The beginning of the end is here. I am officially in my last country of the World Race! It is very hard to believe that it has finally come. We have been blessed to be with a Pastor named Patrick and his family. We will be doing house visits throughout the month. I am very excited for what that is going to look like. Side note to this month two days into the country and I am 3 for 3 on be mistaken for being African. It is nice to be accepted as one of there on. Okay as I just wrote that line this blog has taken a different turn then what I originally intended. I will have to leave you with the few details I have giving you about the month.
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As I wrote that line about being accepted as one of their own in each African country it got me to thinking how it is similar to being accepted into the Kingdom. My ancestors were taking out of Africa many, many years ago yet something about me still looks like Africa. So while in Africa when people see me they see that piece of Africa that is still there. Many refuse to believe that I could be anything but African.
Now think about how that applies to the Kingdom. Before you are saved there is something in you that still looks like the Kingdom that your long lose ancestors (Adam and Eve) lose in the garden. So when those that have already entered into the Kingdom see you they see the Kingdom in you that you carry. And even though it may be hard for you to see they refuse to believe you belong anywhere else but the Kingdom. When they see you it undeniable that you were always from the Kingdom and somewhere along the way you were taking from it.
You see we are born sinners or orphans but we are also born within else the ability to be a son. We are then giving the chose to either stay and orphan and continue in a place we were never meant to live or we choose sonship and the Kingdom we were born for.
While in Africa it has truly been amazing and I know it will continue to be as I am here. It has been crazy how much I feel like I belong here. And how much I feel that I have a door into the lives of people here just because of our shared ethnicity. As a believer in Christ that should be the same feeling we have with those who have yet to know Him. They should be drawn to the Christ in us that they know belongs in them. They see us and think to themselves they have something that was always meant for me too.
Too often it is easy to focus on the differences we have with those around us. As I have many differences with the Africans I encounter. Instead we should be focusing on the things that we have in common that shorten the divide. Is that not what Jesus did? As we look more like Jesus shouldn’t others want to look more like us? Should they not see themselves in us, and not really us but the Jesus in us?
