“TODAY!”

 Luke 23:39-43                          (ESV)

“39 ONE OF THE CRIMINALS who were hanged railed at HIM, saying, "Are you not the CHRIST? Save YOURSELF and us!"

40 But the other rebuked him, saying, "DO YOU NOT FEAR GOD, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?

41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this MAN has done nothing wrong."

42 And he said, "JESUS, remember me when YOU come into YOUR kingdom."

43 And HE said to him, "Truly, I say to you, “TODAY” you will be with ME in paradise."”

Although I have lived an admittedly sheltered life, I have been exposed to very few people that OPENLY PROFESSED that GOD doesn’t exist.  The first thief on the cross didn’t just come out and say that GOD wasn’t real, but his TESTIMONY certainly displayed that he was not a BELIEVER in the SON OF GOD.  He only wanted GOD to get him out of his problem.  When he asked JESUS “Are you not the CHRIST? Save YOURSELF and us”, it was as if he was saying that he knew that he was in a hopeless situation and there was NO ESCAPING the doom in front of him!  

There have been times in most of our lives when we felt like there was no way out of the circumstances we found ourselves in.  FEAR and DOUBT are the most commonly used tools at “the enemy”s” disposal, and I ALLOW them to be used in my life far too much!  We ARE GOING to experience disappointments in “this world”, but JESUS said in John 17:16 “They are NOT of the world, just as I am NOT of the world.”!  We get our EYES so fixated on earth and it’s happenings that we forget that we are not of the world, just as JESUS wasn’t.  HE was sent for a PURPOSE, and so are we, TO REFLECT HIM to a lost and dying world!

The OTHER thief on the cross EYES were opened and he recognized that JESUS was the CHRIST.  JESUS told him “TODAY” you will be with me in paradise.  The thief was unable to share his testimony to many, but GOD’S WORD has let it be known to many that he went to GLORY with JESUS!  And isn’t that what our focus should be all about?  “TODAY”we should live for HIM, and LET GO of our concerns about tomorrow.  What TESTIMONY will you have “TODAY”???