Dual Citizenship

I drive down a particular stretch of highway every morning on my way to work and pass an interestingly named diner… the “Scotchwood Diner.”  I pass it on my way home too… strange how that happens.

But anyway, back to the point.  There is no “Scotchwood” in NJ.  It is not a town or a city.   It’s a dual identity.

The Township of Scotch Plains and the Borough of Fanwood both share a school district and so the area has developed this shared identity because the children ultimately filter into the high school together.

And so, the diner… wanting to belong to both areas… and maybe to save some lettering… crunched the name down to “Scotchwood.”

It’s fine for diners…

But is right for Christians?

 “…choose you this day whom ye will serve;… in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”  Joshua 24:15

This is not about what we do?  This is about who we do it for.

It is about Who we belong to.

I am not saying that we shouldn’t be Christian-businessmen, or Christian-singers, or Christian-builders.

But what we do is not our identity… it is how we identify with others.

Do whatever it is He calls you to do… be whoever it is He calls you to be.

Like Paul be comfortable… and confident saying…,

“For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more… unto the Jews I became as a Jew… to them that are under the law, as under the law… To them that are without law, as without law… To the weak became I as weak,… I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some… And this I do for the gospel's sake,” 1 Corinthians  9:19-23

It should not be that we look nothing like the world, yet act just like them… it should be that we look just like them… yet act like Christ.

They should be attracted to Christ in our clothing.

To which kingdom do we belong?  In whose land do we dwell? Are we children of Light? Or children of darkness?

Do we consider ourselves ambassadors of the Kingdom… just passing through as representatives? Are we truly living in the tabernacle that is our flesh which we will one day put off?

Or are we applying for dual citizenship, unsure of where it is that we truly want to live?

The impact we have in the temporal is directly related to how we represent the eternal.

Remember to Whom you belong.  Remember Who purchased you with His blood…

“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:” 1 Peter 1:18,19

You are a unique expression of the love of God.

You were never meant to conform… to fit into a mold. (“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed...” Romans 12:2)

You are a citizen of heaven.  In Christ, everywhere your heel hits the ground, the Lord has given it to you as an inheritance.

Do not try to find your identity in anything you do… or where you were born… or in some passing fad…

Your identity in Christ is eternal.  Your name has been written in the book of Life.

You are a sojourner.  You are an ambassador.  You are just “passing through.”

There is a mansion for you.  There is a table set for you.

You are not “of” a county, or “of” a state, “of” a city, “of” a family…

You are “of God.”

Be filled with the Holy Spirit and overflow wherever you go.

SDG