Brown's Daily Word 10-3-07

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this beautiful day. It will be sunny and warm today. The fall foliage should be peaking in a few days. It is a beautiful time of year, when we see the Lord's handiwork all around us, reminding us of how He displays His colors and His grandeur.
Laureen is coming home tomorrow. We are planning to attend the Mercy Me concert in Binghamton tomorrow evening. Sunita and Andy, together with their friend, Meredith, will be driving in from Washington, DC on Friday night. Jessy and Tom also are driving up from Philadelphia on Friday to get New York State apples and make homemade doughnuts. I am planning to spend next week with Micah and Simeon in Boston, leaving on Monday. One month from today Micah will be 2 years old. I can't believe it! She is talking a lot - in full sentences, too.
Please scroll down each morning to check on the prayer and praise updates, and take some time to pray for those on the prayer list. As you know, this devotional and each morning devotional is posted on my home page brownnaik.com and my friend Julie, in Oklahoma, is my webmaster. She maintains the page so faithfully and joyfully. There is a link from my home page to the church's home page, one to the children's homes in India which we support, and a link to the gallery containing Sunita and Andy's wedding pictures. Praise the Lord for the way that He links us with Him, and with one another as His body on earth. I am reading from Psalm 90, this morning. It is the only Psalm written by Moses. It is called the prayer of Moses, the man of God. It talks about time and Eternity.
Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with
$86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!
Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits
you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off as lost whatever of
this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance.
It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each
night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s
deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow". You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today.
I heard a story about a man who worked at a factory. One of his main jobs was to blow the factory whistle at 5:00 to indicate the workday was over. He walked to work each day and passed a jewelry store where a beautiful grandfather clock was displayed in the window. Every morning, he stopped and set his pocket watch to match the time on the grandfather clock. One morning the store owner was out front sweeping the sidewalk and the factory worker asked him how he kept such accurate time on the grandfather clock. The jeweler said, “Oh, I set it every afternoon when the factory whistle blows at 5:00.”
People live by the clock, because time is important to all of us. Benjamin Franklin said, “Do not squander time, for it is the stuff life is made of.”

Many frustrated people seem to always fight the clock, habitually, as a way of life. They stay up late, then they sleep as late as they can and then rush frantically to school or work, gulping down an unhealthy breakfast in the car, applying their make-up (or using a razor) at the stoplight, talking on their cell phone at the same time.
The Bible gives us some great insight into how time can become your friend rather than your enemy. Basically, God exists in a realm that is not bound by time or space. God doesn’t wear a Rolex or even a Timex. He doesn’t have a Day-Timer or a PDA. He is the Creator of time, and He is greater than time. So, the first step in making time your friend is to totally immerse your life in God. In Psalm 90, we read:
Psalm 90:1-4, 10, 12
Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. [2] Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. [3] Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. [4] For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Psalm 90:10
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Psalm 90:12
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

God says we should treasure time as a valuable commodity. You number your years (or at least some of you do), but God says every day is so precious, we should treasure it and number it.
To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby. How valuable is an hour? Ask the businessman whose flight was delayed an hour and he missed an important business deal. How valuable is one minute? Ask the man who had the heart attack in the restaurant and an EMT happened to be sitting at the next table and CPR saved his life. How valuable is a second? Ask the person who barely missed a head on w/ an oncoming car. How valuable is a millisecond? Ask the Olympic swimmer who missed qualifying by six-tenths. Time really is valuable. So learn a couple of things about what this means for your family:

Treasure every moment that you have! Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is
a mystery. Today is a gift...That’s why it’s called the “present!”

“You can make more money but you can’t make more time.”

Have you ever heard the expression, “time is money?” It’s not true. Time is much more valuable than money. It may be hard to make more money, but it can be done. But it is totally impossible to make more time. TIME is more valuable than money. A.W. Tozer wrote:
“Time is a resource that is nonrenewable and nontransferable. You cannot store it, slow it up, hold it up, divide it up or give it up. You can’t hoard it up or save it for a rainy day–when it’s lost it’s unrecoverable. When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.”
Time is more valuable than money, but it’s like money in that it can be spent and invested. It’s different from money though, because while money can be saved, time can’t. It you don’t use it, you lose it. Forever. In the early 1970s Jim Croce wrote a song that said, “If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I’d like to do, is to save every day ‘till eternity passes away–just to spend them with you.” Those are great lyrics, and it would be nice if we could save time, but you can’t. In fact, a few months after he wrote that song, he was tragically killed in a plane crash in Natchitoches, Louisiana at the age of 30. You can’t save time.

