Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
Everything in your future is contained in what you are doing and saying right now. Everything in your present is the result of what you have done and said in the past. You are choosing, right now, the kind of future you will have, whether good or bad.
I read a novel about a man who rebelled against a totalitarian government. When he was caught by the authorities, he was tortured in horrible ways. After months had passed under the most horrible of conditions, and after suffering indescribable torments, his body was hardly more than broken skin and bones. He cried out in bitterness and frustration to his tormentors, “You did this to me! You reduced me to this!” But the chief tormentor responded, “No. You did this to yourself. All of this [pain and suffering] was contained in your first act of rebellion.”
Whatever you will face in the future, whether eternal joy or eternal torment, is contained in the act that we are committing right now, and there is no way we can escape. Paul said it this way, “Whatsoever any man sows, that shall he receive from the Lord.” Based upon the deeds of your life right now, what kind of future will you receive from God? There is an old hymn that also warns us of this unchangeable truth:
The Great Reaping Day
There is coming a time when to judgment we’ll go,
There to reap as in life we’ve sown.
Death eternal we’ll reap if we sow to the flesh,
Heaven’s joys then may never be known.
Chorus
May we sow righteous seed for the reaping, which is coming to everyone.
Oh, the joy on that day when we hear Jesus say,
“Come ye blessed a crown you have won.”
Every day passing by, you are sowing the seed; fruits of life or of death we’ll bear.
When you reap what you sow, to that land may you go,
To that bright, happy home over there.
If you’d win life eternal, there is no time to lose. Look around you; the fields are white.
Go ye forth to the fields; sow and reap golden grain.
Soon will fall the dark shadows of night
Every act you perform is a seed to someone, for the influence will never die.
Then, be careful each day, what you do and what you say,
For you’ll meet it again by and by.