The Christian: Citizen of Heaven Living on Earth

      By A. W. Tozer

         And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament;
      and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
      Daniel 12:3
 

         Let a man become enamored of Eternal Wisdom and set his heart to
     win her and he takes on himself a fulltime, all-engaging pursuit!
     Thereafter his whole life will be filled with seekings and findings,
     self-repudiations, tough disciplines and daily dyings as he is being
     crucified unto the world and the world unto him.

         The regenerated man has been inwardly separated from society as
     Israel was separated from Egypt at the crossing of the Red Sea. The
     Christian is a man of heaven temporarily living on earth. Though in
     spirit divided from the race of fallen men he must yet in the flesh live
     among them. In many things he is like them but in others he differs so
     radically from them that they cannot but see and resent it.

         >From the days of Cain and Abel the man of earth has punished the
     man of heaven for being different. The long history of persecution and
     martyrdom confirms this.

         But, we must not get the impression that the Christian life is one of
     continuous conflict, one unbroken irritating struggle against the world,
     the flesh and the devil.

         A thousand times no!

         The heart that learns to die with Christ soon knows the blessed
     experience of rising with Him, and all the world's persecutions cannot
     still the high  note of holy joy that springs up in the soul that has
     become the  dwelling  place of the Holy Spirit!

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     Yours in Christ,
     Paul N. F.