aliens

May 16, 2018

Keep Focused On Our Eternal Home

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13 All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 
​- Hebrews 11:13 NLT
​Hebrews 11:13-16 NLT
We, like the prophets and leaders of the past, should consider ourselves foreigners and aliens here on earth.  We need to hold onto the things of earth very lightly and be ready to let them go at the slightest urge of the Holy Spirit. God puts people in our path and gives us resources for a reason and a season.  The why, what, when and where are His prerogative.  Our love for Him requires us to allow Him to use us for whatever purpose and plan He has for us. It is our “reasonable sacrifice” to mortify our flesh and focus on Jesus.  We walk in faith and live in the hope that we are headed for a country and a city not made with human hands.  We have confidence in our hope because it is based on the same faith that Jesus had that He would be resurrected.  Because of His resurrection and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are assured that our hope is not just wishful thinking but a fact guaranteed by our Lord and Savior.13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. —Ephesians 1;13-14 NIV

When soldiers are fighting a battle in a foreign land, the hope that keeps them going is the thoughts of returning home. They talk often of the day they will be leaving their post and you can believe there are smiles on their faces during those conversations.  We should live our lives with that same anticipation of the fulfillment of every promise of God realizing that the joy we have when we receive earthly blessings are only small samples of the joy we will have when we get home.

 

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

Post 05-16-2018

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April 17, 2018

“Out of Darkness”

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9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9 NLT
 
Strangers NLT
We were born in sin into a world filled with the darkness of sin. Some of us spent more years than others stumbling through the darkness thinking we could make it on our own.  Then the Holy Spirit called us out of darkness and into the wonderful light of Jesus Christ. It was then and only then, that we realized our inability to even walk upright without God’s help.  As new creations, we realized that we were foreigners and aliens in this world. Our fleshly desires had held us in bonds and chains, now we are free to live the good lives that God has called us to live. It should be our heart’s desire to please God in every way, every day. We are in a war and there is no neutral ground.  There is no standing still, if we aren’t making progress everyday, we are regressing. When we are in love with someone, we want to spend time alone with them. God is in love with each of us and He is overjoyed when we choose to spend time alone with Him. The time we spend with Jesus is the way we get the strength to wage the war. If we don’t spend time preparing for the battle, we will be defeated daily, even though the war was won at the Cross. Spend a minute with God right now and often throughout the day. He will give you peace in the middle of the chaos and strength to wage the war.


“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

Post 04-17-2018

April 14, 2018

Good News!

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19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. – 1 Peter 1:19 NLT

1 Peter 1:17-20 NLT

There is nothing that we can offer to God that is acceptable for our redemption. Before the creation of the world, the price for our salvation was agreed upon by the Trinity. Nothing less than a sacrificial Lamb without blemish would be acceptable. In the Old Testament, the lamb had to be sacrificed over and over. In the New Testament, the perfect Lamb is sacrificed once for all sins of all times, past, present and future.


25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.— Hebrews 9:25-26 NIV

His work is finished. We, as Christians, have a work to do that will not be finished until the end of this age. We are foreigners, aliens and ambassadors here on earth. Our work is to spread the Good News that Jesus Christ has died and rose again to seal our redemption.

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous
Post 04-14-2018
January 11, 2018

Aliens in This World – Citizens of Heaven

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26 But the other woman, Sarah, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. She is the free woman, and she is our mother. – Gal. 4:26 NLT
Gal. 4:21 -26 NLT

As we have seen in the earlier verses, the Jewish leaders have been trying to convince the new converts to return to the old Jewish traditions. Paul is making the point here that they need to consider the hardships and severity of the law before they turn back to it. He is using the birth of Issac and Ishmael to demonstrate the difference in natural and spiritual things. Those that return to worldly things (the natural Jerusalem) are still in slavery to those things. But since Issac was born to fulfill a divine promise, there is now a choice that we can make. We can follow the fleshly lineage and remain slaves or we can follow the divine lineage, accept Jesus and become citizens of the Jerusalem which is above.
20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ​, 21 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.–Phil. 3:20 (NIV)
But one day, the New Jerusalem will come down to earth and all those that have chosen the divine lineage (Jesus) will be citizens of the New Jerusalem.
I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband—Rev.21:2 (NIV)

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” -Anonymous

Post 01-11-2018

July 1, 2017

Be The Light on Your Corner

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6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did. ​ – 1 John 2:6 NLT


The religious leader asked Jesus: ” What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus answered with two commandments instead of one. Jesus said to love the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. He went on to say that all the law hinged on these two commandments. God has put His light in us to light the world and dispel darkness. The way we let our light shine is to obey these two commandments. We must spend time with Jesus to get to know Him better so we can love Him better, Then, by loving our neighbors, we demonstrate the love of God in our lives. When we accepted Jesus, we became aliens to this world and citizens of heaven. As ambassadors of heaven, we represent Jesus. It is our duty to reconcile others to Christ by giving them the Good News. We want to wait for some big thing to do, but we shouldn’t wait for grand opportunities. Start by doing a good deed today and you will give life and light to someone. As the old song says:

 
Do not wait until some deed of greatness you may do,
Do not wait to shed your light afar,
To the many duties ever near you now be true,
Brighten the corner where you are.

