By His power to rule all things, He will change our humble bodies and make them like His own glorious body." Philippians 3:20-21 New Century Version
"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body." Philippians 3:20-21 NIV
"But there's far more to life for us. We're citizens of high heaven! We're waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthly bodies into glorious bodies like His own. He'll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which He is putting everything as it should be, under and around Him." Philippians 3:20-21 the Message
This Greek word for God's scattered chosen ones is also found in:
"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." Hebrews 11:13 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
May this be our prayer!
"Here I pause in my sojourning, giving thanks for having come,
come to trust, at every turning, God will guide me safely home.
Jesus sough me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God,
Came to rescue me from danger, precious presence, precious blood."
Robert Robinson (1735-1790), Calvinist Methodist preacher and hymn-writer. New Century Hymnal (1995). "Come, O Fount of Every Blessing," 1.5-8 (1758).
Here_I_pause_in_my_sojourning_giving_thanks. Dictionary.com. Columbia World of Quotations. Columbia University Press, 1996.
http://quotes.dictionary.com/Here_I_pause_in_my_sojourning_giving_thanks (accessed: August 14,2010.)
Until this year, I did not understand this idea of living temporarily for a time in a place, a stranger or alien in a foreign land. For the first time, I took notice of this beautiful concept of being a "sojourner" in 1 Peter 1:1.
Bible translations (King James, NIV, NASB, etc.) render the word differently: foreigners; strangers; scattered ones; aliens in a foreign land; people scattered by God; those from a foreign country who reside in a new land by the side of the native people; pilgrims; and God's chosen people who are temporary residents away from their true home.
As Christians, we are not permanent residents on this earth, but we are sojourners - we are strangers and exiles on this earth. We reside as aliens scattered throughout this world, but we are not of this world. Our true home, our native land, the one we yearn for or look to with deep homesickness is heaven. Heaven is our native country.
Pouring our money, talents, energies, and time into the "stuff" of this world, with the mindset that they are permanent, is succumbing to worldliness. Becoming entrenched or obsessed with a love for these transitory tools is idolatry.
"Our homeland is in heaven, and we are waiting for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven. By His power to rule all things, He will change our humble bodies and make them like His own glorious body." Philippians 3:20-21 New Century Version
"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body." Philippians 3:20-21 NIV
"But there's far more to life for us. We're citizens of high heaven! We're waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthly bodies into glorious bodies like His own. He'll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which He is putting everything as it should be, under and around Him." Philippians 3:20-21 the Message
This Greek word for God's scattered chosen ones is also found in:
"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." Hebrews 11:13 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
May this be our prayer!
"Here I pause in my sojourning, giving thanks for having come,
come to trust, at every turning, God will guide me safely home.
Jesus sough me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God,
Came to rescue me from danger, precious presence, precious blood."
Robert Robinson (1735-1790), Calvinist Methodist preacher and hymn-writer. New Century Hymnal (1995). "Come, O Fount of Every Blessing," 1.5-8 (1758).
Here_I_pause_in_my_sojourning_giving_thanks. Dictionary.com. Columbia World of Quotations. Columbia University Press, 1996.
http://quotes.dictionary.com/Here_I_pause_in_my_sojourning_giving_thanks (accessed: August 14,2010.)
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