TURNING THE PAGES

By Shirley Wiggins

Life can be likened to a calendar.  It is lived day by day.   What we do each day is important, because at the end of the day many of us just turn the calendar page and move our unfinished to-do list to the next day:  tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will do those things we did not finish today.  But, sometimes my daily to-do list gets drowned in the trivia that eats up the days of my life.

The turning of the page represents for me the turning from today to tomorrow – the leaving behind of all the yesterdays.

When “today” turns in to tomorrow, the “new today,” what will happen to all the things not done yesterday, the “old today”?

I find it amazing how quickly the end of the year comes – from New Year’s Day to New Year’s Eve!   And, now I begin to wonder about those daily things I needed to do, and wanted to do, that somehow were never finished, nor perhaps ever even started. 

Sobering thought:  we cannot go back to this today once it comes to its end.  Just like turning the pages on this year’s calendar – once turned you can’t go back to that day:  there are no do-overs once the day has ended.

Tomorrow somehow becomes today – the “new”  today.  The “old”  today is now relegated to yesterday.

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow – the way we measure our time.

Reflectively, today  I turn around to see my yesterdays…pondering the possibilities that never became realities.

Oh, my!  There is that one thing:  that particular thing I always thought I would finish!   But, I haven’t.  It always seemed to get shuffled off to tomorrow, always tomorrow.

That thing that haunts my unfulfilled longings – that one thing that reminds me, “I am not ready for my last  today: the day when there are no more tomorrows for me.”

 Time is short and it will run out.  Eternity is forever.

No tomorrows are promised, only anticipated. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”  Hebrews 13:8.

 Oh, how we take “tomorrow” for granted!

Yesterday, I was young.  Today, I am older.   Tomorrow, I will be …?

If I knew today was my Day with no tomorrow, what would I do today?

“How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?  Your life is like the morning fog – it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”  James 4:14 (NLT). 

Today is my gift from God – what will I do today?

Friend, have you done that One Most Important Thing?  Have you settled where you will spend Eternity?  Have you been born again?

“For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end.  Your  new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.  As the Scriptures say, ‘People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field.  The grass withers and the flower fades.  But the word of the Lord remains forever.’  And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.”  1 Peter 1:23-25.

Have you heard the Good News?

This is the Good News that Jesus came to tell:

“… Jesus went into Galilee, where He preached God’s Good News.  ‘The time promised by God has come at last!' He announced.  ‘The Kingdom of God is near!  Repent of your sins and believe the Good News.’”  Mark 1:14 -15.

Both the apostle Peter, and then the apostle Paul, preached the same message:

“Peter replied, ‘Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away – all who have been called by the Lord our God..”  Acts 2:38-40.

“…But now He (God) commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to Him.  For He has set a day for judging the world with justice by the Man He has appointed, and He proved to everyone who this is by raising Him (Jesus) from the dead.”  Acts 17:30b-31.

“I (Paul) have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike – the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.”  Acts. 20:21.

“Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”  John 3:3.

“For this is how God loved the world:  He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.  God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.  There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him.  But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.  And the judgment is based on this fact:  God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.”  John 3:16-19.

“But to all who believed Him and accepted Him (Jesus), He gave the right to become children of God.  They are reborn – not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.”  John 1:12-13.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.  It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.  God uses it to prepare and equip His people to do every good work.”  2 Timothy 3:16-17.

If you aren’t a child of God, your salvation and security are not settled.  Seek the face of God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, and settle your eternal destination today.

No one is prepared to live until they are prepared to die.

What will you do today?

 

 

November 1, 2020 

By Shirley Wiggins

THE GOD I WANT TO KNOW

 

This is the God I want to know:  The God Jesus knew.

Jesus came to me in 1981 with an invitation:  You believe in God, believe in Me also.

The timing was unbelievable.  I was on my way to my mother’s funeral in the latter part of June 1981, traveling back to my “home” church.

The location was pretty incredible too:  I was sitting in the front seat of our family car, my husband was driving and my youngest brother and his young wife were sitting in the back seat.

The invitation came in an amazing way.  It was written with words clearly seen but no earthly hand delivered it.  It was visual and it is now imbedded forever in my memory because it appeared to me in my “mind’s eye.”

Some of the mystery has now been explained.  The message has been preserved for a long time in The Holy Bible.  The words of Scripture I “read” were found later in the New King James Version of the Bible at John 14:1-3 and this was its entirety that I read in my mind’s eye on that particular day:

            “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

My reaction on that day to this startling thing that had never happened to me before continues to astound me!  I said not a word to anyone, I was so deep in my own grief I could hardly function.  My only conscious thought that I can still remember today is that with every fresh wave of reality that swept over me was that my mother was gone forever from me and I could not survive without her.  I now know I was in shock, but I had no knowledge of that then.

At the time, I took comfort in several things:  God had prepared a place for my mother and she was now with Him.  Only in the years to come would I truly open up that invitation that was sent for comfort, but also for my personal good as well.  So much I needed to know!

As the familiar hymns were sung with their words meant to bring comfort, the pastor shared kind words about my mother’s obvious love of being in church and hearing the sermons about the God she depended upon. 

