Tag Archives: TODAY

Living Faithfully TODAY??? Bible Ballistics: BBs #587

13 Friday Sep 2019

Posted by in A Father's Love, Broken Hearts, Comfort, Compassion, Faith, Faithful is He that has Promised!, Faithfulness, Follow Jesus, For Such A Time As This, God of all comfort!, Jesus' Sacrifice, Kindness, Knowing God's Word

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Bible Ballistics: BBs #587   Living Faithfully TODAY???

 

“Boast not thyself

of to morrow;

for thou knowest not

what a day may bring forth.”  Proverbs 27:1

Sometimes we get so focused on ‘tomorrow’ that we forget that we are called to live today!  Not one of us knows what tomorrow may bring, and this is heavy on my heart this morning because we had a tragic accident this week in our community, and it took the life of a fine young man; one who God sent into my life many years ago—and he will be missed sorely.  Yet the thing I hope that we will receive in this time of sorrow, is the urgency of the “hour”; that is to say, it is so important to live today!  Smell the flowers, pass along that kindness, share something with those close to you that only YOU can share, make a difference at every opportunity God gives to you and me!

While we live in a culture that says, ‘spend today—pay tomorrow’, Jesus calls us to walk by faith and trust in HIM today and leave the “tomorrow” to HIM!  I really don’t have much to share other than the power of God’s Word!

“Therefore take no thought, saying,

What shall we eat?

or, What shall we drink?

or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 (For after all these things

do the Gentiles seek:)

for your heavenly Father knoweth

that ye have need

of all these things.

33 But seek ye first

the kingdom of God,

and his righteousness;

and all these things

shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought

for the morrow:

for the morrow shall take thought

for the things of itself.

Sufficient unto the day

is the evil thereof.”  Matthew 6:31-34

Jesus isn’t saying to be unprepared, but to trust Him in every thing that we do!  While it seems a simplistic way to live, it is the life that God calls us to live (and I’m not saying that I always do it well, but we are to pursue God’s ways, even when we don’t understand what’s going on around us—and in our world that’s pretty often!) and I pray that we will humble ourselves before Him, pursuing Him in all we do!  It is a pursuit that will bring hope, confidence, and joy to our own hearts as well as to those we are given the opportunity to encourage and help!

“O death,

where is thy sting?

O grave,

where is thy victory?

56 The sting of death is sin;

and the strength of sin is the law.

57 But thanks be to God,

which giveth us the victory

through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brethren,

be ye stedfast,

unmoveable,

always abounding

in the work of the Lord,

forasmuch as ye know

that your labour

is not in vain

in the Lord.”   1 Corinthians 15:54-58

And one of my favorite passages (which those of you who follow my writings have seen before—because it is ever true, and we need to be reminded!):

“Let your conversation

be without covetousness;

and be content

with such things as ye have:

for he hath said,

I will never leave thee,

nor forsake thee.

6 So that we may boldly say,

The Lord is my helper,

and I will not fear

what man shall do unto me.”    Hebrews 13:5-6

I pray that God will comfort the hurting and grieving, that He will use those of us around them to encourage, help and minister God’s comfort and hope at every opportunity that He places before us.  And if you are grieving, please know that we on the perimeter are praying for you, and God is the greatest ‘heart healer’!

“Blessed be God,

 even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of mercies,

and the God of all comfort;

4 Who comforteth us

in all our tribulation,

that we may be able to comfort them

which are in any trouble,

by the comfort wherewith we ourselves

are comforted of God.

5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us,

so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.”    2 Corinthians 1:3-5

Amen and Amen!

Today Is Only Today, Today??? Bible Ballistics: BBs #562

12 Wednesday Jun 2019

Posted by in Abiding In Jesus, Born Again, Consider Your ways, The Word Or The World?, Time, Time Is Grace!, TODAY

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Bible Ballistics: BBs #562    Today Is Only Today, Today???

