We are sojourners, aliens, pilgrims, foreigners and settlers here on earth, irrespective of our race or religious affiliation. Seeing yourself as one of the above will simplify your life. Acquiring material wealth will not be by all means – crooked or right ways. Position will not matter to you more than a tool to serve God and fulfill his counsel.
We all have a very short time here. How do you see life? Unending? What is your attitude towards life? The brothers of Joseph said, “We have come to sojourn in the land,” (Gen. 47:4). i.e. to make a living in this land, and afterward we will return to our land. Do you have a special place to return to after the expiration of your sojourning in this place? One thing is certain, you will surely exit this world one day, and you will definitely go somewhere. Where? Heaven or hell, of course. The choice is yours.
FEATURES OF PILGRIMS
Hebrews 11:9, 10, 13-16 (NKJV)
9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as [in] a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker [is] God.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced [them] and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.
15 And truly if they had called to mind that [country] from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly [country]. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
Heb 13:14 (KJV) For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
They live by faith, holding on to God’s promises.
They see afar off
They are hopeful
They look for a new city
They are not bothered by where they live but are concerned with where they are going.
They fear God. “And remember that the heavenly father to whom you pray has no favourites when He judges. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of Him during your time as a foreigner here on earth” 1Pet.1:17 (NLT).
They never compromise high standard of holiness. Joseph in Egypt refused to sleep with his master’s wife. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow to the golden statue.
They live a simple life (not do die affair)
And Abimelech asked Isaac to leave the country, ‘Go somewhere else,’ he said, “For you have become too rich and powerful for us.” So Isaac moved to the Gerar Valley and lived there instead. He reopened the wells his father had dug,… His shepherds also dug in the Gerar Valley and found a gushing spring. But the local shepherds came and claimed the spring. “This is our water,” they said, Isaac’s men then dug another well, but again there was a fight over it. Abandoning that one, he dug another well, and the local people finally left him alone…, Gen. 26:16-22 (NLT)
How old are you? How far have you spent the days of your pilgrimage? What account can you give of yourself? Do you actually seek a continuing city? The time is far spent. The night is approaching fast. Prepare to go home. As the Prophet says, “People are like grass that dies away; their beauty fades as quickly as the beauty of wildflowers. The grass withers, and the flowers fall away”
BE WISE
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
LIFE AS A PILGRIMAGE (PART 2)
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DAYS
They are few
Though he had now lived one hundred and thirty years, they seemed to him as a few days, in comparison of the days of eternity, in which a thousand years are but as one day, Psalm 89:47, 2Peter 3:8.
They were evil
This is true concerning man in general. Joh 16:33 (BBE) I have said all these things to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble: but take heart! I have overcome the world.
Job 14:1 (NKJV) "Man [who is] born of woman Is of few days and full of trouble.
Job 5:7 (BBE) But trouble is man's fate from birth, as the flames go up from the fire.
Ec 2:23 (BBE) All his days are sorrow, and his work is full of grief. Even in the night his heart has no rest. This again is to no purpose.
Jacob's life particularly had been made up of evil days. Along the journey of life, he encountered many life's difficulties but he overcome them. In the present age, we are not immuned to these challenges we face them daily.
But what is our attitude to them? How we handle them determines by and large whether we will be victor or victim. Life is indeed a warfare and not a funfare. In Jesus only we can have victory and peace.
Jas 1:2 (NKJV) My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
Jas 1:12 (RSV) Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.
1Cor 10:13 (TCNT) No temptation has come upon you that is not common to all mankind. God will not fail you, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength; but, when he sends the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, so that you may have strength to endure.
They were short of the days of his fathers
Jacob at that time was one hundred and thirty years old, Isaac his father lived for one hundred and eighty years (Gen.35:28); and Abraham his grandfather, one hundred and seventy five years (Gen 25:7). Jacob's life, not so many, not so pleasant as their days. Old age came sooner upon him than some of his ancestors.
