Past, Present and Future
Past, Present and Future
Sunday, December 26
In one of the great fictional novels called the Christmas carol by Charles Dickens in a tale for the ages wrote about a very cheap, Frugal and mean businessman, named Ebenezer Scrooge.
He had an office clerk named Bob Cratchit.
Scrooge severely underpaid, overworked and emotionally abuse this poor men.
he was married with Children and barely existed.
1 Christmas Eve Bob a scrooge to have off Christmas day to spend to be with his family. Roskruge would not listen, but eventually agreed, but demanded at the risk of Bob losing his job and he come in an extra early the day after to the office.
Screws went home and prepared for bed as he was beginning to fall asleep now remember this is fictional. he's visited by the spirit of his deceased business partner Jacob Marley.
Who Dickens Road wandered the Earth in twine by heavy chains and money boxes forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness.
Marley tells Scrooge that he has one single chance to escape the same fate, he would be visited by three spirits and he must listen to be cursed to carry much heavier chains of his own.
The first Spirit called The Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge back to his childhood when he was more innocent.
He showed him scenes of his lonely childhood at boarding school.
scenes of his sister's fun, his first employer end Scrooge's fiance Bell who broke it off because she realized he loved money more than her.
They then visited the home of Bella now married with a large family.
He watched her unflattering opinion of the man of whom he had become he demanded to leave. The second Spirit called The Ghost of Christmas present took screws to the marketplace with people buying Christmas dinner Sundries.
He then takes him to Bob Cratchit home as they watched them partake of Christmas dinner. Bob has a handicapped boy named Tiny Tim and the spirit old Scrooge the boy would die if things didn't change.
The spirit of Christmas present then took him to several additional Christmas celebrations to watch. One at a Miners Cottage, a lighthouse and a ship at sea.
He showed Scrooge To emancipated children called them ignorance and want.
The spirit tells him he needs to beware of them.
The third Spirit was the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
He shows him Christmas day in the future.
the spirit does not speak but shows him scenes of a funeral of a businessman whose only visitors were other businessmen who only came because lunch was provided.
Three others that the man did personal business with stole his possessions to a fence who was someone who bought and stole property.
Scrooge asked the spirit to show him one single person who feels any sadness over his death. He showed him only one couple who were only happy that their own debt to him would be suspended. He then showed him the Cratchit family who were mourning over the death of Tiny Tim. He then showed him an unintended grave with a tombstone with the name of Ebenezer Scrooge upon it. Sobbing, Scrooge pleads to change his ways.
Scrooge awoke Christmas morning a changed man, he made a large donation to a charity he had refused to pay before.
He anonymously sent Cratchit a Christmas turkey and when he went and spent the afternoon with his nephew Fred whom he had rejected a Christmas Eve supper with.
He just bought a pay raise and he begins a friendship with Tiny Tim.
From that day on Ebenezer Scrooge treated everyone with kindness generosity and compassion embodying the spirit of Christmas.
His Old friend Jacob Marley had warned him of a terrible fate upon his death if he didn't change. today is your friend I am asking you as we stand at the cusp of a new year to look at your life. God wants you to be the best for you, for him, for others. You have a past, you're living in the present and I hope that you're preparing for the future.
Is there is not one thing that you can do to change a single thing.
You and I have made some good decisions and we've also made some dumb and mass of Errors 2. The past is not for us to wallow in our errors not to constantly live in the victories we had. When we are forgiven by God he tells us that he takes our sins and cast them into the sea of forgetfulness hours and as far as the East is the West. However, I feel that there are times he may offer us a glimpse of it to help us to learn, to prepare for the events in our present lives, not to condemn us, but to build us up to be better.
The devil will use our past to condemn us, he will have hypothetically in the middle of the night plant a seed in our mind of a past sin or discretion.
When the devil in the presents, try to remind you of your past, rebuke him and remind him of his future. And improve, grow, and before.
We can also learn and draw upon our past to not Revel in our few victories, but to draw upon them to have even greater victories all to the glory of God.
We can't live in the past, many people, many Christians do.
If we do, it makes it very difficult to manage and joyfully live out our present life.
But, live in the present, draw from the past, our past can either make us or break us. God does not want us to live in the past, learn from it yes! We are to use its lessons to help us have and live a healthier, happier present life.
Don't dwell on the past.
Please believe.
Living life in the past is damaging to our present life and our future too.
In Philippians 3:13 a Paul wrote “Brethren I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting about those things that are behind.”
Psalms 103 we see Gods. On the past. “As far as the East is from the West he is removed our transgressions from us”
Hebrews 10:17 “ And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”
God won't bring up our past against us, he will not, when we confess our sins, they are not remembered by him.
But what about times at 2:30 a.m. when you keep thinking and rehashing events and movements of your past. That's not God that Satan trying to hinder our present Life, by using our minds against us. Rebuke him, when he brings up our past. Remind him of his future.
Remind him that our savior is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Please, don't let the past dictate your present and your future.
You don't live there anymore unless you let Satan keep you captive there.
You're living in the present, not in the past nor in the future.
Now is the time to live, now is the time to live, to be the Christian that you are, yes the past can be a learning experience, to help us grow in the present.
If Eval A value right now, are you where you want to be, are you where God wants you to be? Is your life where your spouse, your kids, your grandkids, friends, employers, Church need you to be. Remember Evan is a scrooge was taken by Christmas Past, to see his life, but he didn't stay there. You must realize that the present is the time that God gives you to evaluate any part of your life that you need to change if anything.
Each day is a gift from God, don't squander it, if you see changes are needed then change them, pick up your cross daily and follow Christ.
You have changes every day to grow, to be better, to grow in Christ, to have your families, to make a real difference.
Do not let your past dictate today, do not let it Define who you are today.
Today is the day that the Lord has made, rejoice and be glad in it!
James Road” what is your life? It is but a vapor that quickly Rises and then vanishes away.” Don't waste one day, go and grow!
Galatians 2:20 “ I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself to me.” If you heed what the holy spirit is telling you today in regard to your past, present and future, you must surely see the value of this in your life.
As in the past not dictating the present, nor permitting the past to Define you now don't let the future do that either.
Matthew 6:31 to 34 - This speaks to our peace of mind and heart of Letting Go and trusting God. I don't know what will happen tomorrow, but I know that God is in control of it.
To plan for the future is folly.
Christians are to plan for our tomorrows mine, body and spirit, we are to plan for the future spiritually, physically and financially but we are not to wishfully daydream about it, we certainly are not to have fear of it. Some folks are Earthly minded to be of any Heavenly good and some are too Heavenly minded to be any Earthly good. Don't waste your present on having fear and apprehension of it, don't dwell on the future because tomorrow may never come. Prepare for the future but don't count on it.
If you have your present life becoming a better person, a better Christian, trusting God than future trust in God then your future is nothing to fear. You are prepared for it and are ready for it.
Our past, our present, our future as you live your life, which of the three will be where you choose to live in 2022?
Will you live for the past, which is exactly that?
Will you live dwelling on the future which may never arrive?
Will you live in today becoming the person in the Christian you need to be? Will you draw upon the lessons of the past to live a better life in the present, will you trust God for each moment of your future or fret and waste time doing so.
for me, I won't dwell or live in my past but I'll draw from it.
I won't worry about the future for it may never arrive, but it will prepare for it like it will. I will live 2022 in the present, because that is where I believe God would want me to be showing others that Jesus really is the same person that never changes. He was then in their past and he's there now and he will be with them in the future.