TIME: OUR SHARED COMMODITY PART TWO

What about your soul and that of your love ones?

If you read my entry yesterday, you may have realized that I spoke about time with a sense of urgency. As I stated yesterday, this blog is not meant to be a source of indictment nor is it in anyway intended to bring condemnation or sorrow. It is simply my personal reflection on life and I just wanted to lovingly share my heart with my friends from around the world. You are more than welcome to write your comments, if God has been speaking to you through the few words that have penned.

God’s Common Grace

According to God’s providence and His common grace, we all share this great gift called time. As mentioned earlier, after Christ, time is perhaps one of the greatest gifts that God has ever given to mankind. What you do with your time speaks volume about your take on life. When you think about it, we all have been allotted 24 hours in a day to do what God has planned for us to do for the time that we are on this earth. As long as we have breath, we have the opportunity to hear and to share the good news of Jesus Christ. God gives man time to repent as the gospel is being shared around the globe. How loving and gracious is our God? Paul was right when he wrote, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4)

What have you been doing with your time? What is your personal philosophy on life? How are you spending your time on this side of eternity? How is your relationship with God and your fellow man? What is your God-given purpose in this life? As I study the Scriptures, I have discovered that “life is short; it is my responsibility to make my life count for God and His kingdom agenda, and that when it is all said and done I will have to give an account to Almighty God.” I like to tell people that “life is good but eternal life is better.” That is my philosophy on the journey called life.

The Preparation

As I prepare to spend eternity with my Creator it is my desire to grow in wisdom. I know that most of us do not spend most of our time thinking about eternity. Most people spend their time worrying about If you focus on what you’re going through, chances are you’ll never get through it. Another way of putting it, God can use and redeem hard, difficult times; and the difficult processes in life to produce Christ-like character in us. We’re reminded of this in Psalms chapter 90, verse 12. Listen to these words, “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom” (NLT). So my friends, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2 NIV).

View Eternity in Perspective

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God “has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their [our] hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” I pray that the Lord would help us to have the right perspective on life while focusing on what is most important in light of eternity. King David says it well in Psalms 20:7, "Some trusts in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God." During these perilous times, we cannot depend on our limited understanding and we cannot afford to trust in our human efforts to earn our way to heaven. I encourage you to "Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. (Psalms 37:3-7).

By the way as you spend your time with others, please share the hope of eternal life with them as well! God bless you as you become a good steward of your time!

TIME: OUR SHARED COMMODITY PART ONE

My writing this blog this morning is not in anyway intended to bring condemnation or sorrow. It is simply my personal reflection on life and I just wanted to share my heart with my friends from around the world. Please comment if God has spoken to you through what I have been thinking about lately.

What many think of as something to take for granted, time is our shared commodity. Apart from Christ, time is amongst one of the greatest gift that God has ever given to mankind. Think about it, billions of people around the world enjoy the benefit of having 24 hours in a day to do what God has planned for us to do for the time that we are on this earth. Moses wrote in Psalms 90: 10-17, where he reflected upon that precious gift called time. He writes:

“10 The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. 11 Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath. 12 So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 13 Return, O LORD! How long? And have compassion on Your servants.14 Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days! 15Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil. 16 Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children. 17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands.”

What have you been doing with your time? Do you know that your life is on a clock? Solomon says that “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2). Could it be that you are running out of time as I write this blog? The scripture says in Hebrews 9:27-28 “And as it is appointment for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 27 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”

If you are like me, you can see that time is short. Moses said it well when he said that “…We finish our years like a sigh.” When the time comes for you to die, will you be ready to meet your maker? It is said that every human being have the same opportunities on earth. If you have not given that a thought go to the cemetery and look at the engraving on every tombstone. Sobering, I know! They all have the same engraving. The date of birth; a dash; and then the day of death (e.g. 09/21/1950 –10/23/2011). While the day of birth is important and brought joy to a mother and father as well as to other family members. The day of death, however, brings much grief and sorrow in the lives of many. Moreover, the dash in between those two dates, the memories of the time spent together can either bring more joy or more sorrow depending if the deceased lived a life that honored God.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” This is my prayer for you today. Tomorrow, I will continue sharing my thoughts with you on what you can do with the remainder of the dash in your life! Until we connect again, I am praying for you! Have a blessed Monday and make a difference in someone else’s life!