How To Live As A Traveler | Christians Are Resident Aliens

The Christian is also a pilgrim, traveling through this world to God’s House, i.e. heaven. This life, this world is only temporary but the true Christian is passing through this foreign land on his way to the eternal city of God. Like the Israelites of ancient times, we too long for the presence of God and fellowship of God’s people. Meanwhile, believers must endure the presence of unbelievers, hardship, and distance. What about you? Are you in the Christian life for the entire journey? Are you willing to be a stranger in a strange land, as it were? Eugene Peterson: “…The Hebrews were a people whose salvation had been accomplished in the exodus, whose identity had been defined at Sinai, and whose preservation had been assured in the forty years of wilderness wandering. As such a people, they regularly climbed the road to Jerusalem to worship. They refreshed their memories of God’s saving ways at the Feast of Passover in the spring; they renewed their commitments as God’s covenant people at the Feast of Pentecost in early summer; they responded as a blessed community to the best that God had for them at the Feast of Tabernacles in the autumn. They were a redeemed people, a commanded people, a blessed people. These foundational realities were preached and taught and praised at the annual feasts. Between the feasts, the people lived these realities in daily discipleship until the time came to go up to the mountain city as pilgrims to renew the covenant.” A Long Obedience In The Same Direction, p. 18-19. In Psalm 120 the writer cries out to God for the blessings of knowing God. He asks the Lord for the spiritual realities that make being a pilgrim in a strange land possible. Perhaps you feel like a foreigner, a traveler, passing through this world. Have you sent home many blessed saints and know long to see them again? Does this strange land seem more and more foreign to you as the years pass? Then you need to ask God for the same things that the Psalmist did. Through these God will sustain us through the journey of life so that we arrive in His kingdom. How can we live for Jesus' Kingdom and behave as travelers or resident aliens through this world? Join Pastor Scott as he discusses this from Psalm 120.