this<\/em> world. Our spirits (the important part of us) were made to last forever. Actually, it was originally intended that our bodies lasted forever too, but we broke that part of us a long time ago.<\/p>\nThat brings up my other reason why, in order to thrive during tough times in this world, we need to consider ourselves residents, but not citizens. Like our bodies, originally intended to live forever, this world is broken too. It began dying when sin came into the creation.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to understand the difference between \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthe world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> as a system – a way of seeing things and a way of behaving \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthe world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> as this earth, part of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s creation, just like our bodies are part of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s creation \u00e2\u20ac\u201c even though they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re both broken right now.<\/p>\nOur bodies and the earth itself suffer from living under the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s system \u00e2\u20ac\u201c sin. Sin can be defined as exerting your own purpose and will above the purpose and will of your Creator<\/em>. It started with an angel named Lucifer and he conned our great-great grandparents Adam and Eve into the same sin. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the system we all live under now \u00e2\u20ac\u201c if<\/em> we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re citizens of this world.<\/p>\nBefore Jesus provided a way out of the broken condition we and this planet live under by paying for what we broke, there wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t any way not<\/em> to be a citizen of this world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s system \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a choice. But he came here from heaven to be born and live as a man in the midst of this world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s system and then gave himself as the only possible sacrifice that would pay the price required to eventually restore, in us and on the earth, what had been broken.<\/p>\nHis death and resurrection opened up a path for us to die spiritually, renouncing our citizenship in this world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s system and be reborn into God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kingdom, taking on the citizenship of that world. For the time being our bodies are stuck here, residents of this world, but not citizens of its system. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re waiting patiently for things to be restored to their intended state when Jesus comes back to this planet to rightfully claim what he paid for 2,000 years ago. Not only will this earth undergo a restoration that will take it through the next thousand years, our old dead bodies will be swapped for new bodies that, according to their original intent, will never die.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> (Romans 8:22-23)<\/p>\nThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why treating this world as your home is like putting up drapes and hanging pictures on the walls of a ratty old bus station and forgetting that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re only there to wait for your bus. Wake up! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a ratty old bus station; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not your home. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not a citizen of the bus station; you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just here waiting for a ride. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cling to the plastic bench and call it home.<\/p>\n
Thriving in tough times \u00e2\u20ac\u201c down here at the bus station \u00e2\u20ac\u201c begins by remembering it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a bus station. Remember too, that the One who has you at this station has promised to provide for you while you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re here. Sure, the bus station has its own way of doing things, but you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not a citizen of the bus station; while you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re here, live under the laws of the country you belong to.<\/p>\n
By considering your work here and everything you possess as a stewardship to the One who really owns it, your time spent here will be far superior to living under the rules of the station. And stay away from the station\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy credit policy<\/em>; the last thing you need is to be indebted to a ratty old bus station.<\/p>\nAnd don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think for a minute that spending time waiting at the bus station is some sort of cosmic accident. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re here for a purpose; make use of your time. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a pretty good chance that the person picking out curtains and pillow shams on the bench next to you isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t aware that this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t her home. You might want to share with her that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bus coming and this is just a waypoint.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s household \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> (Ephesians 2:19)<\/p>\n*****<\/p>\n
What we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll cover next week? I have no idea. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll go ask.<\/p>\n
Until then, remember your citizenship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Philippians 3:20) Since this is the last week of our Thriving in Tough Times series, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been reading over the last ten letters (the whole series) in order to review what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve covered and come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,458],"tags":[510,436,509,472,295,467,508,237,435,437],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotpotential.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}