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WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM? "And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world." (John 8:23) "But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." (Gal. 4:26) Please note that when Jesus said that he was not of this world and that his listeners WERE of this world, he was talking to lost, unregenerate Pharisees, not saved people like you and I. You and I are not of this world either, as Galatians 4:26 makes clear. We are born again, born from above, with our spiritual mother being New Jerusalem, a heavenly place not of this world. To receive and to follow Jesus Christ is to spiritually reject your earthly citizenship and to join the citizenship of heaven. Our God is heavenly, our Saviour is heavenly, our Bible is settled in heaven, our new birth is from heaven, our affection is supposed to be on heaven, and we'll be going to heaven when the trumpet sounds. We are not not of this world. We are ALIENS stuck in this world just for a little while. John the Baptist said in 3:31, "He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all." So, we're ALIENS, because we believe in and follow an alien. That's how the world saw Jesus, and God's word says that's how they will see you and I, if we choose to follow him. Let's do a little Bible study for a while and see for ourselves that this is not an exaggeration at all. Let's start with I Corinthians 15:47-48: "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." I might look like a regular Clark Kent kind of guy, but in due time you will see that I'm really a superman, born from and on my way to another place. Alright, Ephesians 2:19: "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God." You were a stranger and a foreigner to God, but now it's reversed. You're a fellowcitizen of heaven and a stranger and foreigner to all these earthlings. That's how they see and you I. Colossians 3:1-3 is next: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Clearly, we are all about what is ABOVE, not what is earthly. Just last week I had a woman roll her eyes at me and ask, "What planet are you from?" I took it as a compliment. The problem is that most Christians are offended by such remarks, so they waste their lives trying to get along with the lost and blind world instead of trying to grow spiritually and become more like the Lord Jesus Christ. We're told to be NOT CONFORMED to the world, yet we keep telling ourselves that there's something wrong with us, if the world doesn't accept us and love us. Nonsense! What planet am I from? I'm from heaven, and New Jerusalem is my mother. Get I John 3:13: "Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you." Do we believe that? Do we remind ourselves of that before going out in the world each day, or do we have a tendency to blend in with the world and conform to it? We should not hate the world, but we should be always mindful of the fact that the world hates us.James 4:4 says, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." The world knows that, even if you don't. That's why they don't even try to conform to God's ways and God's word, and that's why they accuse us of being from another planet. We are their enemies, and they know it. Next, get I Corinthians 4, verses 10 and 13: "We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised . . . Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day." Look at that! The world sees us as FOOLS, WEAK, DESPISED, FILTH and OFFSCOURING! That's God telling you what the world thinks about you and your Savior. Are you listening?Paul said in Galatians 2:20 that we are "crucified with Christ," yet we still live. That makes us living dead people, basically zombies! No wonder they think us strange! No wonder they think we're from another planet!II Cor. 2:15-16 is next: "For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?" Since we are walking dead men, the world thinks we STINK. We smell like death to them, because we reckon our flesh to be dead that we might walk in the spirit. They notice it, and they remind us from time to time. Good thing they do, for we don't remind ourselves often enough.Ephesians 2:12 says, "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." ALIENS! There it is! You were an alien to God, but then you joined his family and kingdom, and that makes you an alien to this world. Jesus was called an alien in Psalms 69:8, so we're in good company. What planet are you from? The same one that Jesus is from, amen!In God's eyes, and in the eyes of other believers, you are a child of God, a citizen of heaven with eternal life, predestined to become just like Jesus Christ. In the eyes of the world, if you are living righteously, you are a dead, stinking, deformed, alien freak. They hate you, and they will never like you, unless you shut up about Jesus Christ and become more like them. So, we all have a choice. Either have the world think we're strange, or have God think we're strange. We have only one life to get it right. Let's not waste it.