Sojourners and exiles

1 Pe 2:11-12

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

• How much do you feel at home in this world?
  - How strong is your desire to get back to your homeland?
  - How does your desire to fit in here compare with your desire for heaven?
  
• Why did Peter use such strong terms when describing problems with the flesh?
  - What imagery comes to mind when you read "wage war"?
  - How do passions of the flesh wage war against the soul?
  
• Why are you to have good behavior?
  - How do you feel when you realize that it is important what non-Christians see in you?
  - How do non-Christians slander Christians as evildoers today?
  - When will your good deeds before non-Christians produce their results?
  - How does doing things for God's glory compare with doing things for yours?
  

Harold's Musings
Sojourner is a word that I seldom use. The dictionary states it means "to stay as a temporary resident". Exile means "the state or a period of forced (or voluntary) absence from one's country or home". So we are to consider ourselves to be only temporary residents who are living a forced absence from our home. We might even be considered migrant workers, people who left their home to travel somewhere to work. I don't think of myself this way often enough. How about you?

Satisfaction and Appetite

Eccles. 6:7-9

7 All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. [1] 8 For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? 9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Footnotes[1] 6:7 Hebrew filled

• What do most people work for?
  - In your opinion, are most people generally satisfied with what they have?
  
• What new thing have you seen lately that you think you want to have?
  - In general, how long would you be satisfied by acquiring it?
  
• What do you have that you would like to replace with a new and improved version?
  - Does this need to be replaced or do you just want to replace it? How can you tell?
  
• Is your appetite for things ever really satisfied?
  - How do your eyes cause your heart problems?
  - Even if you wisely decide to not acquire something, do you still "see and desire" it?
  
• Is the problem of dissatisfaction limited to the fool and the rich?
  - How does a person learn to be fully satisfied in Christ instead of striving after wind?

Harold's Musings:
Yet another timeless observation from Solomon. If you want to feel dissatisfied, subscribe to a magazine about something you are interested in. If you are interested in cars, a car enthusiast magazine will produce feelings of desire for a different car. You new camera is perfectly adequate, but a photography magazine will quickly point out its flaws and why you need an even newer camera. We often bring our dissatisfaction on ourselves by looking for ways to stimulate our appetites. It is just foolish, vain, chasing of the wind.