2011: "The Trumpet Call Is Sounding."

Happy New Year! As we begin 2011, I wanted you to meditate on something the great Billy Graham said a few years ago:

“With the New Year before us let us prepare ourselves for spiritual battle. Let Christ be more than mere sentiment. Away with pretense and half-heartedness. Away with compromises and defections. Away with faith that awakens only on holidays. Away with faith that is as flimsy and as seasonable as tinsel. These are days of emergency. The trumpet call is sounding. He that puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. Let’s put our lives on the line for Jesus Christ. Nothing short of this will do.”

Those are powerful words. And they are convicting words. And they are words we should take to heart as we take spiritual inventory in this New Year. The “trumpet call is sounding” indeed, and God expects us to do His work and His will and He tells us in Ephesians 5:15–17:

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

We must make each day count; living each day as if it were our last. This is the only life we have and Scripture tells us to redeem the time, seize the day. Seize it, love it, live it, experience it, exhaust every day not for ourselves but rather for the glory of God and for others, that the time here on this earth might be powerful and effective.

We are to live with passion, purpose and to walk with precision. A wise man, a wise woman measures each step of the way and fulfills the plan and purpose of God for their lives. We must seize the day and the opportunity in order to maximize each moment for Jesus Christ. We must give this day completely to God and every day for Jesus Christ.

Let Christ be more than mere sentiment.