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Dripping Springs Weekly Bulletins
Just An Ordinary Day
Twenty-four hours can be either a happy time – or a time filled with troubles. Sometimes a day can make or break a person’s life for years to come. A new job. A new friend. Opportunities for good can arise in just the time span of one day. One twenty-four hour day.
For some of us that day will bring tragic events that affect the rest of our lives. For others, that same day discloses a beautiful breakthrough for us that will be remembered as having given us a future full of joy.
A few years ago, one source took one twenty-four hour day and revealed what happens on just an average, ordinary day in America:
- 9,077 babies will be born.
- 5,200 people will die.
- 267 Americans will die in traffic accidents involving alcohol.
- 5,962 couples will get married.
- 2,986 couples will get a divorce, a tragedy affecting 2,989 children.
- 2,795 teen-age girls become pregnant.
- Another 1,295 teen-age girls give birth.
- 7,742 teen-agers will become “sexually active,” and 623 will contract some form of sexually transmitted disease.
- 1,106 teen-age girls will have abortions.
- 2,556 children will be born to single mothers.
- 1,100,000 people are in a hospital.
- 1,070 people will die of cancer.
- 436 children will be arrested for driving while intoxicated. On just one day!
- 137 babies will be born with “Fetal – Alcohol – Syndrome", a disease causing deformity, retardation and genetic disorders.
All these, and many other tragic events take place every day of the year in our nation. While you and I are going about our daily activities, taking care of our own business, others will come face to face with tragedy, death, loss of health and hope. It would be impossible for us to be aware of all these events, but for many people, today will not be just an ordinary day. A remembered day, yes, but not an ordinary day.
For many people this will not be just an “ordinary day,” but a day that changes their lives forever. Can we be of help? Only because we have at our disposal the most potent element ever known – the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is “the power of God unto salvation,” Romans 1:16, and it can make a difference in every person’s life who will embrace it and live in harmony with it. Just an average, ordinary day? No, it will be an extraordinary day for those who seek God’s Word, who love it, study it and live by its precepts.
Take a look at those events listed that take place on just an “ordinary day” and consider how the following scriptures can help all of us.
- Many of us need lessons that can keep us from repeating our mistakes, Ephesians 5:1-12.
- If you have been harmed by others, note that the apostle Paul suffered for problems that were not his fault, 2 Corinthians 11:20-30.
- If your choices have put you in danger, remember that others have faced similar suffering, Philippians 1:27-2:12.
- If you feel you have no hope for the future, don’t forget Saul of Tarsus, who had been responsible for the deaths of many Christians, but those sins were washed away, Acts 22:1-16.
The way Christians deal with the time God has given us is not insignificant in the mind of God. Passage after passage reminds us that we should take advantage of every moment of every day. Scripture speaks clearly on this subject:
- “…exhort one another daily, while it is called today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin,” Hebrews 3:13.
- “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me,” Luke 9:23.
- “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil,” Ephesians 5:15-16.
- “Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not in strife and envy.” Romans 13:13
While we are considering the urgency of each day, we should also note that a day is coming – we know not when – with no warning, no last minute chance to be prepared for it. Jesus said:
“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come… Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh,” Matthew 24:42, 44.
“For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape,” 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3.
Jesus said His coming would be as a “thief in the night,” without any warning, with no prior ceremony. On just an average day! Should we not be making full use of each hour and each day? Today can be a day of eternal tragedy or blessing for someone, and it may depend on what you and I choose to do and say that will make all the difference.
Carl B. Garner
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“Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.”
“Men are often capable of greater things than they perform. They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.”
“Lose an hour in the morning and you will spend all day looking for it.”
“The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss.”
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The Grace of God
(Titus 2:11-14)
One of my favorite songs is “His Graces Reaches Me.” It is so easy to think God’s grace is great enough to help other people around me who haven’t done as many things wrong as I have, but not me! Our own failures often seem so great that we can’t imagine God being willing to forgive sins like ours.
That is the major reason the message of grace must be held before us over and over again. We live in a world where so many feel absolutely hopeless. To them the idea of being saved and starting over again is just another fairy tale. Let us learn the message of grace God wants us all to know.
Grace is For All - “The grace of God which brings salvation has appeared to all men.” Not all will be saved. Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it,” Matt. 7:13-14. Grace has appeared to all. It has even made salvation possible for all. But not all will take advantage of God’s marvelous offer to be saved.
Grace appears to all because Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every person (Heb. 2:9). When Paul wrote to Timothy, he spoke of himself as the “chief of sinners.” He said he had been a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious to the cause of Christ. But God, in order to show the abundance of His grace, saved Paul so that all could learn that their sins too, could be forgiven by God’s overwhelming grace. Men and women today can be saved just as Paul was saved --- by God’s grace.
Grace Teaches Us to Change When We Are Saved - Don’t mistake the idea of being saved by grace as a cheap grace which makes no demands on the one who is saved. All sinners can be forgiven, but they cannot remain saved if they do not change their lives.
Grace teaches us to “deny ungodliness and worldly lusts or desires.” Being saved by grace demands that we stop living by senseless desires. We can change with God’s help, and He demands that we do it.
Grace not only teaches us to stop doing the wrong, but to begin living a different way. We are to live “sensibly, righteously, and godly in this present age.”
Grace Gives Us Something to Anticipate - God wants the knowledge that Jesus is coming again to be a matter of joy and anticipation for Christians instead of something to frighten them into submission. He speaks of Christ’s coming as the “blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.”
We have such a hard time looking at our own lives through the eyes of grace. We are too afraid that when He comes He will look at us through the eyes of judgment and say we aren’t good enough for heaven. If only we could grasp the point that we never will be good enough, even if we lived a million years and worked at improving every day. It will still be the grace of God with the cleansing blood of Jesus which makes the difference for us when He comes.
Wouldn’t it be marvelous if we could live so closely to the Lord every day that we could think of His coming again and cry out with John, “Even so, Come Lord Jesus”? He wants us to anticipate His coming with joy (Rev. 22:20).
Grace Means We Are Special - Christ gave Himself to purchase us. He redeemed us in that He bought us back from the horrible slavery of sin. Now our choice is to live as free people for Him, or to pick up Satan’s chains all over again and live for him as voluntary slaves (Rom. 6).
Christ bought us to purify us for Himself “a people for His own possession.” All the world belongs to God (Ps. 50:12), but Christians belong to Him in a special way. We are His special possession. But note what sets us apart from the world: We are to be “zealous for good deeds.” What a marvelous thought to see ourselves as the special possession of God!
Nothing is a more beautiful message than the message of grace by which we can all be saved. But never mistake grace for a religion which makes no demands on those who are saved. Sometimes we have just misunderstood what grace really means about salvation.
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