Good morning! Did you know? One weekend has passed and another one to look forward to in a few days. There is refuge in God – a shelter of safety. Let’s prepare to take refuge in our everyday life with some words of encouragement.
Refuge (noun) – a condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or trouble; something providing shelter.
Carmen and I took a fun little excursion one weekend to a park new to us, and also visited the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary, a safe haven for animals that was just down the road. It was one of those fun, but sad visits.
The animals there are outcasts for various reasons. They had no place to go. If put back into the wild, they would never survive, but they could no longer stay at the zoo or park where they once were. So the folks, in a labor of love, have taken these animals in – over 100 of them.
We got to meet and see some of the cutest and funniest guys there, like Cheeky. Cheeky is a smaller monkey of some type (with one of those red bottoms). When you come up to his cage, he literally greets you by walking up, turning around, bending over with his butt up in the air facing you, and looks at your from between his legs – Cheeky! 😊
There were various other animals, a few chimps who were mean-mugging us, and some putting on a little bit of a show. But the main attraction was Pongo. Pongo is a male Orangutan who is 24 and weighs almost 400 lbs. He was fun to see, a real gentle giant. More about Pongo here.
These animals are aliens, in a world now that is not where they were intended to be, but safe for now nonetheless. Like these animals, we are aliens in this world. We are a part of this world, but not of this world.
1 Peter 2:11-12 MSG
11-12 Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.
There is refuge in God – a shelter of safety
In life we many times feel displaced even without the association of our friend Jesus. People of this world have taken things to the nth degree to set themselves apart and dividing themselves from others so much so that we have become a very fractured society. If you say to someone of this world that you are a Christian, you have now really set yourself apart – you are alienated.
The bad news? Yes, we are alienated because of our quirks. Alienated because of the way we look – our bodies, our hair (or lack of it), our eyes, our teeth, our skin color, who we associate with, the house or neighborhood we live in, even the car we drive, shoes we wear, and places we go. You name it and someone will find a reason to alienate you. Oh, and you are a Jesus Freak too? Well good luck with that one! I love Jesus Freak by DC Talk (hard music warning).
Be encouraged, there’s good news! Read this from Jesus and from Paul:
John 16:33 niv
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Ephesians 2:19-22 MSG
That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.
Challenge of the day: Be proud of your citizenship. You have been taken in to a refuge by the God who created the universe and the heavens. You are a citizen of a greater kingdom, more than you could ever have imagined. Your home awaits you. Until then, we have a refuge with Jesus, in our everyday-walking-around-kind-of-life. So be it!
