Today

Senior Pastor, Steve Thulson

 Our church family just lost a gift from God. His name was Bob Jepsen. On July 22, he succumbed to cancer, diagnosed just a few weeks before his death at the age of eighty. About nine years ago, Bob became one of our very first deaf attenders. He rarely missed a Sunday. Complementing his strong rugged physique – with big mustache and sideburns – was his childlike innocence, even “sweetness.” We’ll miss him.

Bob’s daughter Renee says he never tired of telling her and everyone else to remember this:

“Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”

We’ve all heard that line. Maybe so many times, you might even yawn or roll your eyes. And yet it’s undeniably true. And more than a thin greeting card cliché, it can carry a weighty reminder with a hope-giving invitation.

Bob Jepsen

Think about “today.” Yet one more revolution of the earth: 86,400 seconds – each a flicker of “present” that’s simply the rush of an unlived future into an irretrievable past. Yet that elusive sense of “now” can be seen not merely as a flicker of ticks on the clock, but as a flow of life. The river of “now” can be seen as an ongoing gift from God whose great love and unfailing compassions “are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:23). Each fleeting moment holds his infinite Presence and his ability to use our pasts and direct our futures for his glory, others’ good and our own joy.  

A man who seemed to have wasted his life was slowly dying in excruciating pain by inhumane execution. His “today” was the worst of all his days. Next to him, dying, was Jesus who turned and spoke. What was said totally redefined and redirected the man’s present: “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”

“Today… with me.”

Today is probably not dying day for you. It probably does not seem a whole lot different from a thousand other days. Yet it’s a “first.” It’s “new.” If you’ll trust and welcome the risen Jesus, this is a day filled with him.