May the mumbling commence!
I am Matt, and I am an extra-terrestrial. Yes, I was physically born in the United States. However, I was born again about twenty years ago. I love the country into which I was born, but it is no longer my home country. I am looking forward to the coming country ruled by the loving and living Lord Jesus.
Do you have an alien status, too? Or are you ready to sing “God Bless America”? Read from Jesus’ prayer in John chapter seventeen:
"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you gave me – so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” (Verses 6-19)
While “God Bless America” is fine, it does not go quite far enough. How can we try (unsuccessfully) to limit God to any one nation or people? Israel once tried to conceive of the Lord as a God only of Israel – and they were wrong. Why would America be any different?
When Jesus calls us and we answer his call, we are called out of the world. We are no longer citizens of the United States or Mexico or Canada or England or Germany or Egypt or Russia or China… Well, I think you get the idea. Our ultimate allegiance belongs to the kingdom of God.
This allegiance does not mean that we do not love our country we live in. We are called to pray for our country – our fates on this earth are tied up with it. But any country formed by humanity is temporal by definition. No matter how great your earthly country is or is becoming, it will come to an end.
Only the country ruled by the Lord Jesus is eternal. The kingdom of God will last forever and be of the highest quality. It will be even better than we can dream or imagine. And this kingdom unites us across all boundaries that people have arbitrarily established – be they country borders or economic strata or ethnic groups. All of these boundaries disappear in the light of Jesus, the Word of God.
Christians are not of this world because of continually knowing the Word of God – Jesus Christ. And the Word of God is truth. Yes, we march to the beat of a different drummer. Let us steep ourselves in this truth so that we may be one in Christ Jesus and so that we may be truly sanctified.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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