Repent One Day Before You Die

Rabbi Eliezer said in the Mishnah said, “Repent one day before you die.” We always think we have tomorrow to worry about eternal things, to ask forgiveness from someone, to fix a wrong we committed, and so on. Oh, to forget that one day in your life will not have a tomorrow.

Esau didn’t think too much on the eternal results of temporal choices. In Genesis 25:32 he says, “I’m about to die, so what good is a birthright to me?” He’s not dying, he’s hungry. But how often do we choose to take the hyperboles of life as literal? How often do we too fall prey to the necessity of the urgent and forsake our future? Oh, eternal things can wait, this temporal matter is more pressing.

Oh friend, let us not waste away our eternity for lousy bowls of soup. The choices we make today will great determine our eternity, the attitudes we cop here will echo forever. Repent, and be mindful, lest tomorrow is the beginning of eternity where we cannot fix up yesterday’s issues.

How do you spend your life?

Today’s Sermon: Our Motivation in Giving… Today I spoke on 2 Corinthians 9:5-13 and Paul’s discourse on three ways to give rightly and three ways not to give. Verses 5, 6, and 7 each give one good way and one not so good way to give. In the negative, 5 says not as an exaction. This I call, “giving because I have to” – sort of like God is the IRS. 6 says not sparingly. To me, this is, “Giving with me in mind.” Someone asks for my help and I say, “If I can spare the time.” I get first dibs, you get leftovers. 7 says not reluctantly or our of compulsion. I call this, “giving because I ought to.” Compulsion… another great word for guilt, which we all know that, “guilt is the gift that keeps on giving.”

Let us try to follow the positive views by Paul. Think of giving as a gift (v 5), bountifully (v 6), and cheerfully (v 7). When we give to the Lord of all of our resources let us give as if we were picking the perfect Christmas present – thoughtfully, specially, and excitingly.

God even uses stubborn disbelievers

Mark 16:14-15. Before Jesus delivers the Great Commission to his disciples, he begins with a rebuke the verse before! God still believes in us to carry His mission, even though he has seen our disbelief. The disciples were rebuked for two things, not having faith in Christ’s word and not having faith in the testimony of those who He had revealed Himslef to already.

So, what can we learn from this? Two things, God can use you even if your faith even in the foundamentals is shaky. And, be patient with those who God has given you as partners in ministry when you share your testimony and they fail to believe.

So the next time your faith faulters, have courage, God still is commissioning you. He has a plan for your life. And those stubborn people you are working with to fulfill the Great Commission? God’s using them too. They may give you a headache, but they are commissioned by God as well, even in their current lack-luster faith.