“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.”
1 Corinthians 16:13-14
Bible
What is it about Time?
What time does it start? What time does it end? Is it time to go? What time are we meeting them? How long will it last? Do you know what time it is? We are constantly focused on Time…In the beginning God only spoke of two times, day and night and it was good.
When we came into this world as infants we didn’t wait to be born until a certain time…we weren’t regulated by the numbers on a clock for anything in life, as a parent of two I believe I can say no infant cares about the time on the clock. During life the world begins to impose its will of Time on us. “We are trying to get him on a normal sleep schedule”…”He should be walking by now”… as we grow we start to have a ‘schedule’ or ‘routine’ to follow. The human race has been very specific about when everything should happen in your life. Then as we age into the late stages of life the details of Time and the pressure of the schedule begin to fade away slowly until we are on our last few breaths and once again we are not concerned about what Time it is…
So when we are physically closest to God at birth and death we seem to have very little need to be so stressed about Time, then why do we choose to let the world dictate what Time we should be there and when we need to be here? Don’t get me wrong I don’t expect the world to live in chaos, completely unstructured. Take a moment to think about our world though, every new thing created by humans is designed to save you time! Why? What are we saving it for…to fit more stuff into a schedule that is already overflowing with commitments and promises we can barely keep up with now?
When is it time to slow down? When will we choose to be present in life and not focused on what’s next? I always love a huge snowstorm…why? Because the world gets really quite…and several ‘activities’ on the schedule get cancelled. Then you get to sit and just spend time with whomever you are with at the time and the world finally seems peaceful if only for a moment.
The Bible has plenty to say about Time…you can find great information in the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. One of my favorite verses in this book is this…
“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them’…”
Ecclesiastes 12:1
This verse is one of the reasons I want to spend so much time working with the youth in our church…the earlier in life we have a firm foundation of faith the more “Time” we have to live out God’s plan for our life.
Peace.
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Reflect, Restore, Renew
The following is taken from my Devotional bible and was written by a man named Bob Benson. I share it because it is an excellent summary regarding the presence of God in our lives. Also, because Bob Benson who was one of the Christian world’s leading publishing executives and the author of six books, he succumbed to cancer in March of…..1986. Yet here I am in August of 2013 and his words still provide a blessing to me this day…maybe they will to you to. Well done Bob Benson…Well done.
When life caves in, you do not need reasons, you need comfort. You do not need some answers; you need someone. And Jesus does not come to us with an explanation; he comes to us with his presence.
We are always seeking the reason. We want to know why. Like Job, we finally want God to tell us just what is going on….
But God does not reveal his plan, he reveals himself. He comes to us as warmth when we are cold, fellowship when we are alone, strength when we are weak, peace when we are troubled, courage when we are afraid, songs when we are sad, and bread when we are hungry.
He is with us on our journeys. He is there when we are home. He sits with us at our table. He knows about funerals and weddings and commencements and hospitals and jails and unemployment and labor and laughter and rest and tears. He knows because he is with us. He comes to us again and again.
– Bob Benson
Peace to you today.
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Living In The Present
Living in the Present. What does that mean? I think it begins with making sure you are “present” in whatever you are doing.
To me, being “present” means focused attention. The world is filled with distractions and when we choose to allow those distractions to take our attention away from everything else by trying to change the past or worrying too much about the future we end up missing what is right in front of us…..the beauty of creation, a child smiling and laughing or a child who needs help, a friend who encourages us or a stranger who we should pray for. We should stop replaying what happened yesterday or what might occur tomorrow in our minds and live today to the fullest.
So how do we get there?
Answer….The Word of God.
I have struggled for many years concerned about what I should have said in a previous conversation or worrying about how I would handle things in a future interaction. I would beat myself up for not doing something or worry constantly about what was to come…..as if I really was the one in control of such things.
Then during a difficult time in our life financially, about 3-4 years ago, I was really down about the way things were going and when I thought they were just about to drop off a cliff completely…we were saved by the Grace of God. My wife and I had completed all the paperwork to file for bankruptcy and left it with a lawyer…..we thought this was our only option…we thought we might lose our home we really didn’t know how things would turn out…meanwhile I had been looking for work. One promising position was progressing well and they needed to complete the background check……if that report showed a bankruptcy I would not get the job….a few days had passed since we left the attorney’s office. I figured I would call the lawyer to see if by chance he had not yet filed the papers, I figured there was no chance….and then God stepped in…..I called and asked “have you filed our papers with the court?”, he responded… “No not yet”……..oh my goodness, I couldn’t believe it. I immediately put a stop to the process and I got the job and we have been working our way to the best financial position we have ever been in. After that phone call and seeing the grace of God in our life, I decided I needed to start dedicating some time every morning to devotions and the Bible…..my reasoning, if I have time to read the newspaper I better have time to spend with God every day.
This was something I needed to commit to priority wise so I bought a Billy Graham devotional book and put it with my devotional bible I received from my parents 16 years prior and I began reading and praying for a few minutes every day I could. This time has become something I look forward to each day…it sets my mind and thoughts up with an encouraging perspective, mindful of how God wants us to think and act and the more I stay focused on that the more peace and contentment I find in life.
For me, the hardest part and the biggest obstacle in becoming a man of faith has been ME! Once I confess to God that I am only human, I am a sinner and I trust him because as it says in the gospel of John 3:16….For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. After reading so many different parts of the Bible about God’s grace, God’s love and God’s mercy I am so thankful for all that he has done for me that I have to do my best to live for Him.
Peace.
Take Your Faith With You 