Live By A Different Standard-Preparing For 2018 (Part 4)

Hebrews 11:13“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.”

What the writer means is, all the heroes of faith lived and died without ever fully entering into what God had promised them. They were like sailors who saw the shoreline a great distance away, and stood at the rail waving and shouting and saying, “See, there it is! What a beautiful land! And look at all those people! They are waving back at us.” The sailors see the land, but their ship never reaches the shore. So they sail on, left with their memories of a harbor they never seem to reach.

We, as Christians, are aliens and strangers on earth. In our shrinking, flat, and increasingly crowded world, we are all continually reminded that “we aren’t from around here.”

-Getting on a bus in a strange city frightens us, so we look for someone who looks like us.

-Traveling in a large city overseas can be a scary experience if we don’t speak the language, and sometimes even if we do, especially when we see people looking at us, whispering to each other, sometimes laughing at us, sometimes pointing.

During a friend's last visit to Jerusalem they were accosted by a very angry man who began shouting at them, waving his arms, making various political statements, and uttering vague threats. Now that would be unnerving for anyone because you can’t engage a man like that in a discussion or things will quickly escalate. All you can do is keep walking and remember, “We’re not from around here.”

Christians are truly “not from around here.” That’s the whole point of Verse 13. We are from somewhere else, a realm not visible or touchable. We’ve got a green card that says, “Citizen of Heaven.” Sometimes life comes down to the tough-minded, not-gonna-turn-back-now decision to keep on following Jesus even when the world collapses around you. Sometimes that’s the best you can do, and I’m always in awe of people who can say, “I’m not giving up,” when quitting would be easier.

Hebrews 10:34 “For you knew you had a much more solid and lasting treasure in heaven.” (Phillips).

NKJV “...a better and enduring possession.” 

CEV “...because you knew you had something better, something that would last forever.”