"The Only Day"

If given the option of living six more months of life with much quality, or 20 more years with little or no quality, which would you choose?

This is not a test. It is, however, an interesting and very different issue for born again believers in the Lord Jesus, as opposed to those who do know Him. The former have much assurance of life both in the here and now, and in the hereafter. The latter have little expectation of any existence but the all too brief temporal span from birth to death. Thus, the question we raise may well elicit very different answers from the believer and the unbeliever.

I suspect that many believers would opt for the six months of quality. Unless God chose for us to linger, (which He might for His good purposes), most of us would likely see little reason to remain in a difficult earthly existence when a glorious Heaven awaits. We would likely seek to live those six months with a great spiritual zest and enthusiasm, seeking to glorify the Lord Jesus, and as I recently heard in a radio advertisement, "leaving this world exhausted!"

The unbeliever might well have a well have a different response. If this present life is all there is, many might well desire the twenty years, hoping to make the best of their difficult lot because a disturbing nothingness is viewed as the only other possibility. Indeed, humanity bears within its heart a great and intrinsic yearning to be. To be forever. The unbeliever, however, has no real hope that his cosmic desire for eternal existence is anything more than an evolutionary cruelty somehow misprogrammed by natural selection. He might therefore opt for twenty years of difficulty in order to stem the tide of nothingness that he believes will drown him in a forever too horrific to easily embrace (sadly, of course, he is wrong in his opinion that life ends upon physical death, and an even greater darkness than nothingness actually awaits those who reject the Lord Jesus).

The truth of the matter is that none of us has six months or twenty years of earthly existence. We have today. Frances and I often challenge each other when either of us expresses concern about the future. "Oh, so the Lord has appeared to you physically and guaranteed that you'll be here tomorrow?!" He doesn't do that, of course, because the Bible plainly commands that we must sink our heart and being into the only day promised in our present existence.

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow... Go to now, ye that say, To day or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that" (Matthew 6:34; James 4:13-15).

The best response to the rhetorical question we raise is to outrightly reject its premise. One day. Today. This day is all we have. If we have awoken to greet December 2, 2011 (or whatever day you may be reading this), let us go forth with that "great spiritual zest and enthusiasm" to see what our Heavenly Father has prepared for us, and for those with whom we live our lives. Such a perspective will open our hearts and eyes to His presence and loving purpose for the only day God has given to us. He awaits us therein, and we will find Him as we join the Psalmist in his joyful assurance and affirmation...

"This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

(Psalm 118:24)

"Looking For the Mercy"

"Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life" (Jude 1:21).

Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ need do nothing to maintain the face and intensity of God's love for us. This is His eternally fixed prerogative, based upon His own character of grace, mercy, and devotion to others. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3).

We do much, however, to keep ourselves in the love of God. As James explained, we "look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ." We set our gaze and keep our gaze upon the Savior who freely provides an all encompassing grace that we must freely receive. "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" confirmed the writer of Hebrews, and thus we must determine how to maintain our focus on the Divine love that alone fosters and enables human devotion. "We love Him because He first loved us" (Hebrews 12:2; I John 4:19).

First, we heed our Lord's command to "continue in My Word" (John 8:31). We do so not with an onerous sense of burden, but with an amazed wonder that God so desires to communicate Himself and His truth to us. If we are thinking rightly, the responsibility of reading and assimilating Scripture should be viewed as if our Lord commanded us to daily eat a bowl of chocolate ice cream. I also liken it to the stunning humility displayed in our Lord's washing of His disciples' feet in light of the Apostle Paul's description of Scripture as "the washing of water by the Word" (John 13:1-17; Ephesians 5:26).

We also seek the mercy of God in the privilege of prayer. As we often reference, our Heavenly Father takes great pleasure in our communication with Him because of His great love for us - "the prayer of the upright is His delight" - and the proper, Biblical understanding of prayer calls us to approach the throne of grace in the confidence that an affectionate, devoted Heart awaits us there (Proverbs 15:8). A life of consistent communion with God unveils such love to us, even as it births such love in us for God and for others.

We furthermore avail ourselves to the example, illumination, encouragement and challenge we find in fellow believers. Keeping ourselves near to love of Christ as it dwells in our brothers and sisters provides a primary means by which we keep ourselves in the love of God. We should expect to see such goodness in each other, notwithstanding the imperfections that still remain in us. As we maintain such an attitude of hope and grace, we do in fact discover the face of God shining in the face of His trusting sons and daughters in Christ. The remembrance and reality of Divine love can never be far from us so long as we keep ourselves near to our brothers and sisters.

Finally, if we must "keep" ourselves in the love of God, we recognize that influences must be aligned against us to move us away from the holy environment of His realized devotion. The world, the devil, and the flesh (including our own) constantly seek to distract our focus from the good will that graces our Father's heart. Our enemies would cloud and enshroud this bright sunlight. We must arise within our hearts to remember and affirm the "great love" that never fails to shine upon those who consistently "look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."

"I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

(John 17:26)

"Looking For the Mercy"

"Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life" (Jude 1:21).

Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ need do nothing to maintain the face and intensity of God's love for us. This is His eternally fixed prerogative, based upon His own character of grace, mercy, and devotion to others. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3).

We do much, however, to keep ourselves in the love of God. As James explained, we "look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ." We set our gaze and keep our gaze upon the Savior who freely provides an all encompassing grace that we must freely receive. "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" confirmed the writer of Hebrews, and thus we must determine how to maintain our focus on the Divine love that alone fosters and enables human devotion. "We love Him because He first loved us" (Hebrews 12:2; I John 4:19).

First, we heed our Lord's command to "continue in My Word" (John 8:31). We do so not with an onerous sense of burden, but with an amazed wonder that God so desires to communicate Himself and His truth to us. If we are thinking rightly, the responsibility of reading and assimilating Scripture should be viewed as if our Lord commanded us to daily eat a bowl of chocolate ice cream. I also liken it to the stunning humility displayed in our Lord's washing of His disciples' feet in light of the Apostle Paul's description of Scripture as "the washing of water by the Word" (John 13:1-17; Ephesians 5:26).

We also seek the mercy of God in the privilege of prayer. As we often reference, our Heavenly Father takes great pleasure in our communication with Him because of His great love for us - "the prayer of the upright is His delight" - and the proper, Biblical understanding of prayer calls us to approach the throne of grace in the confidence that an affectionate, devoted Heart awaits us there (Proverbs 15:8). A life of consistent communion with God unveils such love to us, even as it births such love in us for God and for others.

We furthermore avail ourselves to the example, illumination, encouragement and challenge we find in fellow believers. Keeping ourselves near to love of Christ as it dwells in our brothers and sisters provides a primary means by which we keep ourselves in the love of God. We should expect to see such goodness in each other, notwithstanding the imperfections that still remain in us. As we maintain such an attitude of hope and grace, we do in fact discover the face of God shining in the face of His trusting sons and daughters in Christ. The remembrance and reality of Divine love can never be far from us so long as we keep ourselves near to our brothers and sisters.

Finally, if we must "keep" ourselves in the love of God, we recognize that influences must be aligned against us to move us away from the holy environment of His realized devotion. The world, the devil, and the flesh (including our own) constantly seek to distract our focus from the good will that graces our Father's heart. Our enemies would cloud and enshroud this bright sunlight. We must arise within our hearts to remember and affirm the "great love" that never fails to shine upon those who consistently "look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."

"I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

(John 17:26)