Resident Aliens One and All; Psalm 87, Proverbs 3

May the mumbling commence!

My name is Matt, and I am a resident alien.  What?!?  Aren’t you a resident alien? 

Think about this question: Where were you born?  On the surface, it seems to be a straightforward question that many of us can answer and prove with our birth certificates.  However, for a Christian, the question is a little more complex.  Christians are born again into new life. 

Where does this new birth take place?  While we think about that question, let us read Psalm eighty-seven:

His foundation is in the holy mountains. 

The Lord loves the gates of Zion

More than all the dwellings of Jacob. 

Glorious things are spoken of you,

O city of God! Selah 

“I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those who know Me;

Behold, O Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia:

'This one was born there.' " 

And of Zion it will be said,

"This one and that one were born in her;

And the Most High Himself shall establish her." 

The Lord will record,

When He registers the peoples:

"This one was born there." Selah 

Both the singers and the players on instruments say,

"All my springs are in you." 

Regardless of the country in which you were born, when you receive baptism and become born again, you are born into the presence of the Lord.  You are born into the city of God – the heavenly Zion.  That heavenly city falls under the jurisdiction of no country or nation or people or republic.

When we receive Christ and become a part of his adoptive family, the Lord will say of us, “This one was born there.”  All that we are springs from the city of God.  Let us sing and rejoice.  We are resident aliens – no matter the country of our birth or where we call home.  We look with longing on the heavenly city of God that has come and is coming.

And may we show that longing by eschewing the oppressive ways of this world.  Read from Proverbs chapter three:

Do not envy the oppressor,

And choose none of his ways; 

For the perverse person is an abomination to the LORD,

But His secret counsel is with the upright. (Verses 31-32)

Transform the oppressor and the oppressed into rightful relationships.  Both suffer from the adverse affects of the atmosphere of fear, mistrust, and misunderstanding. 

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out