"Living in the now" what does this mean to you?

He invites us all constantly, to be conformed to the image of the Son, just as in Job-33-14 where we learn, God speaks first one way, then another, though we don't perceive it". It is when we perceive and seek this relationship we can begin to grow into what He has already provided.
Walking in love, joy, peace, etc. is an evidence. Envy, strife, division, etc. is not.
blessings

I don't know what it means unless I hear it in the context of a speaker or writer's thoughts and intention. I have heard it in the context of sermons where the intention is to explain being a faithful steward of your ministry today rather than missing opportunities because you are focusing on your ministry being in the future after you have a bible college degree for example.

You may be thinking of getting married someday and how life will be better then but today is your life. Focus on who is around you that you can encourage and who you can pray for. Focus on this morning church service, and be sensitive to what God is saying to you from the sermon and from the people you fellowship with. Don't be thinking about what you need to get done this week while the preacher is preaching and miss the now moment.

That being said, I live most of my life in the now preparing for my preaching ministry in the future. I spend most of my waking hours studying. It is for my own benefit but also for the benefit of those I will preach to in the future. I am living in the now, (I really enjoy studying) but I am also sacrificing other things that would be considered living in the now. I don't get out much and I don't enjoy many of the things others would categorize as living in the now, like entertainment, outdoor sports, etc. What I enjoy others call being a hermit, isolation, antisocial, head stuck in a book (sounds so negative). It is my living in the now. One person's living in the now might be studying a book and another might be hiking a trail. I have goals that I am accomplishing while living in the now at the same time.

Nicely said, thank you for your contribution.

We all live in the now. Where else do we live?

This advice is akin of saying "breathe". We all breathe all the time. Completely useless advice that elevates some new age satanists above you so they'd feel more important commanding you with useless advice.

Godspeed.

I believe Philippians 3 touches on this.
verse 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

With all due respect,It’s true that we are not suppose lean toward our Own understanding but I don’t think GOD would smile If HE heard Dr Sumerall with a mind set saying I don’t want to take any physical steps backward to go get my Bible,that’s a weird thing,who does that and not be considered con artist like.

Its ok to say go get my Bible.I don’t have a problem with that but the reason why he said It Is the problem.

God bless you, Bingo. You are a wise man.

What are you talking about? I was gentle in my response. I expressed disagreement in a cautious way and even made it a point that I wasn't going against you personally, or even the preacher. Then you tried to abuse Scripture to wrestle me into your understanding (which if you didn't do I wouldn't have even responded further). Then when I didn't accept this, you now act like a victim and abuse Scripture to accuse me of being unchristianlike, or not even a true believer for that matter! Then you pepper it with "sympathies". This kind of hypocrisy is what people do on BDF all the time, so if you don't want BDF here, I suggest not to do it here.

There are actually diverse topics on which we disagree in understanding since I've known you on the forums. But you don't even know this, since I didn't open my mouth to argue about it. I don't comment on every disagreement. It is an unorthodox belief and not taught anywhere in the Bible for sure. And there are people with intrusive thoughts and otherwise struggling with religious type OCD who visit CC, who are susceptible to this kind of thing. What this preacher did may not present a stumbling block to you. For them, it very well may be. Because of that, and because you abuse Scripture to gain upper hand and debate, I did speak up and will do so again.

Hmm... Perhaps you took a wrong turn on your way to the BDF and got here by mistake.

https://christianchat.com/bible-discussion-forum/

Bible Discussion Forum (BDF) is where they put each other down a lot and use insult as debate tactic. This is a completely different forum with a different focus, a different group of people and a different way of talking to each other.

And about that breathing... Sometimes people get so stressed out that they even have to remember to breathe before they pass out or have a heart attack or something. Try a different analogy if you want to use ridicule in this thread.

While there are new age definitions of living in the now which we reject as spiritual mumbo jumbo, many Christians have their understanding of living in the now, that they derived from the Bible. The goal of this thread is to gather BIBLICAL insights about living in the now, and there have been many great replies.

Hmm... After catching up on the whole thread, ignore what I said in that last post. Apparently now we DO talk like BDF members here. Oh well.

decades ago, a very dear, dying friend/neighbor told us when we were quite young, '30's,
'don't GET READY, BE READY' = and then he said, 'you only have to know two words,
'right or wrong'...
this impacted us more than you can imagine, and it still does...it was such a blessing that
we came to appreciate more and more as we continued on our Spiritual journey...

