Last weekend found me in a foreign land - Canada.
And it was not just any part of Canada - I was in French speaking Quebec. I do not speak Quebecois. The Quebecois do not speak Texan.
When I am in Canada, I always feel out of place. The language (even in English Canada) is different. The currency is different. The customs are different. The laws are different. I have to look at a different portion of the speedometer.
I know that I do not belong there and there is always a sense of relief when I successfully cross the border back into my own country.
The writer of the Book of Hebrews states or certain believers:
"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."
Peter writes:
"Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;"
Some modern writers use the word "aliens" instead of pilgrims, but the idea is the same. This world is not our permanent home. If you belong to the Master, you are a stranger here. You long to be in your own country. You do not become too attached to this temporary abode.
Like Abraham, you look "for a city ... whose builder and maker is God."
Let none of us who name Him as our Saviour become too attached to this world, lest, like Lot's wife, we have the wrong affections.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Hurricanes
The weekend of September 13 was memorable. A great hurricane came to Houston.
On Thursday I was bound for Houston, but my company diverted me, along with a number of other drivers who were Houston bound, to Dallas. My wife, children, and disabled brother-in-law fled from Houston. They were rejected at their first stopping place, and wound up split between the homes of my brother and my sister in Dallas. Since there was no freight originating in Dallas, I spent Saturday and Sunday with my family while my company paid me (company policy applied). This, I felt, was beyond coincidence.
Tuesday my family returned to our home. Many trees were down, but the house was untouched. Only a large tree limb (over eight inches in diameter at the base) lay across the top of the carport. The limb was later removed.
But it gets better. Parts of our neighborhood would be without electricity for weeks, yet when my wife and children returned, we had electricity. There was no electricity to the north, south or west, but we had electricity.
But it gets better. My wife has a horse in the back yard area. The fence was down. I thought: "the horse will be gone but at least my wife and children are safe". The horse was standing in the fenced area when my family returned.
I understand that God is in charge. I understand that many Christian people lost their homes. I understand that had we lost our home, He would still provide.
Yet I thank and praise God for His great mercy, kindness and provision!
Jeremiah, a man with whom I look forward to speaking, had to witness the destruction of his beloved Jerusalem. He wrote:
It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed,
because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning:
great is thy faithfulness.
On Thursday I was bound for Houston, but my company diverted me, along with a number of other drivers who were Houston bound, to Dallas. My wife, children, and disabled brother-in-law fled from Houston. They were rejected at their first stopping place, and wound up split between the homes of my brother and my sister in Dallas. Since there was no freight originating in Dallas, I spent Saturday and Sunday with my family while my company paid me (company policy applied). This, I felt, was beyond coincidence.
Tuesday my family returned to our home. Many trees were down, but the house was untouched. Only a large tree limb (over eight inches in diameter at the base) lay across the top of the carport. The limb was later removed.
But it gets better. Parts of our neighborhood would be without electricity for weeks, yet when my wife and children returned, we had electricity. There was no electricity to the north, south or west, but we had electricity.
But it gets better. My wife has a horse in the back yard area. The fence was down. I thought: "the horse will be gone but at least my wife and children are safe". The horse was standing in the fenced area when my family returned.
I understand that God is in charge. I understand that many Christian people lost their homes. I understand that had we lost our home, He would still provide.
Yet I thank and praise God for His great mercy, kindness and provision!
Jeremiah, a man with whom I look forward to speaking, had to witness the destruction of his beloved Jerusalem. He wrote:
It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed,
because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning:
great is thy faithfulness.
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