 

“This is the day

which the LORD hath made;

we will rejoice

and be glad

in it.”  Psalm 118:24

The “in it” is referring to today!!! This day.  This “day which the LORD hath made” is for me and you—and we can choose whether we will “rejoice” in it, and “be glad” in it!  That’s right, it’s my choice and yours whether we will respond to ‘today’ with joy and delight in the Lord, or doubt what God is doing, pout about it, and drop out of the race that God has “set before us”!

A runner (and I’m certainly not physically one of those—I don’t even run to the mailbox on a good day!!  Ha ha) doesn’t get to pick his lane, his track or the competition; he simply shows up at the meet and prepares himself to run ‘his’ best race!  And that, my friends is what God asks us to do—today!

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about

with so great a cloud of witnesses,

let us lay aside every weight,

and the sin which doth so easily beset us,

and let us run

with patience

the race

that is set before us,

2 Looking unto Jesus

the author and finisher

of our faith;

who for the joy that was set before him

endured the cross,

despising the shame,

and is set down at the right hand

of the throne of God.”   Hebrews 12:1-2

We are called to “run” our own race—today, by keeping our eyes “fixed” on Jesus—not the track, or the competition, or the length, or the roughness of the track! We are to keep looking to Jesus and the prize of HIS person!  He is the prize, and spending eternity with Him, and reveling in HIS glory.

God hasn’t called us to cry over the race we lost yesterday, or the race we might win tomorrow.  God calls us to run ‘today’; to run our own race; to run that race with our eyes on Jesus not self; to run that race with confidence in the Lord who saves us, who keeps us, and who supplies our every need today.  We serve a God who is faithful today—he may be slow (in our time schedule) but HE is never late. We are to run with the knowledge that Jesus ran HIS race for our salvation, “despising the shame” of the cross, but willing to stay there for you and me!

Peter calls us to remember the One who not only came to save us, by “being the way”, but He also left us an example of total faithfulness and trust in God for our yesterday, our today, and our tomorrow!  What are you ‘fixed’ on today?

“For even hereunto were ye called:

because Christ also suffered for us,

leaving us an example,

that ye should follow his steps:

22 Who did

no sin,

neither was guile found

in his mouth:

23 Who, when he was reviled,

reviled not again;

when he suffered,

he threatened not;

but committed himself

to him that judgeth righteously:

24 Who his own self

bare our sins

in his own body

on the tree,

that we,

being dead to sins,

should live unto righteousness:

by whose stripes

ye were healed

25 For ye were as sheep

going astray;

but are now returned

unto the Shepherd

and Bishop

of your souls.”   1 Peter 2:21:24

This precious Lamb of God who loves us and came to be “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”  (See John 1:29), takes away the sin of all who will come to Him in repentance and faith “TODAY”!  For those of us who have already trusted in Him, our todays are to be given to His service—each of them, to do with as HE pleases for our spiritual growth and His eternal glory.  If you don’t know Him, you can come to Him today—for yesterday is gone, and you have no assurance of a tomorrow!  Today is the day—it’s all you have.

“(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)”.  2 Corinthians 6:2

Today! The author of Hebrews reminds us that it is all about ‘today’ (note that in the KJV it is to-day).  What are you doing with your ‘today’?

“Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith,

To day if ye will hear his voice,

 8 Harden not your hearts,

as in the provocation, in the day of temptation                                in the wilderness…

…12 Take heed, brethren,

lest there be in any of you an evil heart

of unbelief,

 in departing from the living God.

13 But exhort one another daily,

 while it is called To day;

lest any of you be hardened

through the deceitfulness of sin.

14 For we are made partakers of Christ,

 if we hold the beginning of our confidence

stedfast unto the end;

15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice,

harden not your hearts,

as in the provocation.”  Hebrews 3:7-8 & 12-15

Here we see that God calls us to be sure that we have heard HIS voice!  As I often say, “Saying so, doesn’t’ make it so!”  We must be sure that we have had a “today” when we repented of our own personal sin, believing that Jesus death, burial and resurrection paid for our sin!  It’s why He came, and we can trust our ‘today’ to His faithful and loving sacrifice for ‘my’ sin!