We have all kinds of time-saving appliances…like microwave ovens. Guys love to take short cuts in order to “save time.” Show me some of the time you’ve saved–where is it? You can’t save it you can only spend it and invest it. At a graduation commencement at his alma mater, Wheaton College, Billy Graham said: “Time is the capital that God has given us to invest. People are the stocks in which we are to invest our time, whether they’re blue chips or penny stocks or even junk bonds.”

There are 168 golden hours in each week. The average person will spend about 56 of those hours sleeping, about 24 of those hours in eating and personal hygiene, and about 50 of those hours working or traveling to work. That means there are only about 35 hours a week of “discretionary” time left over. That’s about 5 hours per day. Where are you investing those hours?

If I were to follow you around and observe you for those 5 hours, after about 10 days, I could tell you what is most important in your life. How much of that discretionary time are you devoting to your Lord? How much are you devoting to your family? A study of 1,500 households at the University of Michigan found mothers working outside the home spend an average of 11 minutes a day on weekdays, and thirty minutes a day on weekends with the children (not including mealtime). Fathers spend an average of 8 minutes a day on weekdays and 14 minutes a day on weekends in different activities with their children.


I reminded you this morning that all the money we receive comes from God and we only manage it. The same can be true of time. God is the creator of time, and He alone controls it.

A time management expert was teaching a seminar for executives. He placed a large, clear open-mouthed jar in front of the group. Next, he put seven or eight large rocks into the jar until it was full. “Is the jar full?” He asked. Everyone nodded. Then he took pebbles and filled up the jar with the small rocks until they reached the rim. “Is the jar full?” By now, they didn’t answer. So, he poured fine sand in. “Is the jar full?” Some nodded. He proceeded to take a pitcher of water and filled up the jar again. “What’s the lesson about time management?” he asked. Hands shot up, and everyone agreed “No matter how busy you are you can always fit more things into your schedule.” “Wrong.” he replied. “The lesson is: unless you put the big rocks in first, they never will fit in. You must figure out what the big rocks are for you.” What are the big rocks in your life? Giving time to God? Giving time to your marriage and to your children? If you don’t put those big rocks in first, someone else will fill up your jar.

There is an entire field of study called “time management.” In almost every business in America, consultants are hired to teach busy executives how to better manage their time. Time management is a hot topic. In his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey writes: “Time management is a misleading concept. You can’t really manage time. You can’t delay it, speed it up, save it or lose it. No matter what you do time keeps moving forward at the same rate. The challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.”

The Bible uses another word. Instead of managing your time, it speaks of “redeeming” the time, which is an even better idea. Paul writes: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:14- 15)

The phrase “walk circumspectly,” means to be constantly looking around to make the most of every opportunity. Emmett Smith was a great football running back, but he’s not the biggest or the fastest, or the strongest. What he excels at is running with his eyes open, and he is one of the best at seeing holes as they open and then running through them. That’s the way we should live, looking for every opportunity to invest time wisely, then darting through them. When an opportunity passes, it can’t be reclaimed–it is gone forever. That’s what it means to redeem the time.

If you don’t manage your time - someone else will manage it for you

You can’t save time, or even waste time–you are going to spend it somewhere and invest it in someone. If you don’t control your schedule, someone will always be happy to do it for you. Some people complain they just don’t have enough time to spend with their family. You’ve got exactly the same amount of time as everyone else; you just aren’t managing your time wisely or managing yourself wisely.

The most important time you will invest will be in your family. Many of you remember the song, “The Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin. Part of it says,
“My child arrived just the other day.
He came to the world in the usual way.
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay.
He learned to walk while I was away.
He was talking before I knew it, and as he grew
He said, “I’m going to be like you, Dad.
You know I’m going to be like you.”

My son turned ten just the other day.
He said, “Thanks for the ball, now come on let’s play.
Can you teach me to throw?” I said, “Not today,
I’ve got a lot to do.” He said, “That’s OK.”
And he walked away and he smiled and he said
“You know I’m going to be like you, Dad,
You know I’m going to be like you.”

