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3C. Balance in properly redeeming time.

Tuesday Bible Study Notes

Westside Care Center Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Prayer, Principle 4A. Petition-key3 Mr. C. Pat Lanyon

 

Review

1B. KEYS FOR SUCCESS – I pray for...

1C. Spirit-Control of my mind.***

2C. Death to my sinful nature.

Introduction

EP 5.15,16; PS 90.2; HE 12.13; PR 4.26; PS 119.59

3C. Balance in properly redeeming time.

Ephes. 5:15-16

See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, [16] redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Psalm 90:12

So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Hebrews 12:13

and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

Proverbs 4:26

Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established.

Psalm 119:59

I thought about my ways, And turned my feet to Your testimonies.

Summary: redeeming the time, (the ETERNAL God REQUIRES this) for the days are evil, (Righteousness is at stake) number our days (Our time is extremely limited), make straight paths (A narrow, disciplined walk is implied). Balance comes only by KNOWING and EXERCISING priorities: THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. IT PRODUCES THE GREATEST SATISFACTION OF LIFE AND WILL YIELD THE GREATEST REWARDS IN HEAVEN, AND LEAVES THE GREATEST LEGACY FOR MY CHILDREN. But it is also something God teaches us, and we (through time) must learn! [I can avoid, but I must expect failure at times.] The Christian life is kept with a monitor on the heart:

PR 4.23 ( issues of life) Deal with self-will – It naturally, automatically opposes God's will!

Proverbs 4:23

Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.

The redeeming of time is the single ingredient that most keeps all of our duties of the Christian life in balance. We can live life trying to focus on all the important things, one at a time– for that is how they are learned. We can remind ourselves of truths we will forget as time passes and review them. But to have spent time in the way God intended us to spend it each day of our lives when all of life is over and to stand before Him unashamed– the only way that we will hear Him say, "Well done good and faithful servant," – will be an accomplishment many can never expect, except for the mercy of God. (Matthew 25.21, Lam 3.22-23) So while we are living in a time dimension, we are indebted to keep this principle before our mind’s eye.

Mt 25:21 "His lord said to him, `Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'

Lam 3.22-23 Through the LORD'S mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

The following is a very sobering quote from a writer of 1902:

One who wastes time is throwing away vital values, and one who has no manhood to match its great values degrades time to the level of his own littleness. If one's time is not valuable, it is because his life has no value. Time is then an indication and a measure of personal values. Out in Denver is the headquarters of a club called the On Timer's Tribe, whose laudable purpose is to get people to be always on time.

It is a truism that no time should ever be lost any more than diamonds should be lost from the finger or the ear, or money be lost from the pocket. In order to save time, one must use it, and he cannot use it unless he has a calling in which he can use it. If, in his calling, he has more time than he can use, he must enlarge the calling by putting more into it, or spend the leisure time in self_culture and philanthropy. Well does Prof. Matthews say, "it is a truism, which cannot be too often repeated, that lost wealth may be replenished by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever."

"Every moment we now lose is so much character and advantage lost; as, on the other hand, every moment we now employ usefully is so much time wisely laid out at prodigious interest."

Time is vindictive. Mistreat it and it will punish you; be true to it, and it will afford you pleasure. Richard II. was a failure, and, as he neared the end, he cried out hopelessly: "I wasted time, and now doth time waste me." He who trifles with time is trifling with priceless treasures. He who uses other people's time carelessly is immoral. Even that which is spent in rest and recreation is to be spent with scrupulous sensitiveness to its intrinsic value and its value in preparing one for future labor.

No one can use time aright unless he uses it systematically. One's life plan must take into account the years of his life in the bulk; the separate years with their separate opportunities and duties; the various months and seasons of each current year, the days of the weeks as they pass by. He must plan the achievements of his lifetime; he must assign to the various years their proper part; he must use the seasons of each year for all that they can do; he must know what to do with each separate day of the week. The only way to keep from murdering time is to perfect each day's work on that day. Finish the duties of the forenoon before twelve, and keep the duties of the afternoon and the evening from crowding over into the next day. All our successful men understand the value of a systematic use of time.

— James S. Kirtley, The Young Man and Himself, pp 209-210.