Exiles on Earth

Yesterday as I was packing up a few more things, I found this quote from John Piper about our present "world system."

We must cultivate the mindset of exiles. What this does mainly is sober us up and wake us up so that we don't drift with the world and take for granted that the way the world thinks and acts is the best way. We don't assume that what is on TV is helpful to the soul; we don't assume that the priorities of advertisers are helpful to the soul; we don't assume that the strategies and values of business and industry are helpful to the soul. We don't assume that any of this glorifies God. We stop and we think and we consult the Wisdom of our own country, heaven, and we don't assume that the conventional wisdom of this age is God's wisdom. We get our bearings from God in his Word.

When you see yourself as an alien and an exile with your citizenship in heaven, and God as your only Sovereign, you stop drifting with the current of the day. You ponder what is good for the soul and what honors God in everything: food, cars, videos, bathing suits, birth control, driving speeds, bed times, financial savings, education for the children, unreached peoples, famine, refugee camps, sports, death, and everything else. Aliens get their cue from God and not the world.

I realize we are living more and more as exiles on earth.  At times, it feels odd.  At others, it feels isolating.  But it feels right.   Lord, help us to continue drawing from your wisdom for everything.  May every decision be based on what brings You the glory due your name.

With our time...may we bring you glory.
With our resources...may we bring you glory.
With our choices...may we bring you glory.
With the training of our boys...may we bring you glory.
With our words...may we bring you glory.
In every relationship...may we bring you glory.
In every aspect of our life...may we bring you glory.

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

1 Peter 2:11-12