Time On Your Hands

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.
– Eph 5:16 KJV, NLT

This continues the thoughts from a devotional on this theme which appeared yesterday here at C201 on the challenge of making the best use of our gifts and resources at a time when so much of Christian service was fomerly defined by church activities which are either only now restarting, or will not be fully restored for some time.

Redeem the Time

Well seize this critical moment, because the days are evil. (A Google Translate iteration of Ephesians 5:16 from Dios Habla Hoy, a Spanish Bible; could also be “this decisive moment.”)

Today’s thoughts began with a topical article posted in 2016 at Thinking Out Loud…

…As Christians, the stewardship of our time is important. In the old KJV rendering of Ephesians 5:16, they used the phrase, “Redeeming the time…” More recent translators went with:

• Make every minute count. (CEV, NASB, and others)
• Make the best use of your time. (J. B. Phillips)
• Don’t waste your time on useless work. (Eugene Peterson)
• Make the most of every living and breathing moment. (The Voice)

The time factor figures into social media [such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, podcasts, etc.] but even more into addictive online behavior such as porn-related and game-related activity…

…While I’ve always used two major arguments in relationship to Christians viewing porn — the Bible’s teaching on lust and its teaching on self control — I think the stewardship of our time really needs to be added as a third reason to walk away from the computer, especially in view of stories about the hours and hours people spend glued to the screen.

Other verses come to mind, such as Psalm 90:12

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. (ESV)

Other translations render this;

• Teach us how short our lives are so that we can become wise.  (ERV)
  
• Teach us to use wisely all the time we have. (CEV)

Some verses remind us of the brevity of life, such as James 4:13-15

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (ESV; some translations use vapor instead of mist.)

and Proverbs 27:1

Do not boast about tomorrow,
    for you do not know what a day may bring.  (NIV)

These reminders should make us want to consider where we invest ourselves in our daily schedule.

At the website BibleReasons.com, I found a list of Bible Verses About Time Management. I won’t reproduce it here, but encourage you to click through. One that struck me as we close here was about the idea of living with eternity in view:

^{NLT 2 Cor 4:18} So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

How are you redeeming the time in your life?

Apostle Peter Was One-of-a-Kind

But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'”
 ~Mark 16:7

Tell the disciples and Peter? Why is Peter given separate treatment? Isn’t he a disciple? Did his denial make him an un-disciple?

…In a way, Peter always has special treatment in scripture. Even among The Twelve, he is unique…

…California pastor Greg Laurie contributes regularly to the WND (World Net Daily) website’s Faith section. Click the title below to read this at source, and find links to other columns and Greg’s books. (Yes, that’s the original title!)

How you’re like a Fender Stratocaster

Awhile ago I read about a Fender Stratocaster guitar that sold for nearly $1 million at a New York City auction. I don’t know how much this type of guitar would cost if you were to buy it at a guitar store, but I guarantee that you wouldn’t pay almost seven figures for it. The reason this particular guitar sold for nearly $1 million was because Bob Dylan played it at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island.

At the time, the folk music movement was all about acoustic guitar, and originally Dylan had started out playing an acoustic guitar. But at that festival he pulled out an electric Stratocaster and started playing, which was perceived by some as an act of treachery. Dylan’s guitar sold for such a high price because of its historical value.

Then I read another article about someone who paid $380,000 at a London auction for another Fender Stratocaster, but this one had been burned. Why would anyone pay $380,000 for a burned-out guitar? Because Jimi Hendrix had reportedly played it at the Monterey International Pop Festival and set fire to it during his performance.

You see, the value of a guitar depends on who plays it. If I played a Fender Stratocaster guitar, it would go down in value. But if Bob Dylan were to play one song on the same guitar, someone would pay a lot for the privilege of hanging it on his or her wall.

The same is true when God gets hold of a human life. When God works through a life, something wonderful happens. There probably was never a person with less potential to do anything for God than me. At the age of 17, I came to him with very little. Anything good that has come from my life has been something God has given and something God has done through me. It has been his blessing on my life.

Think about how different Jesus’ 12 disciples were from each other. There was Simon, a former zealot, who was dedicated to the violent overthrow of Rome. Then there was Matthew the tax collector, who was a Jew that worked for the Roman government and was perceived by his fellow Jews as a traitor. So Simon the zealot wanted to destroy Rome, and Matthew the tax collector was perceived as one who caved in to the power of Rome. They could not have been more opposite ideologically, philosophically and politically.

Then there was Simon Peter. Apart from Jesus himself, no name is mentioned more in the New Testament than Simon Peter. He was a central figure in Jesus’ three years of ministry and in the first three years of the early church. Jesus spent more time with Simon Peter than with anyone else. No other person speaks as often or is spoken to as often as Simon Peter, and no other disciple was as reproved and corrected as often as Simon Peter.

The thing with Simon Peter was that he said what he thought. You probably know people like that. They don’t know the difference between inside thoughts and outside thoughts. They verbalize everything. That was Simon Peter. If he was thinking it, it only would be a few moments until he was saying it. Of course, this got him into trouble on more than one occasion. For instance, when he was concerned about the reward he and his fellow disciples would get because they left all and followed Jesus, he did not hesitate to ask about it. We read of him saying to Christ, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” (Matthew 19:27 NIV) That is a bold thing to say to Jesus: “We’ve given up everything. What’s in it for us?”

Then there was that famous occasion when Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter, James and John were there, and they all fell asleep. When they woke up, there was Jesus, shining like the sun. Two of the greatest prophets of the Bible stood on each side of him. Talk about a holy moment. But Peter decided it would be a good time to say a few words, so he actually spoke up and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters – one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah” (Mark 9:5). There was Peter, speaking his mind. And I love how Mark’s Gospel adds this little commentary: “He said this because he didn’t really know what else to say” (verse 6 NLT).

We can laugh at what Peter did and be critical of what Peter said, but no other apostle tried to walk on water. He was a commendable man. He was a courageous man. And church tradition tells us that when it was all said and done, he died a cruel death. Before he was crucified, he is said to have been forced to watch the crucifixion of his wife. Peter stood at the foot of her cross and repeated the words, “Remember the Lord.” After she died, he pleaded to be crucified upside down because he felt that he was unworthy to die in the same way his Lord did. This was a hero of the faith.

And although his given name was Simon, Jesus gave him a new name: Cephas, or Peter, which means “rock.” I wonder if the other disciples chuckled a little at that. A rock speaks of stability and dependability, but Peter was a little on the impulsive side. Yet Jesus gave him a new name because he knew what Peter would become.

When God looks at you, he doesn’t see you for what you are; he sees you for what you will be. You might see a blank canvas, but God sees a finished painting. He sees what you can be.

We all have different personalities, but God can use each of us. He can change each of us and make us into the people he wants us to be. And God can do a lot with a little.