In a Foreign Land

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.