Volume 2 Number 49 December 7, 2003 Living in the Now!

Living in the Now!

You can't rewind your life.

There is no way to undo the past.

To relive your life is impossible.

You cannot go forward'¦looking back!

Your life is always on 'play'.
There is no 'rewind' button.
There is no 'pause' button.
Only one button remains'¦'the end'.

The only question is how you go forward from 'now'!

The above are simple but profound thoughts that I put before you. So often I am dealing with people that for one reason or another seem to be bogged down in the past. No matter what they face for the future their minds are obsessed with the past. Sometimes these past events are truly horrific or life shattering. Yet the past prevents them from living in the 'now' in a clear and creative way.

Some daydream of past girlfriends or boyfriends and wonder what life would have been had you made a different choice.

Often divorce puts the lives of many stuck in a time warp, unable to move on and face the future.

Death of a family member or close friend can bring grief that many cannot deal with even after many years.

It is so easy to look back on past decisions about jobs, school, career, friends and etc. and use these things to cause us to live a very stagnant life now.

So many people are simply crippled in life and living by events of the past.

This short column is not a substitute for every problem or hurt of the past but I do trust it will focus you on a solution and of going forward.

David the King of Israel back in the Bible days said:

Psalm 51:4-17 in the Holy Bible
“Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight-- that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.
Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.
Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; you do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart-- these, O God, You will not despise.'

You see in the above where after repentance and forgiveness David looks forward and says 'Then will I teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you'. He does not stay in the past. He deals with it before God then moves forward in ministry!

Paul the early evangelist in the first century said it this way:

“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.'
Philippians 3:10-14 in the Holy Bible

Jesus said:

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Matthew 16:24-26 in the Holy Bible

Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go."
And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."
Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."
Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God."
And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house."
But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
Luke 9:57-62 in the Holy Bible

"I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.'
John 10:9-10 in the Holy Bible

I have carried a 12-foot cross around the world for now 34 years. Walking with the cross over 60,000,000 steps. I can say this. You can't walk forward looking back. As I walk on the roadsides and trails and jungles and on snow and ice it is extremely important to look ahead for traffic, or stones or vines or anything that will trip you or cause you to stumble or fall. Your eyes are always scanning the obstacles ahead. Will that rock roll under my foot? Is it slippery? Will that car stop? Is the traffic clear for me to cross the road? Which way do I go at the intersection? Which direction am I walking? Will this road get me to where I want to go? Is this the right way?

In life it is the same way!
It is important to ask yourself the same questions about your life.

You can forgive others in the past.
You can forgive yourself.
You can seek to make things right if at all possible.
You can ask God to cleanse your mind of old nagging and painful memories.
You can ask Jesus to give you a new mind and clean heart and new life.
You can ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and give you the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
You can focus your mind on the things that are pure and good and Godly and Christ reflecting.
You can have victory in the power of Jesus who has all power.

Oh dear friend, dear preacher, dear lady, dear man, dear one bound by the past. You can be free! Don't let yesterday's defeats rob you of the joy of the Lord today and the wonder of living in the will and plan of God for the remainder of your life.

Don't let the opinions of others destroy your life today. Don't be pulled down by the words of others. Hear Jesus calling! In His Name be Free!

God bless you and focus you on Jesus and others!

Pilgrim followers of Jesus,
Arthur Blessitt, Editor
Luke 18:1

Denise Blessitt, Associate Editor