Ever since God placed it in my heart to named this blog after, from what I've heard, an incredible book that I STILL haven't read yet, I find that one word 'Eternity' to be particularly important. So today as we were listening to the words of Rev. Danny, one particular point stood out. He was talking about faith, and the qualities of faith, specifically on how true faith focuses on the eternal.
He quoted 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."
Just some background, the passage before it covers what is known as the Hall of Faith. Heroes from the Old Testament who are noted for their faith in God. These heroes, most of them died before seeing the destiny that they were working for. Abraham was promised descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, yet he only had 8 sons at the time of his death. That's the number of stars you see in a single Singapore night, hardly a generation. But here's the difference: he left his country, his home, even before he had a single son. He left seeing through eyes of faith, through faith in God's promise. The heroes of faith lived by faith, not by sight.
But more than that, it was the last part of the verse that caught my attention.
"And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth."
I find it funny the way that it's phrased. It's not 'and they realised that they were aliens and strangers on earth'. It's not 'and they had a sudden epiphany that they were aliens and strangers on earth'. It's written right there that they admitted it. And that means that they already were aliens, they just didn't admit that.
It's written thrice in the bible that we are 'aliens and strangers' in this world, and it says quite clearly that we're not quite meant to be in this world. I mean we are in it, we're just not of it. The God in us sets us apart, makes us consecrated. Jesus Himself said in John 15:19, in words that are so good I'm not gonna para-phrase them.
"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."
That's pretty much the reason. God loves us, chose us, pulled us out and made us a new creation in Him. And because we're different, we're no longer of the world.
But I don't think I've fully admitted that yet.
And I think many of us haven't either.
If we did, I don't think we'd try so hard to act like we weren't.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we should lock ourselves in our rooms for 6 hours a day and do nothing but read the Bible over and over and over again. Sure, we're told not to be of the world, but we are commanded to be in it. We'd be terrible evangelists if we became too heavenly for any earthly good. It's just that there's a fine line between understanding the culture of this generation and delving fully into it.
We aren't creatures of the temporal. As much as we would love to try, we've been brought to the knowledge of a life beyond. Even those who don't know Christ can agree with me when I say that there are those moments in our lives where we just stop to ponder what life is all about, our purpose, and what happens beyond. As King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:11, "He has set Eternity in the hearts of men". Something inside us just tells us, reminds us, every once in a while, that there's something beyond this life that we live.
We're new creations. We have Eternity set in our hearts and been blessed with knowledge of a love that will carry us through it. We're aliens and strangers in this world, and our eyes should be set on a far further destination. Let's be Driven by Eternity.