Day 06: Life is a temporary assignment.

My apologies for the gap... this Christmas thing got in the way...

Now I really like this chapter, for several reasons. The first is that a feel that at last I can identify the 'audience'. This chapter, and I presume the whole book, is designed for 'Christian' or 'real believers'. This may seem irrelevant for many but for me the starting point is always vital. TPDL is aimed at people who have 'already started'. I do believe there is a real need for people who have 'already started' and either got distracted or bogged down. As such TPDL may serve as a really valuable 'reality check'.

The second reason I like it is that it nails the lie of the 'prosperity gospel' and pretty thoroughly at that. This is such a subtle, invidious, perversion that it creeps into the thinking of many who would never give a thought to the rantings of Hogan and Hinn. It is the subtle conviction that things are going well for me; this is God's blessing. It may be, and it may not be.

Thirdly, and this is the real thrust of the chapter, it declares without compromise that Christians/real believers are pilgrims. This 'world is not my home, I'm just a-passing through'. This is such a vital truth in our current day. To read some of the old Christian writers is to enter a completely foreign world for many modern-day Christians; those older writers have a much clearer grasp on 'what it's all about'. Life itself seemed much more precarious with high infant mortality rates and mothers dying in childbirth. That progress has been made on this things is good but it may hide a snare. As one of those older pilgrims once prayed..."Lord, if you see me in danger of nesting put a thorn in my nest".

So as this is the '007' year may we all be both 'shaken and stirred' as we continue our brief sojourning here. God speed... pilgrim!