March 15, 2024, 12:00 PM
Greetings everyone!
I hope and pray you've had a good week.
We're moving into the middle of March. We are only two weeks from Good Friday and the start of Easter weekend! That is hard to believe.
Yes, time moves by pretty quickly.
In a joke involving Forrest Gump going to heaven, Forrest is asked a series of questions that will determine whether or not he is able to pass through the pearly gates.
One of the questions is "What two days of the week begin with the letter T?"
Forrest thinks about it and finally gives his answer. Forrest says, “Well, the first one — which two days in the week begin with the letter “T”? Shucks, that one’s easy. That’d be Today and Tomorrow.”
Saint Peter’s eyes open wide and he exclaims, “Forrest, that’s not what I was thinking, but you do have a point, and I guess I didn’t specify, so I’ll give you credit for that answer."
I believe, however, that our dear friend Forrest was only half right.
I say that the only sure thing we have is today. TOMORROW is never guaranteed. Tomorrow MAY NEVER COME.
Listen to what James writes in James 4:13-15 - Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
At times we can worry about tomorrow. Think of all the things that you and I have worried about over the years that simply never even came to pass.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:34 - Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Then there is YESTERDAY. It's great to have memories and reminisce from time to time.
But that is no excuse for us to get too caught up in the past.
NOTE: Don’t live in the past! The good ol’ days probably weren’t actually as good as we like to remember them.
Perhaps it is a negative past that keeps us tied to yesterday. Some may linger on past sins and regrets.
We must be careful to not get stuck in the PAST. Yesterday is gone. It is not coming back.So, again, all we truly have is TODAY.
Therefore, let us do as the Psalmist writes in Psalm 118:24 - "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
Let's also remember to say what needs saying and do what needs doing. Hebrews 3:13 - "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness."
Let's all live each day, doing all we can in the times that we are living in, knowing that we have a glorious future with the Lord forever in heaven.
My mom's favorite passages of scripture is one my favorite, too. In it, the Apostle Paul gives us an excellent way to approach and live our lives here on earth.
Paul writes in Philippians 3:12-14 - "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Speaking of the Apostle Paul, we'll be talking about him this coming Sunday, March 17 at FCC.
I hope and pray you can join us - Bible School @ 9:30 am and Worship @ 10:30 am.
God bless,
Greg H
