Today is still Called Today!

This blog entry is taken from a chapter in my book. My book is titled, For Valor: Defending the Faith for those of Worth. The book is available on my website corbyshuey.com. It is also available at Skywatchtv.com as a package along with Dr. Michael Lake’s book, The Kingdom Warrior. I pray that God may be glorified, as I seek only to do His will and exalt the Name of our King, Jesus. To God and to God only be the glory!

¹² Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.¹³ But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.

-Hebrews 3:12-14 NASB95

In the book of Exodus Moses comes down from Mt. Sinai and sees the people of God worshipping a golden calf.  Because of the lackluster leadership of Aaron, the people fell victim to old patterns of behavior.  Egypt was still alive and active in them.  The voices of those who allowed corruption into their hearts overshadowed the voices of those who stood to defend the Name of God.  The people, therefore, fell victim to weak leadership and a minority of aggressive individuals with loud voices.  Sounds familiar to our ears, does it not?  The Holy Word of God gives account of this event as follows:

¹⁹ It came about, as soon as Moses came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing; and Moses’ anger burned, and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰ He took the calf which they had made and burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water   and made the sons of Israel drink it.

         ²¹ Then Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such great sin upon them?” ²² Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil. ²³ For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ²⁴ I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

         ²⁵ Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control—for Aaron had let them get out of control to be a derision among their enemies— ²⁶ then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. ²⁷ He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’” ²⁸ So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day. ²⁹ Then Moses said, “Dedicate yourselves today to the Lord—for every man has been against his son and against his brother—in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today (Exodus 32:19-29 NASB95).

We find ourselves, as people of faith in the One True God, at this very juncture.  The people are out of control due to the veracity of unrepentant sin.  Egypt burns brightly in the desires of the hearts of mankind in our day.  The sin nature has been allowed to go unchecked due to the lackluster leadership.  The Word of God has been permitted to be criticized as mere fiction in the eyes of the deceived.  We find ourselves, like Moses, looking upon a people who have gone out of control both in and out of the church.  The Word of God tells us the response of Moses in verse twenty six.  “Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said: “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!”  Moses called for those who were willing to defend the name of God to take a stand against the evil who had been allowed to run rampant in the camp.  Unfortunately, only a few were willing to stand.  Only the sons of Levi had the courage to stand in defense of the Lord.  Because of this, God brought judgment upon those who refused to stand.  My question to you then is this, will you stand?  Will you defend the name of your Savior in a world that chases after the unbridled imaginings of the sin nature?  Let me be clear, I in no way advocate violence in making these statements.  In our defense of God, we can never act in violence toward another. What I do advocate for is that we become a people who are willing to pick up the Sword of the Word.  We must place this Sword upon our mouths and speak truth over the people.  We must place this Sword upon our hearts so that we can be guided by His Will, determined to preserve faith in God Almighty for those of worth.  Will you, like the sons of Levi, fight for your King?  

I leave this subject for now, as we will come back to it later.  I  know that what has been written thus far can feel overwhelming or portray a sense of foreboding when considering the scale of the fight of faith that we find ourselves laboring within.  But I do not write with intent to frighten anyone.  My intent is not to discourage, but to warn and encourage His church to walk in His authority.  My intent in writing what has thus far been stated is in an attempt to expose the treachery of our enemy.  Our common enemy works tirelessly to speak the enchantment of chaos over those  who close their ears to the Word of Truth.  I do not write to scare, but to warn.  God is not surprised by any of this.  God knows the plight that we suffer through to walk out our faith.  God knows our struggles, both internally and externally, as we interact with the world.  God knows.  We are not alone.  The Almighty God, the author of the universe, the Father of Salvation, fights for us.  Fight therefore!  Fight the good fight of faith with the Spirit of the Living God dwelling in your heart.  Fight, for He is with you.  Fight to be a true witness of the Gospel of Salvation in a world that so desperately needs hope.  But especially, fight for those who come after you.  Fight for those of worth.  Fight for our children, for they are worthy.  With these words we have come to the premise of this writing. Knowing the chaos that is unfolding before our very eyes, I ask, are you willing to fight?  Is the next generation valuable enough to motivate you to stand in your God given authority and push back against the serpent who whispers lies?  Do you love the Lord your God enough to respond when He calls forth: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me (Isaiah 6:8 NASB95)!”  He is calling for you.  He is calling for you to defend the faith.  “¹² Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. ¹³ But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end (Hebrews 13:12-14 NASB95).”  Today is still called today!  Hold fast to the hand of our Savior.  He is our assurance and ever-present source of hope.  Participate in your walk of faith for the promise of Christ.

Before closing this section, I want to give one final warning.  I do not want to dwell on the difficulties we face regarding faith, but as I stated earlier, a herald who offers warning without the weight of evidence finds no listeners.  The warning, without evidence, becomes an empty cry blown asunder by the wind of chaos.   I, therefore, and we as the people of God must take our faith seriously.  We cannot afford to simply wear the appearance of a Christian externally while  disregarding the responsibility of internal submission to the will of the Father.  Our faith must be  internal resulting in transformation.  Our faith is a choice we must make leading to the circumcision of the heart (Deuteronomy 30:6).  The Gospel of salvation is transformative.  Especially in the times in which we live, we cannot afford to stagnate into complacent acceptance of a world that actively seeks to suppress truth (Romans 1:18).  Our enemy seeks to destroy the knowledge of God.  The enemy wants to quench the fire burning within those of faith so that we do not pass on the knowledge of God to those who come after.  The enemy wants to distract us from passing the fire to our children.  This vile creature wants to remove the Name of Salvation from the lips of our children.  The serpent thirsts to deceive the pure of heart in an effort to control the masses.  Hitler shared a similar opinion as he fought to bring about German totalitarianism.  Hitler is quoted as stating, “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”^[1]  The enemies of God’s family strive to gain the future through the destruction of the present.  If you will not fight for your children, there is one who will.  He stands as King of Mt. Zion waiting to return to in order to put an end to lies.  I implore you therefore, to take your stand as God’s Kingdom Priest and defend the faith for the time is short.  Hold your ground.  Fight for faith.  Fight for the next generation.  Fight, because we bear the name of a King!

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^[1] “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”  (Brainy Quote, 2021)  https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/adolf_hitler_378177  accessed on September 18, 2021.