2-19-2018

Good Morning All,

       Matthew 24:42; “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” 

    Many years ago, there was a movie titled “Dead Poets Society.”  It starred Robin Williams as an unorthodox English teacher in a staid private school.  He teaches poetry and he teaches it is about feelings.  It is about passion.  He teaches that all the great poetry is dripping with raw emotion.  In one of the more riveting scenes, he takes his class to look at pictures of previous graduating classes from long ago, long enough that all those in the pictures are dead.

    He tells them the legacy of these men to them is the message, “Carpe Diem!”  “Seize the day, lads!”  He tells the students that we are all one day closer to death and to think that we will live forever is folly.  We need to grab life today or else we may miss it.

    This is the same message to us as Christians except we have a “double angle.” We see our eventual death and we also see the return of our Lord which may precede our earthly death.  This may sound somewhat fearful maybe even macabre but in truth it should be liberating to us.

    We know that we have God’s promise of salvation.  We know if we cling to this promise we are truly saved.  So we should live the lives that God gives to us with all the joy that we can.  Rather than sitting idly by, God wants us to live this life that he gives to us with all the excitement that we can.

    God gives us the freedom to live!  We are not tied down by the devil or the trials of this world; they are only temporary.  It is only our sinful nature that makes these molehills into mountains.  God calls to us with his love and part of that message is to take hold of life.  Tell those in your life that you love them.  Visit old friends; make new ones.  God gives us the opportunity to do it today; we need to do it.  God gives us the freedom to go on with our life.

    Yet God gives to us another reason for our desire to seize the day; as the day of the Lord approaches; there are many souls to be witnessed to.  We see this in the early disciples.  They go and preach with great fervor because they are convinced that Jesus’ return is only a few days, weeks at most a few months away.  They preached with a fervor and an intensity in order to get the message preached as far as possible trying to complete the mission of “in Jerusalem, Judea and all the world”.

    God gives us the day to seize with all the energy that we have.  We are to live, love, and witness with a zeal and a desire.  God tells to never delay; we are to never avoid or miss the opportunity to witness Jesus’ Gospel in whatever way we can.  Whether it is through showing our love to our family and friends or sharing God’s love to total strangers, seize the day you do not know when the day of the Lord will come.

Gracious Father, you give us each day to live.  Give us the desire to live each day with the desire and zeal to serve you.  Give us the zeal and desire to love those around us and to bring to them your love and hope.  Move your Church to be your fire.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret