A certain day, called Today


I confess that my preparation for the New Year has been less than ideal. I did have an amazing trip to Israel, getting back to Singapore just as the Gaza offensive began (more about that later). But catching up with work after being away, plus the myriad demands of parenthood (Primary 1!) have cluttered up the landscape.

I was blessed to receive an apt sermon on Sunday though. Though I still felt very tired then, I sensed that there was a moving of the heart, and I am determined to set things straight for the New Year.
Hebrews 4:7 says:
Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "TODAY, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."

Too often, we are content to receive good sermons and good advice, but then delay acting on it. This is, unfortunately, a too-common human condition. As my pastor said – delay is the deadliest form of denial. Why? Because delay allows us to say “Amen!” but also “Later!”, and so feel GOOD about disobeying. Most of us are not prepared to deal with the guilt of saying “No, Lord!” but are prepared to fudge with “Later, Lord.”

This is why Revelation 3:15-16 says:
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I WISH YOU WERE EITHER ONE OR THE OTHER! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

Those of us who are parents also recognize this. Delayed obedience is the same as disobedience, whether it’s doing homework, cleaning the room, taking a bath… or doing quiet time, attending cell, telling our friends and family about the good news.

Forget yesterday, it will never come back. Do not worry about the possibility of falling or succeeding tomorrow, it never gets here.
TODAY, let’s claim God’s promise, as recorded in 2 Corinthians 6:2b:
I tell you, NOW is the time of God's favor, NOW is the day of salvation.

If you have always wanted to read the Bible cover to cover, start today. If you have always wanted to restore your quiet time with Jesus, start today. If you have always wanted to tell your cubicle neighbour about the good news, start today. Start with the first small step, but start today.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bullying? Stand up!

Image
When I was a kid, I remember being bullied a fair bit.  I was small for my age, bespectacled, shy.    The teachers didn't help by putting a target on my back by making me Vice Head Prefect.  I would get my stuff just taken away from me by bigger kids, dragged out into the field to be tickled until I collapsed (much less fun than it sounds), and pushed into the storm drains.  Not all the kids were full-blown bullies of course.  But I remember some of them standing by, and politely holding my spectacles (so they wouldn't be broken) while the bullies did their work on me. Most of this stopped when I got to secondary school, where a much larger proportion of my fellow students were now just as nerdy!  And of course I grew up too.  I don't really look back on those days with any kind of animosity, because I think it never occurred to me that it was unusual.  But I do think my experience made me a bit more sympathetic about people around me who...
Read more

Life as a pie chart

Image
Someone told me recently about a "life exercise" in which one compiles all the stuff that makes up your life, and puts it in a pie chart.  So let's say for me, something like this. The idea is to visually demonstrate to myself that, in the event I lose one of these things, then I can see that, hey life is not so bad, that wasn't such a big deal.  Say for example, if I suffered a blown ACL, and couldn't run or play basketball any more, like this: At first blush - I'd say, hey, I still have my wife, children, parents, career, church life - so, chin up, things are not so bad.  Pretty good life visualisation tool to bring some optimism back into play! ... But what if, a month later, something happens at work, and boom, career gets sidetracked, I lose my job, or get put in cold storage somewhere, like this: Oops, now only half my life is left!  With only half of life's meaning left to me, what do I do? And what if something happens to...
Read more

Family AND Team

Image
I heard an interesting viewpoint this weekend. A family is not inherently a team. Hmm.  Sometimes at work, often in church, and most of the time at home, you hear people say to each other that we are family. And often, we really are. We care for each other above and beyond transactional matters.  It matters to me when my colleagues and cell group members (and of course my actual family members) go through illnesses or family issues or work challenges. I root for their success at presentations and projects and relationships. I care about what they care about, even if it has little direct impact on my own life. In a way, a family is sort of an amalgam of people who support each other in pursuit of each member's personal goals. For example, as a father, I support my children in their academic, career and ministry goals. But where they go to school, the grades they get, and the careers and ministries they build - they're really their goals, not mine.  Ditto for my role as a c...
Read more