This morning, I came into work, prepared for a busy week as I try to wrap things up to prepare for taking a few weeks off.  A busy time, but a good one.  That mood was broken, when I got a message from someone I know telling me that one of my good friends, someone that I had plans to see soon, died over the weekend.  This was not someone in their 70s or 80s being lost to cancer or another disease, she was in her early 30s with a husband and three children all under the age of 7.  She was among the greatest women of God I have personally known, and considered myself honored to have known her.

As I write this I’m convicted of my own sin, of how easy it is to neglect my salvation through Jesus, and reminded of how we are exhorted from Psalm 90:9-12 – “all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.  The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.  Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?  So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

Each day is a gift from God.  We will have to give an account of how we stewarded each day given to us by God.  That should evoke a healthy fear in us – as Psalm 90 says above – to consider the power of God’s anger and wrath – because we were Created and serve a Holy God.  Much more, we have an inheritance through Jesus that grants us infinite joy for eternity in His presence.  “Since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;  for our God is a consuming fire.” – Hebrews 12:28-29

Brothers and sisters in Christ, each of us will stand before God, our Creator.  We will be face to face with Jesus.  That reality should put into focus the content of our lives – the weight of that moment, of who God is, the weight of that moment, of who we are as sinners, and the weight of that moment of how great a salvation we have in Jesus.  How great news to know that our Judge is our Savior, that the Judge has already borne the wrath of God’s Holiness against sin.  How great news to know Jesus’s love is greater than His wrath, and His love is affixed to you.

Consider the warning from Hebrews 2:1-2 – “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.  For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”  I saw this as one sinner to another, who grew up in the cultural Christianity of the south – there is no such thing as a luke-warm Christian.  We either believe or we do not, and our lives will bear that out in one direction or another.  As Romans 2:13 says, “it is not the hearers of the law that are righteous, but the doers of the law who will be justified”, and as Jesus says in Luke 6:46 – “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you?”  We must be honest with one another, because anything less is not-loving, even if it seems harsh.

1 Peter 1:13-19 –  “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”  And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

If you are reading this, and have drifted from your salvation – you are still alive, today is the day of salvation for each of us.  Today we decide who we will serve, either our Savior, or ourselves, and we will receive whichever we choose for eternity, either our Savior, or ourselves apart from Him.  Moreover, there are many among us eager, in need of hearing and knowing about Jesus and the salvation He brings – our days are to be rich in making much of our Savior.  Our joy in Him will be multiplied as we seek after him day by day.

Philippians 3:8-16 – “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.  Only let us hold true to what we have attained.”

Keep running the race, finish the course set before you, our greatest joy in this world does not compare to the joy that awaits us in eternity with Christ.  Meet and work together with other Christians, this is God’s help to you and design for His Kingdom’s work.   Finally, rest in the grace and peace purchased for you by the blood of Christ – do not let yesterday determine how you spend today.

Blessings,

Adam