Many times in history, Christians have had to run and seek refuge. The Moravians fled in the late 1400s and early 1500s and again in the 1700s. The fled from place like Bohemia and Moravia to Saxony. And in the 1700s they would find refuge there under the protection of Count Zindendorf at Hernhut. Christians had fled from England to places like Amsterdam in the 1500s. These pilgrims would then move on to the American colonies from there and England and from all over Europe.

This is just some of the heritage of the Christian story as pilgrims. For this is what we are, is this not correct? We have no abiding city in this world. Think about what it meant to leave your home country back in the 1500s and 1600s. Leaving everything that you know behind, oftentimes with just what you could carry. And why endure all of this? For the freedom to worship God as they were led. It was monumental and yet they were actually living the pilgrim life. The Spirit of God was with them. They may not have had a country to call there own, but they were comforted by their convictions and by the Lord their God.

Now saints. Where shall we run to? In an increasingly hostile world is there anywhere left to run to? Do we even have a people that would be willing to leave everything behind them, including their national identity, the home of their birth, their roots? Would we be willing to uproot ourselves for the sake of being able to worship the Lord our God as we please and be able to stand upon and walk in the great truths of the Scriptures? Would we/will we have the strength of our brothers and sisters who came before us?

I believe that God’s genuine children do have that same strength because they have the same Spirit burning within them. The Kingdom of God is more important to the saints on earth than the kingdoms on earth and the places of their natural birth. I believe that the Lord is indeed preparing places for us to run to. It may be regions of the world that you would never have imagined. It will be a double edged sword of course. For as we gather together in these places as the persecution arises then we will, in the end, ultimately, be an easier target. Yet this is our calling and the Lord will be with us. Let us pray our flight will not be in winter.