Today Is The Day

Scripture

Indeed, the“right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.

~2 Corinthians 6:2, NLT

Quote

Tomorrow is a walled city with locked gates: we cannot enter or see over the walls.

~Calvin Miller

Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” [Matthew 6:34, NIV] Most of our anxieties have to do with future fears but those who are consumed with worry and anxiety about the future forfeit the privilege of living in the present. In other words, we are so worried about tomorrow that we do not enjoy today. James, the brother of our LORD gave us some excellent advice,  “Listen up those of you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.”  He is right, no one knows what tomorrow holds. The last Friday in January, June and I had some time off, so we were going to run some errands and just have a relaxed day with out any deadlines or schedules to meet. Our first stop was Hannah’s and we had no more than sat down when I got a call from my baby sister and she was weeping uncontrollably. She said, “Jack you have to come home now!” I thought, “what on earth is going on?” She said, “June Daphney has been killed in a car wreck.” June Daphney is our older sister. She was 87 just two days before the accident. That phone called changed all my plans. That phone call changed my day and my life. I do not know at the times I have gone to my study for a quiet day of rest, meditation and reflection only to get one of those disturbing calls. You never know what tomorrow holds but you cannot let the fear of the uncertainty of tomorrow ruin your day. Don’t waste time trying to figure out what is behind the high and thick walls of tomorrow. LORD willing, tomorrow will come but today is the only day you have so don’t blow it.

What is the present moment for? It is for our salvation. It is an opportunity to spend time with Jesus; to move closer to HIM, to get to know HIM better. If you spend today worrying about tomorrow, you will spend tomorrow worrying about the next day. It is a vicious cycle that will destroy your peace and happiness. If you know me well, you are probably thinking, “This is the pot calling the kettle black.” I think you would be right in that assessment, I do tend to worry too much, especially about speaking engagements, but I know for a fact, worry and anxiety will ruin the present. We have to reach a point where we commit our life to the LORD. Paul discovered that when he was weak, God used him more. He got to the point that he rejoiced in his weakness. When we get to this point, we can relax. We need to remember the words of Job, “I know that You can do all things; no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.” We may fail miserably but God will not fail. His kingdom will come and his will be fulfilled. You can count on it! Relax, you aren’t big enough to foul it up.

Extra

When I can’t sleep at night, I read. I had carried most of my books to the office a couple of days ago so the last two nights I have been reading a book that my cousin Melanie gave me…SOCIAL JUSTICE GOES TO CHURCH. I almost typed in Social Justice goes to town and I wish that were true instead of church. I don’t know how he pulled it off, but the devil has successfully got Marxism into the Christian Church. He has done it through a movement which is called “Progressive.” Unfortunately for us, I think it should be called Regressive. Baptist like Mark Hatfield, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Foy Valentine and countless others have been sucked into the movement. These people profess to be Evangelical Christians but they believe that some of Karl Marx philosophy is good and should be implemented. The progressives are big on social justice, racial discrimination and the redistribution of wealth. You are going to be shocked when you hear where much of this is coming from: I know I was. Many of the so called Evangelical Progressives come from the Dutch Reform church and others from the Anabaptist. When I saw the word Anabaptist, I thought to myself, this group is extinct. Wrong, wrong, wrong bro jack; they are alive and well. Here are some facts that I bet you do not know:

The Anabaptist in the USA includes the Amish, Shwarzenau Brethren, River Brethren, Hutterites, Mennonites, Apostolic Christian Church and the Bruderhof. Just google them and you will see for yourself. Anabaptist are communal people. I don’t think it is true of the Amish but the Bruderhof live in communes and share the wealth. No family has more or less wealth the the other. All of the off shuts of the Anabaptist or pacifist. They believe that all violence is wrong. They believe in non-resistance to anyone, even those with evil intent. They refuse to fight or defend themselves in any circumstance. They believe this is based on the life of Christ. Evidently, they missed John 2. I bet those money changers and livestock traders who felt the brunt of Jesus whip would disagree. Let me tell you what all progressives advocate: [1] Social Justice [2] Redistribution of wealth [3] Pacifism [4] the rights of women and minorities. I have been reading on this subject for awhile and let me tell you what they do not believe. None of the progressive groups are advocates for life. None of them are pro-life and that amazes me. This includes those who come out of the reform movement. This includes so called Baptist like Mark Hatfield, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, etc.

By the way, I see a big Judas tattoo on all the above. Why didn’t Hatfield share his wealth. The Clinton are fifty rich from and most of their money came from third world countries where people are literally starving. Have the Clinton redistributed their wealth? I can tell you what the dems are up to, redistributing our wealth. They plan to keep theirs. I am not offended by a Bruderhof community, or Amish or Minnonite. If they want to share wealth equally, so be it. I do think they should have to pay taxes like the rest of us. Let me tell you what these progressives are up to; especially the so called evangelical progressives. They disagree with Marx that there is a God but they believe that distribution of wealth can only happen when it is enforced by the state. So they take the teachings of Jesus on loving people and caring for the poor but they say that the gospel itself does not have the power to complete the job and that is where Marxism comes in. Are you setting there is shock? The whole things seems absurd and unbelievable. Did you know that Foy Valentine was the chairman of the Christian Life Commission of the SBC for years. He was not pro-life; he was a dyed in the wool progressive. I am proud to say that I ruined one of his conference in Huntsville, Alabama back in the early 80’s. They canceled an entire session because I was asking questions that he did not want to answer. When any man says something like this, “I am pro-life BUT,” He or she is not pro-life. They say that to deceive you. What they are is PROGRESSIVE and that is not good. Not all Calvinist are progressive but quite a number of them are and that includes Platt. Remember Platt’s project to redistribute wealth. He moved from a $500,000 dollar home to one that cost $250,000. My, my what a sacrifice! That was almost 20 years ago. Today it would be like moving from a million dollar home to one that cost a half of a million.

So if you laymen are ever on a search committee and you want to find out if the prospective pastor is a calvinist; just ask him pro-life questions. If he says, “I am pro-life but”, strike him.

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