Ina D. Ogdon, 1913


“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” -Anonymous

07-01-2014

October 19, 2016

Chosen to Serve

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9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. — 1 Peter 2:9 NLT
 

What was/is God’s purpose in choosing us, making us royal priests, holy and special? God doesn’t need our abilities to accomplish His purpose. But He desires our availability to work with Him in bringing His plans to fulfillment. Could He do it without us? Yes, but He wants to fellowship with each of us. So, He paid the full price of our redemption. He sent Light into this world to push back the darkness. That Light was Jesus Christ. When we were in slavery to sin, we were nobodies, we were not a people. But God, in His great mercy chose us, picked us up, cleaned us inside and out and put His marvelous Light inside us. Once we become a child of God, we are no longer citizens of this world, we are aliens and foreigners here. But we still have to live here for a while. As long as we are here, our flesh will be tempted to do wrong. But we are to live a lifestyle that reflects the life of Jesus Christ so that He will receive glory. We are free from the flesh, but bound by God’s Holy Spirit.  We will have troubles here but our response should be to rejoice forevermore. This will cause others to ask us what is the hope that lies in us and causes our joy. We should always have a ready answer for that question. That answer should always give glory to God and magnify the name of Jesus.

16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.  — 1 Thess. 5:16-18 NLT
Post 10-19-2016
September 26, 2015

Our Job Description

even-smaller-bug-light118 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. — 2 Cor. 5:18-21 NIV

​When we ​accepted Christ as our Savior, we were born again and became new creations clothed in the righteousness of Christ.  All of this is a gift from God because He wanted us to be reconciled to Him.  He had made us in His image to have fellowship with Him. Sin had broken that relationship. God fixed the relationship by sending His Son as the perfect sacrifice.  He no longer sees us as sinners, but as the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Once we are reconciled to Him, we become His ambassadors here on this earth. We are aliens living in a foreign country. As His ambassador, God wants to use us to make His appeal to others.  For that to happen, we need to talk to others about our country, Heaven, and about our King,  Jesus Christ.  That is what ambassadors do.  They tell others the good things about their country in the hope that their leaders will gain favor in the eyes of the other peoples.  So, as God’s ambassadors, we are to tell His story in the hope that the other people will want to know Him.  The BIG difference is that, in this case, each person does have to choose and their are only two choices.   We will all soon be leaving this country and there are only two destinations and they are permanent.  One is hell and one is Heaven.  It is our duty as ambassadors to spend our time and resources in getting people to make the right choice.  Today is the day of salvation. Jesus is our example and here, in His own words, is the job description He gave for Himself and for us as ambassadors.
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,  because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,19  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” — Luke 4:18, 19  NIV
Post 09-26-2015
September 10, 2015

High Profit Plus Rewards

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14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. 15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. — Hebrews 13:1​4​-16 NIV

​We are foreigners and aliens here on earth​ this is not our home. We are citizens of heaven. God has chosen to leave us here for a while to be ambassadors for Christ.
 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. — 2 Cor. 5:2​0 NIV
An ambassador is a person who has been sent from his home country to a foreign country as an official representative. God has chosen each of us, individually and specifically, to represent Him while we are here. A really good ambassador always speaks highly of his home country and its leader(s). In other words, he heaps praise upon them.  He does everything in his power to try to get visitors to come to his country.  That is our job. We want to get people to do more than visit our country (Heaven), we want them to stay for eternity. We do that by praising God continuously and telling others about the amazing love and grace of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.  We show them what a wonderful thing it is to accept Christ by our praise, prayers and our walk.  Jesus went about doing good and that is our example. We need to share with others and that takes time and effort.  God is extremely pleased when we sacrifice our time and resources to honor Him.  Investing our time and resources into harvesting a soul for Jesus is a high profit endeavor. The blessings will start here and the rewards will continue into eternity. There is no other investment that will pay those kind of high dividends for eternity. Practice being a good ambassador for Christ. The rewards are out of this world!
12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.– Rev. 22:12 KJV
Post 09-10-2015
August 2, 2015

Strangers and Aliens

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​​9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.— 1 Peter 2:9-12 NIV
We were born in sin into a world filled with the darkness of sin. Some of us spent more years than others stumbling through the darkness thinking we could make it on our own.  Then the Holy Spirit called us out of darkness and into the wonderful light of Jesus Christ. It was then and only then, that we realized our inability to even walk upright without God’s help.  As new creations, we realized that we were foreigners and aliens in this world. Our fleshly desires had held us in bonds and chains, now we are free to live the good lives that God has called us to live. It should be our heart’s desire to please God in every way, every day. We are in a war and there is no neutral ground.  There is no standing still, if we aren’t making progress everyday, we are regressing. When we are in love with someone, we want to spend time alone with them. God is in love with each of us and He is overjoyed when we choose to spend time alone with Him. The time we spend with Jesus is the way we get the strength to wage the war. If we don’t spend time preparing for the battle, we will be defeated daily, even though the war was won at the Cross. Spend a minute with God right now and often throughout the day. He will give you peace in the middle of the chaos and strength to wage the war..
Post 08-01-2015
September 11, 2014

We Must Walk Circumspectly

God is waiting to show you the Way.

God is waiting to show you the Way.

10 “Once you had no identity as a people;
now you are God’s people.
Once you received no mercy;
now you have received God’s mercy.”
11 Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. 12 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.—1 Peter 2:10-12 (NLT)
​Before we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we were just one in a mass of people. Now that we have accepted Him and because of God’s great mercy, we have been adopted into a family, the family of God. We now bear the name of Christ and our conduct should reflect our new identity. Just as a newborn baby is automatically a citizen of the country into which they are born, so are we citizens of heaven the very moment we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. The baby has all the rights and privileges afforded by that citizenship even though he/she is unable to take advantage of them at that moment. The same is true of a newborn babe in Christ Jesus. We have all the rights and privileges afforded the citizens of heaven. We are “citizens with the saints” .
19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.–Eph. 2:19 (NLT)
There is no waiting! We have all the rights of a citizen of heaven now! We need to walk carefully and be alert at all times because we do not want to embarrass our new family. We must be careful of the things we do and say so that outsiders will have no reason to speak negatively about our Lord and Savior. Our honorable behavior brings glory to God and his body, the Church.
Post 09-11-14