Friday, January 25, 2013

Time......

Imagine that your banker called you late on a Friday afternoon to give you some good news. An anonymous donor will be depositing 86,400 pennies into your account every morning starting on Monday.  That is $864 a day!  Six thousand a week, almost $315,000 a year, a million dollars every three years!  But then the banker tells you there is but one stipulation.  You must spend the entire $864.00 deposited each morning by the end of the same day.  No balance can be carried over.  At midnight the bank will remove the balance of whatever money you have failed to use.

If this scenario actually took place, you would naturally feel as though you had won the lottery!  But, this is essentially what each of us receives from the God of heaven each morning; He gives each of us 86,400 seconds of time to spend as we like.  God does not play favorites in this respect.  He gives all of us the same amount of time in each day.  However, when the day is done, whether we have spent our time wisely or not,   the “balance” can’t be carried over.  We lose what we don’t use. 

The Sky Moon Tourbillion platinum watch is made by a company named Patek Phillippe.  It is recognized as the most expensive model in the world, costing nearly $1,750,000.  It is an engineering wonder, consisting of 686 moving parts.  Its chime mimics a cathedral gong.  It displays not only your basic time, but also solar time, date, month, year, leap year by hands and moon age.  It comes packaged in a platinum case.  Obviously, only a select few can ever dream of possessing it.  I also have a Patek Phillipe which I purchased in Hong Kong for $50  (clearly not the same model, though!). The point being, the guy who owns the million-plus tourbillion has no more time than me with my $50 version!

Despite the many biblical admonitions to value the time we are given (see Psalm 90 and James 4:14 to name just two), we seem to pay little attention to the passing of time during our normal, daily routine, as it seems most believe they have “all the time in the world”.  Contrast this with a person who is informed by their doctor they have a terminal illness; typically one of their first responses is “How much time do I have?”  It is truly amazing how precious every moment becomes if we think we are dying, and how ironic it is that it takes such unfortunate circumstances for us to focus on the truth that every day should be treasured for what it is - a gift from the Almighty God. 

We as Christians need to realize every day is God’s investment in our lives.  Therefore, we should seek to maximize the return on His investment in us.  The first “great commission” in Genesis 1:28 and the many references to the concept of being a “good servant-faithful steward” in the New Testament certainly demonstrate that God desires us to actively pursue utilizing the time he has given us to the best and utmost of our ability, for His glory.  This was the primary goal of our earliest fore-fathers, the Pilgrims, who composed the Mayflower Compact when they first landed, and clearly identified this as their purpose as this phrase from that historic document indicates: “Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith”.

 Although most of us would admit we never seem to have the time to do all that we would like to do, we should recognize that God will provide us the time to accomplish that which He intends for us to do.  Our part, as the famous Nike marketing slogan puts it, is to “Just do it”.
 
See ya Sunday!
Pastor

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