pastorrudytlc

Speaking In The Light with Pastor Rudy   Wednesday July 8 2020

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Are you wide awake to what is staring you right in the face at this very moment? This has been a season of fear and frustration because what we once had counted so heavily upon has been turned upside down right before our very eyes. Who could have predicted how out of our control 2020 has become? It is hard to prepare for a tomorrow when maybe we should be seizing the very 24 hours we are presently living in!

Everyone needs to vent every now and then but nobody can muster a life out of a whiny spirit. Most of us magnify what is missing amidst our current stock rather than accentuating all that falls in the plus category. When was the last time you woke up grateful to simply be alive another day? No doubt we all have our fair share of disappointments, but God has a keen and creative way of turning these bumps along our pathway into His appointments where He does something miraculous amidst the mess. Too many Christians have turned the divinely anointed God spots into blind spots! This occurs when we end up looking for the Lord in all the wrong places. 

We need to stop waiting for the pandemic to pass before we reenter into the land of the living once again. What if life in our present package never returns to what we used to call, “normal?” What if God is showing us that His church can be just as alive outside of the building as it is inside the hallowed halls? What if we stepped out into our world with eyes wide open passionately pursuing heavenly ordained projects that God is providing right in our current neighborhood? Stop majoring on the minors and start counting all the blessings that Jesus is still pouring out our way every single day.

We know that the Bible paints a vivid and detailed picture of how life and faith will exist in the last days. Technically, we are clearly told that things will get worse before it gets better! Life will become darker and if there is going to be any light provided, it must be fueled by the faith of the God-followers still burning bright in the middle of the night. God has already assured us that those who have been filled from the inside out with His Holy Spirit are overcomers! Even if we lose our physical life, nothing and nobody can ever rob us the eternal life that God has promised us spiritually speaking. Outwardly we are passing away but inwardly we are literally being renewed every single day. When God is on the move, we either get on board or get passed by! Jesus purchased my seat by His saving blood on the Gospel Train. My seat is reserved and my future is set upon the rock of my Heavenly Father’s promise. The last I checked; the Lord is much better at following through on spoken pledges than any politician will ever be.

If the nightmare is not yet, then why are we not making the most of the beautiful day we discover ourselves presently in. Breathe in deep of the fresh air attempting to find its way into your lungs! God has a plan and a purpose for our every step and if we weren’t part of what He is doing in our world today, we’d already be in Heaven! There are too many of us who are so anxious and worried about the freedom that we may lose tomorrow; we don’t even use the wide-open doors available to us today. Don’t waste the daylight hours of now! Don’t waste a day to be a blessing!

No place on this planet has been more hostile to the work of God than what I call the “Procrasta- Nation!” “I’ll do that someday” is the mantra of its people. Don’t allow the “Procrasta-Nation” to steal the joy of your salvation! In the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 3 and verse 7, it reads: “Today if you hear God’s Voice, do not harden your heart!” How does God want you to walk actively after Him so you can be a real blessing this very week? Who can you touch to be a blessing? What can you do to be a blessing? Where can you go to be a blessing? When will you practically be a blessing? Why do we need to concern ourselves with this? Because Jesus told us to! What will you do with your day?

The great Evangelist, D.L. Moody, held his usual service the Sunday evening that the great Chicago Fire broke out.  At the close of the service, he asked his congregation to evaluate their relationship to Christ and to return the following week to make a decision.  This, he thought, would give them time to really think things over and result in a lasting decision.  He wanted to make sure that they were sure about accepting Jesus Christ, not wanting to pressure them into making a decision they wouldn’t stick with.  Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? 
While Ira Sankey was singing the closing hymn, it was drowned out by the sound of fire trucks and church bells.  To his dying day, Moody regretted delaying their decision to the following Sunday. It would be a Sunday that many in that meeting hall would not live to see. Within a matter of hours, many of those who sat under Moody’s words were dead.  There is no way of knowing how many that night could have gotten their hearts made right with God had an altar call been given, and there is no way of knowing how many that sat under Moody’s voice that night died in the fire and were not ready to meet God.

Mr. Moody would never be the same after that incident.  He became very ill because of the guilt he carried.  As a dedicated soul winner, D.L. Moody took such missed opportunities very, very seriously. “I have never since dared,” Moody later said, “to give an audience a week to think of their salvation. If they were lost, they might rise up in judgment against me. I have never seen that congregation since. I will never meet those people until I meet them in another world. But I want to tell you of one lesson that I learned that night which I have never forgotten, and that is, when I preach, to press Christ upon the people then and there and try to bring them to a decision on the spot.  I would rather have my right hand cut off than to give an audience a week now to decide what to do with Jesus.”​

Stop living in the past yearning for the good old days that were never that great anyway. Stop fretting over a tomorrow that hasn’t happened yet! God is asking you, “What will you do with today?” Will you waste it? Will you spend it foolishly? Will you invest it into eternity? Today is the day for God’s children to start living like we actually believe what our Heavenly Father has promised us! Will you?