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]Rockets are flying through the skies of Israel and many are landing on the ground. Emails are also flying through cyberspace as people all over the world express support through prayer for us and our nation. Words cannot express our gratitude for your care and concern. In times like these the best and the worst are brought out in people: either the peace, confidence, and strength which come from faith, or the fear and panic which overwhelms the souls of worldly men.
Since moving to Israel we’ve been thrust into a Middle Eastern culture of “extreme hospitality”. The above parable from Luke takes place in a similar cultural context, and it powerfully illustrates how God wants us to approach Him.
Unless you’re up on your biology, you’re probably wondering, “What in the world is a coney?” I certainly was. After doing a little research, I discovered that a coney is a rock badger.
I ran across a profound story that shows what happens when the family structure breaks down — but this didn’t have to do with people — it had to do with elephants.
As some of you may know, a bomb exploded in a bus within blocks of our Jerusalem apartment when we first moved to Israel. That morning, my wife and I, along with our newborn baby, were heading to the city center to run a few errands when suddenly we heard the explosion. Within minutes, the sirens were screaming from every part of the city as officials quickly made their way to the scene. Later that month, the bus I was supposed to be on drove away as I watched it carry away the 50 or so people who would be critically injured and the 8 who would be dead seconds later, when that bus exploded before my very eyes. So, to put it mildly, we have seen firsthand how terrorism works and how it affects people.
We know a Christian woman who has struggled with her past for years. She rarely thinks or speaks of anything else. And as a result, her life has just spiraled downward, despite all our attempts to minister to her. It breaks our hearts to see.
Today marks Holocaust Memorial day here in Israel. At ten o’clock in the morning on this day, war sirens sound calling the entire Land to remembrance of the 6,000,000 Jews who died and many more who suffered under the Nazi regime during WW2. People in their homes and workplaces rise in silence; cars come to a halt, even on the highways; pedestrians stop where they are and pause… for one minute as the sirens wail, we remember.