Today!

"For God says, 'I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.' Indeed, God is ready to help you right now. Today is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Today is the day of salvation!  Whatever your day has in store--God is already there and has already provided your rescue.  God is using everything (the good and the bad) for your benefit today as you release control to God's sovereign purpose.  I'm not saying that today won't hurt and that there won't be enemies taking shots at you.  I am saying that God is saving you.  He is saving you from your hurts, your habits, and your hangups.  He is using your pain for your gain.  He is delivering you from your past and from your regrets. Today is your day of salvation!

"One of these days some simple soul will pick up the book of God, read it, and believe it. Then the rest of us will be embarrassed."  --Leonard Ravenhill

The Purpose of Pain

"For our present troubles are quite small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever!" (2 Corinthians 4:17)

Have you considered the purpose of your pain?  It's not for nothing!  This verse makes clear that our difficulties produce, "an immeasurable great glory that will last forever".  Imagine that!  The crisis that you've just come through, or perhaps that you are coming through, is producing glory that you will experience forever. 

James explains it this way, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (James 1:2-4)  God uses trials to perfect us.  I often say that our painful experiences either makes us better or bitter.  We get to choose how we react to problems.

Today, lets trust God with our issues.  Should you find yourself struggling, remember this verse, and instead of getting grumpy or depressed, begin to give God thanks for the good He is doing in your life.  Don't get bitter! Get better!

The Taste Test

"Just as the mouth tastes good food, the ear tests the words it hears." (Job 34:3)

I have been sitting here the past few minutes trying to think of something that I don't eat because it tastes bad to me.  Funny thing is that I cannot think of anything.  There are a lot of things I don't eat because of color, texture, etc.  But taste?  Over the years, I've learned to eat just about anything that is put before me.  Foods that I thought I would not like based on color or texture sometimes turn out to taste pretty good.  I've also adopted the belief that everything tastes good if you put enough butter on it (or Tabasco). 

In the same way, I wonder if I've learned to accept words (and concepts) that I don't necessarily like.  We hear all kinds of things on tv, radio, and in conversation.  Our culture says a concept is good for us and we put a little Tabasco on it and swallow hard. 

Today, let's make an effort to taste the words we hear.  Let's discern what we're hearing and measure it by the Word of God.  Let's test what we hear!

Stretch out!

"He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered." (Mark 3:1)  "He said to the man with the withered hand, 'Get up and come forward!'" (v3)  "He said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored." (Mark v5)

In the first five verses of Mark, Jesus restores the withered and dried up hand of a certain man.  All of us, perhaps, have had "dried up" experiences when our lives have withered.  We have withered dreams, withered relationships, and maybe even like this man, withered health.

If you are in a dried up place today, let me suggest you follow Jesus' pattern.

#1--Get Up!  Refuse to stay down.  Start over!  Begin again!  You may have been knocked down but you don't have to stay down. 

#2--Come forward!  Don't stay where you are.  Take a step, no matter how small, in the right direction--the direction of your dreams--the direction that Jesus' leads.

#3--Stretch out your hand!  The man in our story had likely tried a million times to stretch out his hand.  Jesus asked him to do it one more time.  Your failure doesn't need to define you one day longer.  Get up and come forward!  Stretch out! 

Prayer-Singing

"Sing to Him a new song." (Psalm 33:3)

I've found six references to singing a new song in Psalms and two references in Revelation.  That's a total of eight times that the Bible talks about singing a new song to God.  I guess it shouldn't surprise us that a creative God who created the universe with all of it's diversity and complexity would enjoy our creative worship.  I take these verses to mean that God really likes it when you and I start making up songs to sing.  I'm sure He likes the old songs too but there is something special about a unique and creative expression from our heart sung to God.

Let me suggest that you try it today.  While you are out and about, driving or walking, or wherever you may find yourself, sing a prayer to the Father.  It doesn't have to be in tune, or a melodic masterpiece.  Just sing from the heart, the louder the better.  Sing of your love for God.  Sing of His greatness.  Sing thanksgiving or sing the scriptures.  Maybe sing about your needs or sing about the desires of your heart.    Sing a new song--sing your new song!

Newness of Spirit

"But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter." (Romans 7:6)

God wishes to move us from the discipline of the rigid law to the freedom of the boundless Spirit.  This means we don't just worship on the Sabbath but on every day of the week as the Spirit leads.  We don't just give a tithe but we are quick to share all of our resources as God directs.  Our goal is not to just meet the minimum legal requirement but to graciously give our lives as a living sacrifice.  The disciplines of the faith must cease to be religious rituals and must become natural expressions of our living faith.  In the same way that we breathe without giving it a thought simply because our lungs demand oxygen, we also love, serve, worship, pray, etc. because of the hunger in our souls.  My motivation for eating is not just to nourish my body.  I eat because I get hungry and because I enjoy the taste of food.  In the same way our motivation for the spiritual must move from duty to delight.

My friends, you are released from the duty of religious ritual!  God has provided a new and better way for you to serve God.  Here is a good starting place, "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law." (Romans 13:8)  Today, let us love, even if we don't feel like it.  Soon, it will come as naturally as taking a deep breath.

“Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.” --C. S. Lewis

The Kingdom of New

"Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past.  Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert." (Isaiah 43:18-29)

The "Kingdom of God" is the "Kingdom of New".  The Bible contains a variety of references to how the kingdom is new.  We are new creations experiencing a new birth through newness of spirit.  We have a new song, a new teaching, a new covenant, a new command, and a new life.  We have a new self, a new attitude, and a new way.  The kingdom has a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem, and a new day of worship right at the beginning of every new week. 

Today is a new day in which we will experience new adventures.  God has planned an amazing day for each of us.  Even now He is springing forth new things.  He is making new roads through your wilderness and new rivers through your desert.  Don't get too busy and miss the joy that today brings.  Live your life!  It's a gift.

“One of the tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon - instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.”   --Dale Carnegie