FIRST! Again

By Lin Pearson

Have you heard of the TV programme The Life Laundry?  Viewers allow the presenters into their home to de-clutter it.  Some of the basements, garages and garden sheds they visit have remained untouched for decades, yet the team bring order to the chaos!
I recently read of a woman who could have done with being on The Life Laundry! 

‘My sister was bemoaning the fact that she had procrastinated cleaning and organizing her house for a long time.  Since she was planning to entertain visitors, she felt a lot of pressure to get moving.
That afternoon she phoned, sounding glum. “I went to the bookstore,” she explained, “and I bought a book on how to get organized.  I was all fired up, and decided to clean out all the shelves in the living room.  While I was working, I found the same book. I had bought it a couple of years ago!”’

We smile, but procrastination is rarely helpful.  Putting off becoming a Christian is dangerous.

How do any of us know what tomorrow will bring?  Will we still be alive?  If so, will we have the mental ability to make a choice then?  Will our hearts still be tender enough to respond to the love of God, or will our consciences be hardened?  Perhaps the Lord Jesus Christ may have already returned and it will be too late then to plead for forgiveness.

The words of a popular song from a few years ago got it right: ‘Yesterday’s gone…Tomorrow may never be mine’.
But you do have today!  Here is what the Bible tells us:
‘Behold, now is truly the time for a gracious welcome and acceptance [of you from God]; behold, now is the day of salvation!’  (2 Cor.6:2 – Amplified Bible).
‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts’ ( Heb 3:15 – NIV).

Whether it is reorganizing the home or the life, it is easy to have good intentions, but to fail to follow through on them. Why put it off any longer?  Make today the day when you receive the salvation which God so freely offers.  ■