A shipwrecked sailor spent nearly three years alone on a deserted island. One morning he was overjoyed to see a ship in the bay and a boat putting out to shore. As the boat grounded, an officer got out, approached him, and handed him a stack of newspapers from his home country. The officer said: “The captain has requested that you take some time to read these and then let us know if you STILL wish to be rescued.”

          In Philippians 3:20, Paul writes, "For our citizenship is in heaven,  from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ."

          We often sing that, “…This world is not my home.” In Hebrews 11:13, the writer of Hebrews speaks of those “heroes” of the faith listed in the chapter and says, "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." Likewise, Peter says to his audience, "Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul," (1 Peter 2:11).

          Christians have their hearts set on the things above (Colossians 3:1-2). We, as soldiers, do not “entangle” ourselves in the things of this life and this world, because we are here to accomplish a short term mission (2 Timothy 2:4). When the Marines, soldiers, airmen, and seamen went to Iraq to fight the war of “Enduring Freedom,” they knew that Iraq would not become their home. It very well became for some the place where they gave their lives in service of their country, but Iraq was never their home.

          The Bible tells us this about our relationship with this world:

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever," (1 John 2:15-17).

          Do you know Christians that are far more attached to this world than they are the next? Why would a Christian take his/her eyes off of heaven in pursuit of the things of this life? Have we deceived our-selves into thinking that we can live for this life, this world, and then go to heaven in the end?

          We have all heard the comment by the young lad in Bible class who said he wanted to be: “...like the rich man (of Luke 16) when I am alive,  and Lazarus when I die…” The very point of Luke 16 is that we cannot choose both of those lives to live in combination as one life.

          If this world is TRULY not our home, then we must act as strangers, sojourners, and pilgrims here.

          "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee."  

                                                                    - 2 Corinthians 4:17-5:5