Articles
Going on a trip
Going on a trip
Brian Ketchem
I like to travel. My wife and I have been able to travel a lot in our lives, and we have always had a positive experience. In the coming weeks, I will have an opportunity to travel to Israel with Bible Land Passages. For weeks now, I have been ordering gear, packing clothes, and preparing to go overseas. Whether I am traveling with my wife or without, internationally or domestically, it always seems like there is one more thing to do. I don't have enough clothes, I have too many clothes, or I don't have the right clothes for the climate. Maybe I need a new book or have run out of travel soap.
I don't travel as much as some, but one thing is the same: I prepare for my trip wherever I am going. I know my flight schedule, what hotel(s) I am staying in, and what I will do while I am there. This routine might seem like common sense to most. You might even be thinking, "come on, Brian, get to a point!"
I would argue that this very common sense is the point. No one would go on a trip without some plan. Even the most unorganized person in the world has some form of preparation they accomplish when going on a trip.
Did you know you are going on a trip? For those in Christ, we are traveling to a city, a city prepared by God (Heb 11:10). In the context of Hebrews 11, the writer is talking about all of the "Heroes of Faith" that were examples of faithfulness. These men and women of old are considered faithful because they spent their lives preparing to go on a trip. Hebrews 11:13 says, "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth."
Are you preparing to go on a trip, or are you busy building a permanent home? Satan wants people to believe that this life is all there is and that they don't need to go anywhere. The lie is that everyone is going somewhere. If you are not preparing to go to heaven, you will spend an eternity in hell. To avoid that fate, we need to prepare to go on a trip. We are not going to stay here because we are strangers and exiles.
How do you prepare to go on a heavenly trip? We need to make sure our place is secure. We need to make sure our bags are packed with the fruit of the spirit. We need to make sure we are offering tickets to others. And we need to be ready to leave the things that don't matter. Let's make sure that we are completely prepared for a trip home.
