Category Archives: Today: Make it Count

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

June 24, 2014

Posted under

Attitudes & Behavior, Fear & Doubt, Joy, Today: Make it Count, Worry

JOY TO YOU

This day is holy to God. Don’t feel bad. The joy of God is your strength! [Nehemiah 8:10b (MSG)]

From the moment we’re born, we’re already dying. Our task is to live life to the fullest until we die: to live while dying. I had a friend who recently passed away. I miss her, but my greatest sorrow is that, while she was alive, she was simply dying while living. Her mindset would have made Eyore in “Winnie the Pooh” look like an optimist. Instead of savoring each day as the gift it was, she could always find something about which to complain. Misery was her favorite color.

We can face each day with fear and dread, anger and disappointment, regret and resentment or we can face it with confidence and hope, love and joy, anticipation and excitement. The choice is ours and ours alone. Let God fill your heart with His love and peace. May the joy of the Lord be your strength this and every day.

There’s a decision we all have to make, and it seems perfectly captured in the Winnie-the-Pooh characters created by A.A. Milne. Each of us must decide: Am I a fun loving Tigger or am I a sad-sack Eeyore? Pick a camp. [Randy Pausch, from “The Last Lecture”]

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. [Philippians 4:8-9 (MSG)]

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

June 8, 2014

Posted under

Salvation: A New You, Today: Make it Count

THE TIME IS NOW

And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him. [Hebrews 9:27-28 (NLT)]

Since life isn’t like the movie “Groundhog Day,” unlike Bill Murray, we’re not going to wake tomorrow and get another chance to improve upon today. Since life’s not like the new movie “Edge of Tomorrow,” unlike Tom Cruise, we’re not going to die and return to life with our past knowledge and get to fight our battles over again. When we learned how to play golf, we may have been allowed “mulligans” when we missed the ball. When the kids started baseball, they might have had an unlimited number of strikes. In real life, however, there are no “do-overs” when we miss and there are no “gimmes” if we’re just “close enough.” There is no reincarnation; we don’t get another go-around to be better people and we don’t get to relive each day until we finally get it right. If we’re going to re-examine our life and priorities, the time is now. If we’re going to make changes, the time is now. If we’re going to accept Jesus, the time is now. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. What are we going to do with it?

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. [Romans 10:9-10 (NLT)]

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

April 24, 2014

Posted under

Attitudes & Behavior, Love & Works, Today: Make it Count

HOW TO TREAT OTHERS

Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. [2 Corinthians 13:11 (ESV)]

Heavenly Father, when you come to take me home, let there be no remorse about opportunities I’ve missed or things I’ve left undone. Guide me so that I leave no apologies unsaid, no forgiveness withheld, no kindness refused, no compassion unoffered, and no fences unmended. May your Holy Spirit help me to live a life of love, harmony and peace.

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again. [Og Mandino]

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. [Matthew 7:12 (ESV)]

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

April 12, 2014

Posted under

Bible Stories, Today: Make it Count, Trusting God

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will cause food to fall like rain from the sky for all of you. Every day the people must go out and gather what they need for that day. I want to see if the people will do what I teach them. … So the people of Israel did this; some people gathered much, and some gathered little. Then they measured it. The person who gathered more did not have too much, nor did the person who gathered less have too little. Each person gathered just as much as he needed. Moses said to them, “Don’t keep any of it to eat the next day.” But some of the people did not listen to Moses and kept part of it to eat the next morning. It became full of worms and began to stink, so Moses was angry with those people. [Exodus 16:4, 17-20 (NCV)]

Why did God insist that the Israelites couldn’t save any extra manna? Why couldn’t they stockpile some in case the manna didn’t appear the following day? Perhaps it was it because God wanted to teach them to depend only upon Him for each day’s sustenance and to trust that He would provide. God wanted them to understand that, if they consumed his provisions as he commanded, exactly the right amount would be provided when it was needed again.

God blesses us each day, not just with food but also with money, opportunities, talents and time. Do we ever hoard those blessings because we don’t trust God to continue his provision? Be careful; if we don’t use the gifts he gives us today we, like the Israelites, might find those blessings spoiled or gone tomorrow.

Father, help us trust in your daily provision for all of the blessings in our lives.

Give us the food we need for each day. [Matthew 6:11 (NCV)]

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

April 7, 2014

Posted under

Faith & Hope, Salvation: A New You, Sorrow, Grief & Regrets, Today: Make it Count

He’s Just Around the Corner

2014-4-7Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.” [John 11:25-26 (NLT)]

Dear Lord, console those who mourn and fill them with hope. Wipe their tears and help them find comfort in both their faith and memories. Reassure them that life for the believer does not end at death but will continue forever in your loving presence. Guide the bereaved through their grief and bring them to a place where they again will have laughter and joy in their lives.

I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh. [John 6:47-51 (NLT)]

“Death is Nothing at All”
[Henry Scott Holland, Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral]

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without affect, without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

March 26, 2014

Posted under

Attitudes & Behavior, God's Promises, Love & Works, Temptation & Sin, Today: Make it Count

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. [Galatians 6:7 (NLT)]

This verse from Galatians makes me think of the character Larry David plays in the HBO comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Easily aggravated by the pettiest of annoyances, he inappropriately expresses his irritation at the drop of a hat. He can make a molehill into a mountain and will stop at nothing to prove his point. Having no filter and little consideration or compassion for others, he manages to aggravate and alienate nearly everyone around him. Inevitably, the person he has offended is exactly the person from whom he needs something later in the episode. That kind of behavior may make for good comedy but it is not the way to live our lives. What we sow in our actions, we will reap. Just as good deeds can bring a harvest of blessings, bad conduct brings a harvest of weeds. Let’s never get tired of doing what is generous, kind and good.

Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. [Galatians 6:8-9 (NLT)]