What are you doing with today?  Rejecting Him?  Putting Him off till tomorrow?  Serving Him faithfully and spending your ‘today’ rejoicing in His presence in your life ‘today’? I simply call each of us to examine our ‘today’!  For, as the title says, “Today Is Only Today, Today”!  In Jesus our todays and tomorrows are totally secure, and our yesterdays can be forgiven and removed “as far as the east is from the west”!   (See Psalm 103:12)

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God,

and his righteousness;

and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow:

for the morrow shall take thought for the things

of itself.

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”    Matthew 6:33-34

Amen and Amen!!!

I Only Have Today??? Bible Ballistics: BBs #525

23 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by in TODAY, Today And Tomorrow, Transformed life

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Bible Ballistics: BBs #525    I Only Have Today???

 

“This is the day

which the LORD hath made;

we will rejoice

and be glad

in it.”   Psalm 118:24

We attended the funeral of a dear friend earlier this week; a man whom I watched grow in the Lord and become a mighty man of The Word. I don’t say this to brag on anyone but Jesus: to remind you and me that we have today and we can choose to do God’s work this day (and each today that God grants to us) or not. My friend and his wife chose to seek God’s face through His Word, to be what God called them to ‘be’—which led to their ability to ‘do’ what God led them to do.

My friend learned to seek and depend on God for each day. Having physical issues that made him very cognizant of his mortality and dependence on God, he gave testimony that he was truly rejoicing in the “day which the LORD hath made”, and being grateful for each one that God granted him, to use each one wisely and well. We were blessed to visit with him the day he died and he was still smiling and we had a great prayer time together! My friend chose to serve God through it all, and I thank God for the treasure of his friendship through the years! Yet so often I have encountered people who are “on hold” toward God.

What do I mean? I mean that many people put God “on hold” as they are looking for a “better day” to serve God. “I’ll serve The Lord when I get this new job.” “I’ll join your Bible study class when the kids get in school.” “I’ll praise God when things turn around!”   “I can’t serve God ‘now’, I have 7 ballgames to attend.” “I’ll get involved in the church when we get our new house finished.” And this list could go on and on. But the Psalmist brings reality into focus, calling us to recognize that today is all we have to use—yesterday has passed– tomorrow may not come. We are to live each day with, for and by the power of God in all we do!

“Boast not thyself of to morrow;

for thou knowest not

what a day may bring forth.”   Proverbs 27:1

What’s your plan for today? Does it include time for God? Does your day start with God, or do you find yourself at the end of the day, saying to yourself and/or God, “I’m sorry, I just ran out of time to seek you Lord!” We each have the same “time bank balance” every day; we are each given the same 24 hours daily—it’s up to us what we do with them.

Jesus addressed this same issue and calls us to live for Him today, each day, in all that we do, and not plan Him right out of our lives. Jesus never called us to be haphazard nor careless in the care of our loved ones, but He does call us to seek HIM first! I’ll simply leave you with the words of our Lord and Master and let them sink into your heart and mind—use today while you have it. God will lead and guide if we will but listen, hear and obey!

“Behold the fowls of the air:

for they sow not,

neither do they reap,

nor gather into barns;

yet your heavenly Father

feedeth them.

Are ye not much better than they?

27 Which of you by taking thought

can add one cubit unto his stature?

28 And why take ye thought for raiment?

Consider the lilies of the field,

how they grow;

they toil not,

neither do they spin:

29 And yet I say unto you,

That even Solomon in all his glory

was not arrayed

like one of these.

30 Wherefore,

if God so clothe the grass of the field,

which to day is,

and to morrow is cast into the oven,

shall he not much more

clothe you,

O ye of little faith?

31 Therefore take no thought, saying,

What shall we eat?

or, What shall we drink?

or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 (For after all these things

do the Gentiles seek:)

for your heavenly Father knoweth

that ye have need

of all these things.

33 But seek ye first

the kingdom of God,

and his righteousness;

and all these things

shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought

for the morrow:

for the morrow

shall take thought

for the things

of itself.

Sufficient unto the day

is the evil thereof.”   Matthew 6:26-34

Amen and Amen.