Tomorrow is Not Guaranteed

I am reading in Psalms 90 which is “A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.” 

In this Psalm, Moses speaks of the brevity of life and of how we need to number our days because we do not know when life will be taken from us. None of us knows for certain when God is going to bring his judgements upon the earth and upon the nations who may claim him as their God but who deny him by their actions, as did the majority of the Israelites who went with Moses into the wilderness who God then overthrew in the wilderness.

And why did God overthrow them? Because their desire was for evil and not for God and for his commandments. So many of them were idolaters and revelers and drunkards who chose entertainment and play over devotion and loyalty to their God. Many were those who indulged in sexual immorality as a matter of life practice and who ignored the Lord’s commandments. Many of them put Christ to the test – Christ who was their spiritual rock from whom they drank in the wilderness – and many grumbled against the Lord.

And the things that they did which displeased God and which got them killed, and which kept them out of God’s eternal kingdom, took place and were written down for us as examples so that we do not desire evil as they did and end up with the same result. For we will not have the hope of salvation from sin and the promise of eternal life with God if our actions do not match our words, i.e. if our behaviors are the opposite of what we profess with our lips. For it is the ones doing God’s will who have hope.

See: 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13

And one of the biggest deterrents today to professers of faith in Jesus Christ following the Lord Jesus in wholehearted devotion to him, in surrender to his will and purpose for their lives, is that we have so many people teaching an altered version of God/Christ Jesus and of his gospel message and of his church, the body of Christ. And so many people are believing the lies and are rejecting the truth, because then they can live their lives however they want to live them while promising themselves heaven as their destiny.

And another big deterrent is the easy accessibility there is today to all that is evil, perhaps most especially to what is sexually immoral (porn, as an example), right at people’s fingertips via these smart devices which even children are now being given access to, some of them unsupervised. But it isn’t just that subject, although that is HUGE right now, but it includes all the evil and godless influences which are on the internet that children and adults alike are taking into their minds and that they are accepting as normal.

But our God is unchanging. He is the same God as he was for the children of Israel when they wandered in the wilderness as he is to us today. Yes, we are not under the Old Covenant law God had with his people Israel of that time, but we are not to be lawless. The New Testament demands that we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his New Covenant commands and that we no longer walk (in conduct, in practice) in sin if we want to have genuine salvation from sin and eternal life with God. For God does not change.

“So teach us to number our days

    that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Return, O Lord! How long?

    Have pity on your servants!

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,

    that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,

    and for as many years as we have seen evil.

Let your work be shown to your servants,

    and your glorious power to their children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,

    and establish the work of our hands upon us;

    yes, establish the work of our hands!” (Psalms 90:12-17 ESV)

So, if we are truly numbering our days, as is intended in this context, what should that look like to us? I believe it begins with a heart examination in comparison to what the New Testament Scriptures teach on the subject of who is “In Christ” and what it means to “believe” in Jesus and what the Christian life should look like (as taught in the appropriate context). Our lives need to measure up to what Jesus and his NT apostles taught that the Christian life should be like in practice, and not just in profession.

So, we should take inventory of our daily lives and compare them to the Scriptures, in context. Are we those whose lives are surrendered to the Lord Jesus? Are we truly walking in his ways and in his truth and righteousness and not in sin? Are we faithful to the Lord in service to him? Is he truly the Lord (Owner-Master) of our lives, or are we the ones still “running the ship”? Is it our habit (daily practice) to obey him and to serve him with our lives, or is our daily practice to feed the flesh and to do what pleases ourselves only?

And we need to do this examination in light of what the Scriptures teach on who God decides is righteous in his sight, and who is not. For Jesus and his NT apostles made it quite clear that if sin is what we practice (our habit), and if walks of obedience to our Lord and to his NC commands is not our practice, we will not inherit eternal life with God, but we will die in our sins.

So repent of your sins today. None of us is guaranteed tomorrow.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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