ALIENS AND FINAL DESTINATIONS

ALIENS AND FINAL DESTINATIONS 

On July 8, 1947, the US Air Force announced that it had found a flying disc, and that disc was then put into the possession of the US Army. It was found in Roswell New Mexico and shipped to Ohio for further inspection. It was said to be made out of a weird tin foil like substance that you could crinkle up in your hand, but it would bounce back like nothing had ever touched it; completely devoid of crinkles. Of course, then the official story changed to it was just a crashed weather balloon. And those who believed otherwise were quickly called crazy. The lovely name "conspiracy theorist" didn't come about until 1963 after JFK was murdered. If you didn't believe the Warren Report, they labeled you with that moniker. I'm not saying that I'm a conspiracy theorist, but I know who the first one was...His name was Noah. He preached redemption and righteousness to the people of his town for 120 years while building a boat. And once the rain started to fall, crazy Noah all of a sudden didn't seem so crazy.

Ok Lori, you say, you normally talk about all things Jesus, why the conspiracy stuff? Well, I DO believe in aliens. Not the green kind or the ones with the big eye and skull like faces (personally, those remind me of the Sleestaks from the show Land Of the Lost). However, I do love the movie Independence Day. Think aliens are really that slimy? I digress... 

I have recently been studying in the book of 1 Peter. What a rich and challenging book to the believers! In chapter 2 verse 11, it says, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles (some translations say aliens and strangers), to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." Here's my breakdown of this verse: Hey guys! Live righteous, Godly lives even though you're in a hostile environment. I know you live in a cancel culture where saying the wrong thing or believing the wrong things can get you shut out of polite society, but hey- this isn't your final destination. When you invited Christ into your life, you got citizenship to heaven!! So remember, you're just passing through. Keep your head up and stay away from evil things that tempt you. And always do the honorable and right thing pointing people to God, because they are going to encounter Him. And when He visits them, they can remember your faithfulness to Him and His goodness to you so that they can accept Him as their savior and God will be glorified!

It reminds me of that 1983 Petra song, Not of this World:

We are pilgrims in a strange land

We are so far from our homeland

With each passing day it seems so clear

This world will never want us here

We're not welcome in this world of wrong

We are foreigners who don't belong

We are strangers, we are aliens

We are not of this world

And yet, how many times do we find ourselves wanting to conform to this world? It's so much easier to just blend in and not ruffle feathers and when sensitive topics come up around us; to just smile and nod our heads giving the appearance of accepting what society deems as "good" knowing that God says it's wrong? Why do we hide what we believe in because we are scared to be seen as something different? In the days of Noah, it was crazy off the hook sinful. And still he preached God to them and believed it was going to rain, even though they were living in a substantial drought for 120 years. It's not like he could hide the massive boat he was building behind him. And what about when he was gathering all the animals? I'm sure more than a few people questioned his sanity. But he was changed by God and put all his eggs in God's basket.  

I heard a message from a pastor friend a few weeks ago. He challenged those listening to make a mission statement for our lives. Of course, I have thought about how I want to live my life and definitely feel like I've been called to ministry. I know I want to be a great mom and a good friend, a polite neighbor and a productive citizen. So when I tried to encapsulate all those things together, what I came up with was this: I want to be more like Jesus.

I understand that Jesus was both God and man, and I'm just the man part, but He was so amazing, how can you NOT want to be like Him? Not only did He not conform to this sinful world, He had an amazing way of loving and including everyone. He was the perfect balance of grace and truth. Life wasn't easy for Him, and most Biblical scholars think his dad died at some point, so the greatest thing I struggle with, He has struggled with too. He is not some random "god" that sits in heaven just to pass judgement on us. He actually lived in this crazy world, was tempted to conform to it, but chose not to. His love for us was so great that He put what was tempting and sure to bring pleasure to Himself (for a while) aside to live completely sinless, knowing that was the only way for us to get to heaven. Remember this: when God puts boundaries around your life, it's not because He is wanting to punish you. He is wanting to protect and provide for you.

1Peter 4:1 talks about Christ being our example of how to live, knowing we are not of this world and verse 2 is an expectation that we as Christians are to follow. Verse 2, "You won't spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God." So here is a question to myself and my fellow aliens... how anxious are we to do the will of God? The temptation to be like those in the world and not of Christ is so tempting. But remember, we are strangers. We are aliens. We are not of this world. How many people that we know, know this about us? Or do they think we are just like them? These are sobering questions to ask of ourselves.

I would be remiss not to talk about how we accomplish that. Let me point us to Romans 12:2. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." How do you renew your mind? The Holy Spirit does it for you when you consistently read God's Word and meditate on it. When you memorize it and pull it out in your mind during your day. When you pray that God will make His perfect will for your life the thing your crave most. As the saying goes, "Garbage in garbage out". 

Can I encourage you, my fellow pilgrim in this strange land, to fully embrace the metaphorical giant boat you are building that people don't understand? Let's uplift each other as we try and live righteously, making a spectacle of ourselves in how we strive for God's will in our lives, knowing that others are watching and seeing how blessed we are by trusting in Him with our beautifully broken lives.