The final verse says:
I’ve long since retired and my son’s moved away.
I called him up just the other day.
I said, “I’d like to see you, if you don’t mind.”
He said, “I’d love to, Dad, if I could find the time.
You see, my new job’s a hassle and the kids have the flu,
But it’s sure nice talking to you, Dad.
It’s been real nice talking to you.”
And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me,
He’d grown up just like me.
My boy was just like me.
Maybe you’ve heard the song, but here’s the rest of the story: Harry Chapin’s wife, Sandy, actually wrote the words to that song after their son Josh was born. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy. When their son was 7, Harry was performing 200 concerts a year, and Sandy asked him when he was going to take some time to be with his son. Harry promised to make some time at the end of the summer. He never made it. That summer, a truck hit Harry’s Volkswagen bug and he was killed.

"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."
In Christ,
Brown


Ryan K ,who is in hospice care.
LA, for total healing
JB who will be going for drug rehabilitation
Jack Black.
Rich McPherson and the prison ministry team.

Grant DeGaramo.

Don Harbecke, 52 years old is had a quadruple heart bypass in Illinois,.
Jack B, experiencing heart problems,
Leslie Broughton, Receiving chemo therapy
Larry, and Jane,
Geraldine who is hospitalized in with a heart attack and a stroke in Columbia, SC.
JN, who is a recent college graduate, looking for job,
Our youngest daughter Jessica, who will be finishing her assignment with the Americorps in Philadlphia in few weeks,
Pray for Cameron Tyler, born 8 weeks prematurely, weighing 4 pounds, in neonatal ICU in Boston
Pray for Dave and Linda Barton and the team that are going to Uruguay on a short term mission trip in October.


Pray for Dr. Doug Kerr and Dr. Carpenter who are going to Kenya on a short term medical mission.

Pray for Kristin, Becky, Shannan - our young expecting moms
Jane Leoffler, Andy, in Sloane-Kettering Hospital in New York City.
Kim, is home after her surgery.
Patsie Carmen, .
Prudence Wesner, recovering from Complete knee replacement surgery
Brolin Parker... As he recovers from surgery in Albany last week.
Burt Sweet (Retired Pastor) is still recovering from lung surgery in Watertown, NY. Please pray for Burt and his family as his health continues to be fragile.
Geno DeAngelo, Binghamton Police officer, father of four children, battling lung cancer,
Jack Hoppes Jr,
Sarah Duel,



Hi Brown

I am Jan ~ a very close friend of Senie and Allans.
Will you put Andrea from Washington State on the prayer list.

She is young & has been diagnosed with breast Cancer and will start radiation and possibly chemo soon.

Love In Christ
Jan
For John Hoppes Jr

. He likes to go by the name Jack but if you say John I know God will know who you're praying for. We ask that all stand in prayer and be saying the Name above all Names. The only Name that holds the power to Heal and Restore. God Bless You All and may God be glorified.
The following is what my Heavenly Father spoke to me today. He so delights in His children that believe Him at His word.

10/1/2007
Heavenly Father, I do love you so much. You know right now where we are all at and you meet each of us at the point of our need. You alone know what You want each of us to learn thru what is happening. You are so awesome, comforting, Mighty in power. Father, there are no words in the human language to describe You.
Lord, I need to tell You that I trust You, I believe Your word and I know You are faithful. It is I Lord that can do nothing but cling to Your promises. Father, I do believe that my faith is bigger than a mustard seed but I also want to not have doubt the size of a mustard seed, not even the size of a grain of sand. So I come to You Father and ask that You would replace any question of doubt with Your gift of supernatural faith. Lord, it is easy to see You even when it is cloudy. During the storm it is harder. I can sense Your presence but cannot always see where you are at. Help me Father to see You ever so clearly with my heart and not just my eyes. For I know when I see thru my eyes Your blessings, my faith grows and my spirit is lifted. Help us all now to believe, to stand on Your word and grow our faith so that you may say of us "blessed are you who believed before seeing". I praise You Father for Who You are, for You alone are the great I AM. May You alone be glorifed.





Depend on it! God's work done in God's way
will never lack God's supply.

There is a living God;
He has spoken in the Bible;
He means what He says
and will do all He has promised.

J. Hudson Taylor (1832-1905)
English missionary and founder of the China Inland Mission