There is no mystery to it. Since you can do nothing about the past, you focus on the future, while living in the present. At the same time, if one needs to make restitutions for past mistakes, failures, wrongdoings, or negligence, then that should be factored into the future.

post #33-
Thank you for sharing your positive post, even here at CC there are the minions who walk in negativity.
Just shared with a friend of how all the gospels remind us we must bear good fruit or risk being cast into the fire.
Blessings
https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Bearing-Bad-Fruit

Neh,
such an informative post: we would only add, that 99% of the people that we have known and know are only
living in their own 'present reality', and thus are stuck in the 'good ole days', but of course you know that
the common man, as we once were, can not ever proceed into a knowing of anything 'better to come'
without Jesus Christ intervention...

I think that was the gist of the OP. when we renew our mind we see the world through the lens of the Father, as He views this world and how He is unfolding His plan to redeem mankind to right relationship for eternity.

we can only pray for this shittim, for our hearts and minds are forever on our Brothers and Sister's future...

What power He has made available to us. that we may speak to the Creator Himself, in Jesus name!
blessing you brother

I have no idea who's going to read this, maybe some have me blocked.

The Holy Spirit visited me two days ago. Not saying anything, just standing there, His loving, gentle presence. He stayed with me for a while, without words, just enveloping me. A thought came into my heart, if I lose a brother, what is this all for? And I became deeply saddened to the point of weeping. What did I do? When I would think of coming back to that thread, I felt ashamed. I knew that I must make things right.

As Holy Spirit stood there, I realized that I had been angry with you long ago before this thread even started, shittim. You might wonder why on earth would I be angry with you - you never did anything to deserve it. You were nothing but kind to me. I'll tell everything now.

There were some times in the past, when you would speak about other brothers and sisters, not necessarily by name but generally, people who were not on the same page with you, or maybe not on the same page with you YET about understanding the Scripture, you spoke of them like like they were not really Christian, and not saved. Even on matters such as prophecy, which is basically our ideas about how the future might unfold... Maybe you didn't even really mean it like that? Maybe you were unaware how it came across? But your utter rejection of brothers and sisters, who might not be at the same spot where you are (or maybe, not as of now), upset me to the highest degree, and because of this, since I did not believe saying anything would help, yet seeing that I couldn't stay at peace, I started avoiding communication with you. This is actually the true reason that I quit the chat pm thread in a little group of believers we were all saying hi and good morning as friends. I did speak about this to anyone until this moment.

When we had a disagreement on here, I stepped away from the keyboard for a while, and prayed before each response to you. I was on alert, because somewhere deep inside I felt anger. I did not see at first that in spite of praying I was STILL angry when I responded, because I didn't recognize that I was already HARBORING ANGER FROM BACK THEN. Now, I don't know how me being upset at something you said turned into anger, THAT kind of crept in unaware, and being made aware by God, I reject this will all my being. The same presence that enveloped me envelops you, I must NEVER forget this, and I must be to you as that presence is at all times, unrelated to what you say or believe. So in my anger, I actually did worse than you did initially.

When you wrote that post that I was not "really believing" in Jesus because we had argument or even if I failed in one moment, I felt even more justified in being angry. "I was right! He disowns and rejects brothers and sisters so easily! How can he, God?!?!?!" It was like gasoline being poured onto my anger. I did not see things straight, and that I basically did the same thing or worse, until the next evening when Holy Spirit visited. Was my anger helping anyone? Did my anger uplift and heal anyone? It was not a good or godly thing that I got angry to begin with, and that's what caused the most of trouble on this thread. I'll own that responsibility, and seek forgiveness right now, from everyone having to witness it. But mostly from YOU @shittim . I did not treat you like our God's ever forgiving presence. Heal only. Love only. I did not build you up, so I failed for a little while in loving you. Can you forgive me? Even if all brothers and sisters disowned me and decided not to love me anymore, I must never get angry at them. So whoever will reject me, let them reject me. But I know now what I must always do.

I want to thank all of you who have prayed for me, because I know that some of you did that.
God even blessed me with more understanding when it came to title of this thread yesterday, but I'll write about that later.
God bless you and keep you every one of you.