Brown's Daily Word 4-6-11

Good morning, Praise the Lord for the gift this new day. We will gather for our mid-week fellowship and study this Evening starting at 6 PM with choir practice at 7:30 PM. Praise the Lord for the gift of time that we might live under His wonderful care by worshipping Him and serving Him day by day. It has been determined that In a lifetime the average North American will spend: Six months sitting at stoplights Eight months opening junk mail One year looking for misplaced objects 2 years unsuccessfully returning phone calls 5 years waiting in line 6 years eating 21 years watching television. An article was once published entitled, “If You Are 35, You Have 500 Days To Live.” The article went on to contend that when you subtract the time you spend sleeping, working, tending to personal matters, eating, traveling, doing chores, attending to personal hygiene, and add in the miscellaneous time stealers, in the next 36 years you will have only 500 days to spend as you wish. Think about how you spend your time. When all of the necessary things are done, how much time is left? God did not give all of us the same amount of talent, nor the same amount of wealth, but He has given each of us the same amount of time. Imagine that a bank credits your account each morning with $86,400. No balance is carried over from day to day. Any balance is deleted each evening. What would you do when you knew that you would not use all your daily balance? You would withdraw every penny, of course! You have such a bank and so have I. The name of our bank is TIME. Every day we are credited with 86,400 seconds. Every night, that which we have not used is debited from our account. The TIME bank allows no overdraft, there is no going back for a second chance. The TIME bank does not allow borrowing from tomorrow and of course, and there are no leftovers. The clock ticks away, never waiting for anyone to catch up. Because we value time so much, we usually try to SAVE it & MANAGE it. We save time by using microwaves and automatic dishwashers. We also save time by taking non-stop flights. Stephen Covey "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", said that “Time Management” is really a misnomer – the challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.” It is interesting that when we look at the Bible, we do not find a lot of emphasis on saving time or managing time, though we are called to be good “stewards” of all that God has given us, and that includes time. More than that, in the words of the apostle Paul, in Ephesians 5 and again in Colossians 4:5, we are called to REDEEM the time. The word “redeeming” can be translated as buying up or purchasing. "Time” is not the Greek word "chronos" which means clock time that is measured in hours, minutes and seconds, but it is the Greek word "kairos" which is a better translation. In other words, rather than being called to be good time managers, we are called to be good opportunity managers. It is not just the time, but also the timing that matter. It is not a matter of counting the minutes, hours, days, months and years, but of making the minutes, hours, day, months and years count. Tomorrow we will be given more hours, but we may never have the same opportunities again. Author Terry Muck told of a letter he received from a man who used to have absolutely no interest in spiritual things. He lived next door to a Christian, and they had a casual relationship as neighbors often do. Then the non-Christian’s wife was stricken with cancer, and died three months later. The letter follows: “I was in total despair. I went through the funeral preparations and the service like I was in a trance. And after the service I went to the path along the river and walked all night. But I did not walk alone. My neighbour - afraid for me, I guess - stayed with me all night. He did not speak; he did not even walk beside me. He just followed me. When the sun finally came up over the river he came over to me and said, "Let’s go get some breakfast." I go to church now. My neighbour’s church. A religion that can produce the kind of caring and love my neighbour showed me is something I want to find out more about. I want to be like that. I want to love and be loved like that for the rest of my life.” What made the difference in this man’s life? It was that one Christian dared to make the most of the opportunity he had to reveal Christ to his friend. There were few words . . . but the message came through. He had learned how to REDEEM THE TIME. Carl Sandburg has written, “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” Jonathan Edwards said, "Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can. Resolved, To live with all my might, while I do live." One day our time on earth will come to an end and we will be asked to give an account of how we invested the gift of time that was given to us. We will not be asked how well we did in SAVING TIME. We will not be asked to prove how well we did in MANAGING TIME. We will be asked how well we did in REDEEMING THE TIME, in making the most of the opportunities that God sent our way. The apostle Paul said, “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.” From one of the beloved hymns of the church by Isaac Watts: "A thousand ages in Thy sight Are like an evening gone; Short as the watch that ends the night Before the rising sun. The busy tribes of flesh and blood, With all their lives and cares, Are carried downwards by the flood, And lost in foll’wing years. Time, like an ever-rolling stream, Bears all its sons away; They fly, forgotten, as a dream Dies at the op’ning day. In Christ who is the Alpha and Omega, Brown http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTqDuOvayKw Saturday evening worship service. Location: First United Methodist Church 53 McKinley Avenue Endicott Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott Saturday, April 9, 2011 6 PM Coffee Fellowship 6:30 PM Worship Service Worship Music: Betty Phinney and the worship team Speaker: Jeff Vansycle