By Evangelist Wil Rice IV
From the Branding Iron of the Bill Rice Ranch April-May 2008, Vol. 47-No. 2 (Used with permission)
Last week in Dallas, it was sunny and 70 degrees. Yet as I strode past indoor shops, cafes and bookstores, I saw a number of people in heavy winter coats. Later, as I ate alone at McDonalds, I saw a young man with a shock of red hair and an Irish accent greet a family near my table. He wore a soccer jersey with the word Ireland and an Irish flag stitched to the sleeve. Yet we were thousands of miles from the Emerald Isle and nearly as far away from Shamrock, Texas!
My layover at the DFW airport last week reminds me of the nature of sojourners. They are from a faraway place and have a distant destination. Their dress, speech, and their entire culture reflect who they are, not where they are. They point to their destination, not their layover.
I myself enjoy the benefits and obligations of a home far away. As to obligation (a joy, really), I am writing this from California where we have been holding meetings. As to benefits, my kids have been enjoying two "snow days" in sunny San Diego, California! (You see, Bill Rice Christian Academy, their home school on the Ranch, was closed for two days due to Middle Tennessee's version of "severe winter weather.") Our life here in California has been shaped by our home in Tennessee.
Why should our lives on earth as citizens of Heaven be any different? Strange how we exalt "cultural diversity" but become defensive should anyone suggest there is a "Kingdom Culture" and that being a citizen of Heaven should in any way involve that which distinguishes us! "Don't judge by the outward appearance," some plea. "God looks on the heart," others intone.
Now, let's be clear. God indeed does look on the heart, and He is the only One Who can! The heart is of utmost importance to Him. But let us also concede that "man looks on the outward appearance" because he must. It is all he has to go on, since he is not God and cannot see within. We all communicate age, attitude, and gender without a word.
There is no doubt that bad people can appear godly. But that is hypocrisy. So is it a virtue for a child of God to appear to be something else? Wouldn't that be hypocrisy as well? Must people be "heart-readers" to know who we are in Christ? The point is that it is honest and right for one's "outside" to be consistent with one's "inside."
Of course, often it takes time for the inside change to become manifest on the outside. When considering others, therefore, we should be mindful of how gracious and patient God is with us. But we dare not self-righteously claim that God doesn't care about "the outside" when that is all a dark world can see! We are to let our light shine before men to the extent that they can see our good works and glorify our Great God!
This type of living is in stark contrast to the Pharisees who gave alms conspicuously "before men, to be seen of them." In their case, God was not glorified; they were! Their deportment didn't reflect what they were before God; it was merely a show before men. The same person who will make a show for the people who will applaud him will live like a coward before the people who most need to see the difference Christ makes!
Philippians 3:19-20 warns us not to "mind earthly things. For our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." This world is not my home, after all. There is nothing wrong and everything right with glorifying God by showing others that I am just a sojourner here.
I have enjoyed my stay in the Golden State, but it is clear that I belong somewhere else. And that is OK. I hope to see friends form California join me back home at the Ranch this summer. Even more, I hope to point people to that heavenly country through a life becoming of the Gospel.
