Psalms 90:12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Ephesians 5:16 ...redeeming the time because the days are evil.
Ecc. 3:17 ...."a time for every purpose"
James 4:13-15 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
As we enter a New Year, remember the one constant true for everyone, rich or poor, male or female: each of us is given 8,760 hours in a Gregorian calendar year. That is, 1,440 minutes a day, or 525,600 minutes a year. Sounds like a lot, yet have you noticed how time flies these days?
Personally, I can't find enough hours in a day to accomplish all that I want to. When I was younger, I had all the time in the world. These days its rate of passage is just short of astonishing. It seems, for example, like yesterday, that 9/11 happened. It's been 21 years. Kids entering the army now weren't even born yet!
And time is one thing we cannot recapture once lost. Are we behaving like we have all the time in the world? We don't, and it was always an illusion to think otherwise. Time is precious. A heart of wisdom will rightly value the limited and uncertain portion allotted and will make the most of it.
Seize the day. Discover the purpose for the time. The Lord will guide and empower you to live meaningfully and fruitfully, even as if today is the last day of your life; (it actually could be). If you need to, repent. If you need to, reconcile; don't wait. Pray for the Lord's economy in your use of time. You'll be amazed at the ways He inspires, arranges, and invests your time with His wonderful purposes. Every minute of your life will be assessed according to His value. So make the most of it...
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]A good pastor friend of ours told us that his congregation was experiencing some hardships and division. How often does this happen among us? It breaks my heart -- and I believe the Lord weeps over this too.
I came across an old article about "fake physicians". According to this article, many American citizens could be receiving medical treatment from doctors who lied on their medical school loan applications and used the money to pay a broker for fake documents. One guy was arrested and later admitted that he was paid beaucoup bucks to hand out approximately a hundred phony medical documents claiming that his clients completed their training! Can you imagine?!
I came across a powerful parable written by a Haitian pastor illustrating to his congregation the need for total commitment to the Lord.
We arrived at the airport late Thursday night with our bags and our kiddos only to find out that our flight was canceled because of a freak accident -- a tractor ran into the plane, of all things! So we repacked our ourselves tightly into a small rental car to make the two hour drive to get back home to Arad in the middle of the night. Our flight was postponed till Sunday.
There is a tale told of that great English actor Macready. An eminent preacher once said to him: "I wish you would explain to me something."
Yesterday, actor Robert Clary of Hogan's Heroes fame passed away at the age of 96. Upon reading his autobiography, Mr. Clary was the youngest of 14 children. However, 10 of his siblings were tragically killed during the Holocaust. He survived his captivity in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in 1942. Upon reading his story, and with thanksgiving coming this week in the United States reminded me of another story by Corrie Ten Boom, a Christian survivor of the Holocaust because of her willingness to protect Jews during World War 2.
The parable of the Prodigal son might also serve as an illustration of the relationship between Israel and the Church.