Our grandson Leeland showed me his toy the other day and of course, it was Buzz Light year. He loves the way he can take ole Buzz and raise him up like he is flying and then land him on the coffee table. Buzz's famous line is "To infinity and beyond!" What a concept....Infinity (which is vast) much like going into space and traveling for years and years and never reaching the end. Infinity!! When we think about time and space we have to figure in the God part of this whole thing we call life. Jesus has been here from the beginning as John stated in his gospel.
John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made the has been made 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
So when we think about Jesus, we are not thinking about someone who just came on the scene and that was it. He is forever!! So God's love for us is not something new. It is ageless. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 103:17 "But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children." Jesus is our yesterday, our today, and our forever. The writer of Hebrews said it like this "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, and today, and forever." What is the significance of that scripture? He is the past, He is the present, He is our future. To Eternity and Beyond!! When Jesus comes for you and me we will see His great power and majesty and see that He is almighty God, the everlasting. In Mark 14:62 Jesus said, "I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." Then He will take us well beyond infinity to eternity in heaven with Him. What a glorious day that will be and what a space Odyssey that will be. There is more to life than just looking to our future. Jesus is completely everything for our every need and our past, present, and future are all tied up in Him. We not only get to realize forgiveness of our past sins and walking out of the past dead end road we were traveling on. We get strength and direction for today. We can walk in God's strength and wisdom on a daily basis starting....now. There is a huge amount of sayings about living today to the fullest and in that mindset it is prompted by what the Bible says about living each moment to the fullest because days slip away..I saw a post on Facebook today that showed how the years slip away.
Scooby Doo made his first TV appearance 47 years ago....What?
The movie E.T. was released 34 years ago...What?
The first Walkmans were sold 37 years ago...What?
Wow. It seems like it was yesterday all of these happened, but not yesterday....
There were more listed, but you get the idea. Time is moooooving fast. Ephesians 5:16 speaks to this by saying "Make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." Another translation says, Be redeeming the time. Today is here and gone in a flash. Every once in a while Jesus would say "today" this or that is happening and it would freak out the people that what He was saying was "real time." In Luke 4:21 Jesus said "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." It was hard for them to relate to Him being the God of the now, but He is the God of the now for all who would follow Him. How current is God with our todays? I shared Christ with a guy who heard and believed and accepted Christ. Up to the point before him hearing the gospel he had been bound for hell. But after receiving Jesus at that moment he was bound for heaven. Now that is a current, on time God!!! Having problems today. God is on duty, ready to help you..... Today!!
We as believers look to the coming of our Lord don't we? It's more like "God get us out of this messed up world!" The world is messed up and has always been...it's a sin thing.
Our realization as believers that our past, present, and future sins are forgiven and gone as if they never happened has a tremendous impact on our today and our tomorrow. God has this whole thing worked out and He is very much involved in what is going on. In fact, it revolves around His great plan and we are part of that plan. Sometimes I can get so immersed in my daily stuff, and it causes me to miss my future stuff, like heaven. When in reality my heaven stuff should give me the hope to handle my present stuff with ease. Why? Because God is in control of it all. Philippians 4:65 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Anything? Everything? Those are some power words for sure. They are power words that actually have power for believers. God is our hope for tomorrow and in that hope He gives us power for living today. James 4:14 says, "Why, do you not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." So, before we start crying out "To Eternity and Beyond!" We need to have a reality check about today. Today is a lot better when we get to the point that we don't worry about tomorrow because God is taking care of that day, so "no worries." We don't have to worry about the sins of the past because God forgave those through Jesus and we are free to live a life without the sin penalty. So it brings everything back to TODAY! What does your today look like? Not your calendar....your daily life. Your moment by moment. Here are some suggestions. Ask God to reveal Himself to you through His word. When He does that take the scripture as total truth and do what it says in faith. That faith will build into a larger belief in God having a perfect will that you must follow. You will be affirmed by what you see and what you don't see. You have learned to trust God and He likes that. Hebrews 11:6 "and without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that he exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." That is the new you. The faith you. The one who believes in the eternal one and doesn't live out of past sins, or just the belief that one day Jesus is coming. You living in the now believes and lives in all of it...... All of it. Then you will be able to say as Paul did in 2 Timothy 4:7 "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."
Augustine said it well, "Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that thou mayest believe, but believe that thou mayest understand."
Do you understand? If you believe, you will.
The Pilgrimage continues...
David Warren
No comments:
Post a Comment