How old are you?
The days of the years of my pilgrimage... A pilgrimage is a journey to a place with special significance. Jacob had always lived a migratory or wandering life, in different parts of Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, scarcely ever at rest; and in the places where he lived longest, he was always exposed to the fatiques of the field and desert. He calls his life a pilgrimage, looking upon himself as a stranger, a sojourner in this world, and a traveller towards another. He reckoned himself not only a pilgrim now he was in Egypt, a strange country in which he never was before but a journey through this world to another. As character is the chief thing, our great concern should be that it may be such as shall reder us most useful and fit us for heaven.
1Ch 29:15 (WEB) For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no abiding.
1Ch 29:15 (YLT) for sojourners we [are] before Thee, and settlers, like all our fathers; as a shadow [are] our days on the land, and there is none abiding.
1Ch 29:15 (NKJV) For we [are] aliens and pilgrims before You, As [were] all our fathers; Our days on earth [are] as a shadow, And without hope.
Ps 39:12 (KJV) Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I [am] a stranger with thee, [and] a sojourner, as all my fathers [were].
Ps 119:19 (KJV) I [am] a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.
Ps 119:54 (KJV) Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
Ex 6:4 (KJV) And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.
They are few
Though he had now lived one hundred and thirty years, they seemed to him as a few days, in comparison of the days of eternity, in which a thousand years are but as one day, Psalm 89:47, 2Peter 3:8.
They were evil
This is true concerning man in general. Joh 16:33 (BBE) I have said all these things to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble: but take heart! I have overcome the world.
Job 14:1 (NKJV) "Man [who is] born of woman Is of few days and full of trouble.
Job 5:7 (BBE) But trouble is man's fate from birth, as the flames go up from the fire.
Ec 2:23 (BBE) All his days are sorrow, and his work is full of grief. Even in the night his heart has no rest. This again is to no purpose.
Jacob's life particularly had been made up of evil days. Along the journey of life, he encountered many life's difficulties but he overcome them. In the present age, we are not immuned to these challenges we face them daily.
But what is our attitude to them? How we handle them determines by and large whether we will be victor or victim. Life is indeed a warfare and not a funfare. In Jesus only we can have victory and peace.
Jas 1:2 (NKJV) My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
Jas 1:12 (RSV) Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.
1Cor 10:13 (TCNT) No temptation has come upon you that is not common to all mankind. God will not fail you, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength; but, when he sends the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, so that you may have strength to endure.
They were short of the days of his fathers
Jacob at that time was one hundred and thirty years old, Isaac his father lived for one hundred and eighty years (Gen.35:28); and Abraham his grandfather, one hundred and seventy five years (Gen 25:7). Jacob's life, not so many, not so pleasant as their days. Old age came sooner upon him than some of his ancestors.
How old are you?
The days of the years of my pilgrimage... A pilgrimage is a journey to a place with special significance. Jacob had always lived a migratory or wandering life, in different parts of Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, scarcely ever at rest; and in the places where he lived longest, he was always exposed to the fatiques of the field and desert. He calls his life a pilgrimage, looking upon himself as a stranger, a sojourner in this world, and a traveller towards another. He reckoned himself not only a pilgrim now he was in Egypt, a strange country in which he never was before but a journey through this world to another. As character is the chief thing, our great concern should be that it may be such as shall reder us most useful and fit us for heaven.
1Ch 29:15 (WEB) For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no abiding.
1Ch 29:15 (YLT) for sojourners we [are] before Thee, and settlers, like all our fathers; as a shadow [are] our days on the land, and there is none abiding.
1Ch 29:15 (NKJV) For we [are] aliens and pilgrims before You, As [were] all our fathers; Our days on earth [are] as a shadow, And without hope.
Ps 39:12 (KJV) Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I [am] a stranger with thee, [and] a sojourner, as all my fathers [were].
Ps 119:19 (KJV) I [am] a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.
Ps 119:54 (KJV) Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
Ex 6:4 (KJV) And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.
