May 09, 2025 | Be God's Family
Today is the Day
Scripture: Hebrews 4:6-7(NIV)
6 Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, 7 God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
Devotional
On the old cartoon Popeye, the ever-hungry character Wimpy regularly said, “I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” He would have loved the famous nine-patty burger at Wayback Burger. It’s 5000 calories. Skip the Mayo if you’re on a diet.
Too often we have a Wimpy approach to life in Christ. I’ll serve more when I retire. I’ll give more when I strike it rich. I’ll believe more when I have more time to devote to such things.
But God said that day is Today. In 2 Corinthians 6:2, Paul quoted Isaiah 49:8 where the Lord said, “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you.” Then Paul boldly proclaimed, “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” Jesus is the hope of today!
God’s rest has both a future and present connotation for believers in Jesus. After this life, we can be assured of eternity in heaven, in the very presence of the Lord Himself. When believers die, the Bible promises “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them” (Revelation 14:13). Salvation in Christ leads to eternal Sabbath-rest.
But right now, while we are alive in the present, there is a Sabbath-rest which is a taste of what is to come. We can experience the peace of Christ, even when life is hard. We can embrace the love of Christ, even though we don’t always feel lovable. We can be encompassed by the grace of Christ, all day, every day.
The promises of Jesus are here for you to claim today. Don’t put it off until a Tuesday that will never come.
Poem
Meribah (quarrel, provocation, strife, or contention)
Psalm 95
For Caryl and Jason
Today, if only you would hear his voice, “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” Psalm 95:7b-11
Like storm clouds rolling, circling
My brooding thoughts swirl round
A bitterness disturbing
A striving which confounds
A loss, a grief contending
Bold questioning God’s grace
A bone to pick with Jesus
A yelling in God’s face
“Why do you let this sorrow
Continue day and night?
Why are you silent, absent
When I alone do strive?
Where are you when you promised
To never leave my side;
When in my darkest moments
Do you seem most to hide?”
“Can you not hear my voicing?
My accusations clear?
Are you in heav’n rejoicing
While I am suff’ring here?
I know your call to trust you
I know your call to rest
Yet here I lie in agony
Forgotten and distressed”
Lord, take me to your garden
Lord, you, my Eden be
Collapse me now to kneeling
Let quiet cover me
Allow my hands to tarry
Among this soil below
And set my heart to weeding
Deep bitter roots to hoe
Uncover now my masking
Expose the angry roots
Which wind beneath my surface
Which strangle out your truth
Assist me, Lord, and guide me
Your strong hand upon mine
As we together cultivate
This broken heart of mine
Amidst long winter’s freezing
Let me, beneath your mulch,
Discover new growth springing
Sustained ‘spite chilling touch
O, shine bright Son upon me
My sorrow to divest
Today, each moment entering
Your vast eternal rest
