By faith [Abraham] lived as an alien in the land of promise,
as in a foreign land,
as in a foreign land,
dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob,
fellow heirs of the same promise;
for he was looking for the city
which has foundations,
whose architect and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:9-10)
I offer the following excerpt:
Heavenly-Mindedness
from Grace and
Glory by Geerhardus Vos
Man belongs
to two spheres. And Scripture not only
teaches that these two spheres are distinct, it also teaches what estimate of
relative importance ought to be placed upon them. Heaven is the primordial, earth the secondary
creation.
An excess
of interest in the present life, when shown in the name of the religion, is apt
in our day to be a synonym of doubt or unbelief in regard to the life to
come. Our modern Christian life so often
lacks the poise and stability of the eternal.
Religion has come so overmuch to occupy itself with the things of time
that it catches the spirit of time. Its
purposes turn fickle and unsteady; its methods become superficial and
ephemeral; it alters its course so constantly; it borrows so readily from
sources beneath itself, that it undermines its own prestige in matters
pertaining to the eternal world. Where
lies the remedy? It would be useless to
seek it in withdrawal from the struggles of this present world. The true corrective lies in this, that we must
learn again to carry a heaven-fed and heaven centered spirit into our walk and
work below. The grand teaching of the
epistle that through Christ and the New Covenant the heavenly projects into the
earthly, as the headlands of a continent project into the ocean, should be made
fruitful for the whole tone and temper of our Christian service. Every task should be at the same time a means
of grace from and an incentive to work for heaven. There has been One greater than Abraham, who
lived his life in absolute harmony with this principle, in whom the fullest
absorption in his earthly calling could not for a moment disturb the
consciousness of being a child of heaven.
A religion
that has ceased to set its face towards the celestial city is bound sooner or
later to discard also all supernatural resources in its endeavour to transform
this present world. The days are perhaps
not far distant when we shall find ourselves confronted with a quasi-form of
Christianity professing openly to place its dependence on and to work for the
present life alone, a religion, to use the language of Hebrews, become profane
and a fornicator like Esau, selling for a mess of earthly pottage its heavenly
birthright.
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