And then an astounding thing happened:   I had the undeniable ‘sense’ of being placed in the all-encompassing  embrace of warmth, light, and inexpressible love and security in the understanding that all is well:  Everything is going to be all right.  I actually smiled in the depth of that comfort.

I cannot explain what occurred any better than that – even after all these years.

Neither can I understand how I experienced these two amazing things and then reverted to life with its grief almost as though it had not  happened.  Not entirely as if it hadn’t happened because in the pastor’s remarks, he read the same words I had received in my mind.    I contacted him later to ask where those words could be found in the Bible.   I had never,  to my knowledge, heard them before, nor had I ever read them in the Bible.

Obviously, I was a very young and immature Christian still trying to find my way in the Christian life.   Also obvious to me now is that I thought I knew a lot more than I actually did.   At this point in time, I had spent years teaching Bible classes, mostly to young children, but also a young marrieds Sunday School class.

It has been a slow unfolding of the truth that Jesus came to give me that day.   A belief in God requires that we must also know His Son, Jesus Christ.   Spiritual maturity is required in the Christian life.

God requires that each person who comes to Him for salvation must come through His Son, Jesus Christ:  “This is real love--not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. ...All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. ...   We love each other because He loved us first. ... Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God.  And everyone who loves the Father loves His children, too.”  1 John 4:10, 15, 19; 5:1.

The Bible is our Teacher, the Holy Spirit is our Guide into all truth:  “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”  John 16:13.

The Christian life is a quest for learning all we can about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit:  the inseparable Triune God.  The Bible is the source of Truth, all truth.

The longer I live, the more I desire to know the God of truth and the Truth of God.

Frequently I get a “wake up call” to take life very seriously because life is short and eternity is long.  Since the COVID-19 virus has invaded the nations of the world with such force, along with the unrest throughout the world, and the escalating lawlessness in my own country of birth, I feel the great need to know God and Jesus better than I actually Do.

This morning I awakened with a sense that everything has changed, a shift in time has occurred.  I have considered that as a Christian for many years, I have placed my trust in the Lord.  However, almost daily,  opportunities for fear to dominate over trust present themselves to me.  

One of my favorite daily devotionals is one from Bible Gateway by Dallas Willard.  Today it is entitled, “The God Jesus Knew.”    I was taken with the fact that perhaps my knowledge about God needed to be examined to be sure that what I think I know is actually the truth!

Thus,  my remembrances this morning about that special day when Jesus kindly told me that while I believed in God, I needed to believe in Him as well.  That has been unfolding for 39 years now.

There is no substitute for Truth and getting it right about salvation is a must, but, pursuing the truth about God and Jesus is an absolute joy.  This is what life was meant for:  to know the God who gave life!  That is the purpose for every life.

To know the God Who is the Source of life.  Life is pointless and meaningless until we know the God of life.  Jesus came into the world to show us God.  Jesus came to die that we might be reunited to the God who gave us birth.  God resurrected Jesus from death to life that we might be able to call God, the Father of Jesus Christ, “Father.”  Our Father.  Abba! Father!

“The God that Jesus knew was perhaps very different from the God often described in our contemporary world.”  - Dallas Willard.

“The heart cannot love what the mind does not know.” – Jen Wilkin.

The Two Great Commandments have to do with love. When Jesus was asked which is the first commandment of all, He answered:  “ The first of all the commandments is:  ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. ‘ This is the first commandment, and the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no other commandment greater than these.” – Mark 12:29-31.  See also Deuteronomy 6.

Since we are commanded to love, and since the heart cannot love what the mind does not know, isn’t it time to know the God that Jesus knew?

To know the God of love, the God who gave life, the God of Creation, the God of Covenant, the God who desires to be, not just mankind’s creator God, but to be our Father, is this not what our life is to be about ---- to Know Him?

Open The Holy Bible and discover this God who knows you and loves you, but cannot save you until you come to Him, through His Son, Jesus Christ.  Know Him today, I pray.

 

Names and Attributes of God --- 'M'

by Hallie Gipson

The days we are living in are strange indeed! Nothing comes close to resembling what we once called ‘normal’. Everything has been adapted to deal with the pandemic the entire world is experiencing, and everyone is affected. Each of us could list numerous ways our lives have changed.

But One constant has and will remain --- GOD!

“For I, the Lord, do not change;” (Malachi 3:6)

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

Who we know Him to be now, is who He has always been and will always be.

MAKER

“Come let us worship and bow down, Let us keel before the Lord our Maker.”  Psalm 95:6

“Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, “I, the Lord, am the maker of all things.”  Isaiah 44:24

MERCIFUL

“But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious . . .”   Psalm 86:15

“The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.”  Psalm 145:8

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). Ephesians 2:4-5

MESSIAH

“He (Andrew) found first his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” which translated means Christ).  John 1:41

“The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”  John 4:25-26

MEDIATOR

“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”  1 Timothy 2:5

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem . . . and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood. . . ”   Hebrews 12:22, 24

So let us remember the words of Moses as he gave his last council to the children of Israel:

“Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”  Deuteronomy 31:6

Similar words are repeated in Hebrews:

“. . . for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?”  Hebrews 13:5b-6

Sovereign Lord, I praise You that in the midst of uncertain times, You are as unchanging as ever!! Help us remember that “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear. . .”  Psalm 46:1, 2   Amen.