Today is the Day of Salvation

I've been thinking a lot lately about the text in 2 Cor. 6:2, which is quoting from Isa. 49:8 "For He says: 'In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.' Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." In the last twenty days or so, many things have taken place; Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, scores of forest fires all over the western states, an 8.1 earthquake near Mexico City, as well as other disasters. Locally, we lost a dear brother in Ben Gillham, another church member lost his father a couple weeks ago, and the list seems to go on and on. Just this morning on my way to chapel at ACS I came upon an accident with a small sedan sitting underneath a truck with its rear tire almost sitting in its windshield. Do you think the folks involved in that accident had any clue that that is what tomorrow had in store for them yesterday? The fact of the matter is none of us know what will happen tomorrow. We have plans and schedules that we expect to be played out, but when it comes down to it we have absolutely no control over what will actually take place. Truly, today is the day of salvation. 

Why as humans do we put the most important things off to take care of in the future. In the previous verse (2 Cor. 6:1) Paul pleads with his readers "not to receive the grace of God in vain." We must take seriously our salvation in the here and now. We can't wait for another more convenient time. In the book of Hebrews chapter 3, we find Paul again exhorting us to act today, in verses 7 through 15. In verse 13 he tells us to, "exhort one another daily, while it is called 'Today,' lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." The longer we toy with sin and put off giving it over to the Lord, the more we become enslaved and deceived by it, and the harder it is to submit it to God. "Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience." (Heb. 4:11)