I was speaking recently on Psalm 84, it is a Psalm for those pilgrims, going up to Jerusalem to worship,they would travel from all over Israel to get there. Verse 6 , reads/, Who passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well, the rain also maketh the pools./ As these pilgrims travel to Jerusalem, they would pass through ,some sterile gloomy place, A. Boner calls the valley of Baca,a valley of tear shrubs,a valley of lamentation. Going on a pilgrimage was not all plain sailing. It is in 1 Peter 2 v11, we are reminded that we are strangers and pilgrims in this world, the Message put it like this ,/This world is not our home/, now as we travel to heaven ,we will like pilgrims of old, pass through hostile territory,some stirile and gloomy places, and like them we must look to God to bring us through, and we must seek for the grace to carry on to the end.In Hebrews 11v13 ff we have more pilgrims , people like Abraham, and this is what it says about them. /Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it?. They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and acepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that- heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them. [The Message ] This world is not my home, Im just a passing through,
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
[J. W. Peterson ],
A prayer / Dear God help us not to get to cosy here, help us to live in light of eternity, in Jesus
name. Amen ]
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