LIFE AS A PILGRIMAGE (PART 1)
Then Joseph made his father come before Pharaoh, and Jacob gave his blessing. And Pharaoh said to him, "How old are you"? Genesis 47:7-8(BBE).
When the family of Jacob arrived in Egpt, the Prime Minister then in the person of Joseph, who incidentally was the eleventh son of Jacob presented his brothers to Pharaoh the king of the Land. Afterward he brought his father before the king. Jacob blessed Pharaoh-the less is blessed by the greater; Jacob has more spiritual authority than the king. After exchanging pleasantries and blesings, Pharaoh asked Jacob, how old are you? In other words, how many are the days of the years of your life? What could have prompted this thought-provoking question? Probably his age; his look arising from the stress of the journey to Egypt; the problems he was passing through; the shock of discovering that Joseph is alive and he was living true to his dreams. Jacob's countenance no doubt shewed him to be old, for he had been a man of labour and sorrow. In Egypt people were not so long-lived as in Canaan, and therefore Pharaoh looked upon Jacob with wonder. He looked so aged that Pharaoh was wondering how, how old could this be? Is this the father of this wonder man called Joseph?
What dictate your mood or countenance? You should not allow what you are passing through to dictate your mood. Cheer up! Learn to cast your burden upon Jesus, remember, He cares for you. Though He slays me yet I will praise Him. Stop celebrating problems. See them as challenges. Celebrate Jesus. The joy that is set before us weighs more than whatever challenges we may facing as at the moment.
And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage, Genesis 47:9 (ASV).
Jacob made this profound statement regarding his life on this part of the planet Earth.
The days of the years...
He reckons his life by days; for even so it soon reckoned, and we are not sure of the continuance of it for a day to an end, but may be turned out of this tabernacle at less than an hour warning.
Ps 39:5 (NKJV) Indeed, You have made my days [as] handbreadths, And my age [is] as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state [is] but vapour.
Jas 4:14 (WEB) Whereas you don't know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
Job 14:1 (ASV) Man, that is born of a woman, Is of few days, and full of trouble.
When the family of Jacob arrived in Egpt, the Prime Minister then in the person of Joseph, who incidentally was the eleventh son of Jacob presented his brothers to Pharaoh the king of the Land. Afterward he brought his father before the king. Jacob blessed Pharaoh-the less is blessed by the greater; Jacob has more spiritual authority than the king. After exchanging pleasantries and blesings, Pharaoh asked Jacob, how old are you? In other words, how many are the days of the years of your life? What could have prompted this thought-provoking question? Probably his age; his look arising from the stress of the journey to Egypt; the problems he was passing through; the shock of discovering that Joseph is alive and he was living true to his dreams. Jacob's countenance no doubt shewed him to be old, for he had been a man of labour and sorrow. In Egypt people were not so long-lived as in Canaan, and therefore Pharaoh looked upon Jacob with wonder. He looked so aged that Pharaoh was wondering how, how old could this be? Is this the father of this wonder man called Joseph?
What dictate your mood or countenance? You should not allow what you are passing through to dictate your mood. Cheer up! Learn to cast your burden upon Jesus, remember, He cares for you. Though He slays me yet I will praise Him. Stop celebrating problems. See them as challenges. Celebrate Jesus. The joy that is set before us weighs more than whatever challenges we may facing as at the moment.
And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage, Genesis 47:9 (ASV).
Jacob made this profound statement regarding his life on this part of the planet Earth.
The days of the years...
He reckons his life by days; for even so it soon reckoned, and we are not sure of the continuance of it for a day to an end, but may be turned out of this tabernacle at less than an hour warning.
Ps 39:5 (NKJV) Indeed, You have made my days [as] handbreadths, And my age [is] as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state [is] but vapour.
Jas 4:14 (WEB) Whereas you don't know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
Job 14:1 (ASV) Man, that is born of a woman, Is of few days, and full of trouble.
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