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Real, Day 4

by David Joynt on March 13, 2019


MATTHEW 3:8, 10 | Bear fruit worthy of repentance…Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

I have a tendency to live moment to moment and task to task, deploying all the attention I can muster on the immediate issue at hand. There is something good about this practice. Since we can only live in “the now,” we should try to be fully present in the present, rather than worrying about tomorrow or remaining stuck in the past.

Yet John, and Jesus, remind us that while we must live in the now moment, we must never become oblivious to the end of the story. Time has a destination. History has a denouement. We have a Judge, and what is done now is examined then. Knowing the Judge today, the one who was judged in our place on the cross, is the best preparation for tomorrow.

Do you live fully in the present moment?

Do you ever step back and consider your life from the End?

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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