Nickelback Music Video Saving Me We should all live in the current moment. We know that, don't we? So easy to say, but so hard to do. Many of us think we can do it or are doing it. Yet until we have no money left and we have no clue where our next meal is coming from we have never lived in the current moment. Only then do we finally realize what it is to live in the current moment.
I have participated in several teachings lately - Sunday morning, men's breakfast, and most recently last Wednesday evening. All have punctuated, in one way or another, the need to live in the current moment. Don't know where your next paycheck is coming from? One of the men at the breakfast said, go out and serve God and He will provide. Easy to say. Hard to do. This man is doing it and God is providing for him. There is power in the statement of one acting in faith.
We discussed the lepers in 2 Kings 7. They acted in faith.
7:3 Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? 7:4 If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. 7:5 And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians; and when they were come to the outermost part of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no man there. 7:6 For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. 7:7 Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. 7:8 And when these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and they came back, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it.
There was famine in the land...much like we are experiencing today. These men were outcast and destined to die. They knew if they tried to go into the city, there was no food. If they stayed where they were, there was no food. So, they decided to go into the enemy camp. If they died there, so what? If not, maybe they would get something to eat. Their faith in action starts a mighty series of events. What I noted was that they didn't pray about it, they didn't think about it. They just decided to do it. Sometimes when we don't know what to do, doing something, anything, is better than nothing at all.
When someone talks to us, do we listen? Or are we thinking about what is needed to prepare dinner tomorrow? Do we tell someone we will pray for them? Or do we stop what we are doing right then and pray?
How many of us can give our pastors undivided attention on Sunday morning? We have so many things going on that we can't think about what God is doing right in front of us. It is so hard for us. So hard. Are we so much in a hurry to get to the soccer game that we miss the person with the sad eyes at the coffee pot? Do we not see them? Or do we see them and say to ourselves, not again, I just don't have time?
Time is not something we are promised. Provision we are promised. Blessings we are promised. Trials we are promised. We are never promised time. Time is a gift we have, yet we take it for granted so much.
These thoughts have weighed heavy on my mind over the past week or so. As I watched Hurricane Ike forming and approaching the shoreline, I thought, they have time. Yet, in matters of eternity, we don't have time. Before you finish reading this, someone's time is up.
The music video below is really profound. It isn't some nice glowing worship song. Rather it is the same message for today that was given by Ezekiel years ago:
33:2 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman; 33:3 if, when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; 33:4 then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning, if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 33:5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him; whereas if he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul. 33:6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, and the sword come, and take any person from among them; he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. 33:7 So thou, son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
The watchman knows the urgency of time. There can be no delay in his warning. What if we knew when everybody's last breath was going to be? I pondered this a lot. Virginia has been dealing with this with her husband Bill for quite some time. She knows the end is near, but knows not how to walk it out. Do we? See her latest comments on her blog post about how some of the doctors don't even know how to walk it out.
What if we knew? That is what this music video poses to us. Would we act differently? If we knew our last moment would we want someone to save us? Would we want to help someone else be saved? What if we knew that they were crying out in their hearts that they wanted to be saved, but there wasn't much time? Would our actions be different?
I realize there are a lot of questions here. These are the questions I have been thinking over the past week. My answer is simple...it shouldn't cause us to act differently. We should never take any gift for granted - even time. God help me walk that out.
Wow, now this was a powerful blog...and that video I have always loved...it tells it doesn't it...how we need each other...GREAT STUFF HERE...I'd give you more than one star for this one...AWESOME!
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do. Many of us think we can do it or are doing it. Yet until we have no money left and we have no clue where our next meal is coming from we have never lived in the current moment. Only then do we finally realize what it is to live in the current moment.
things going on that we can't think about what God is doing right in front of us. It is so hard for us. So hard. Are we so much in a hurry to get to the soccer game that we miss the person with the sad eyes at the coffee pot? Do we not see them? Or do we see them and say to ourselves, not again, I just don't have time?
