When I was a rather new Christian, I attended Christian Training Center in Ft. Wayne. The classes went from 8AM-12 Noon Monday-Friday. I worked in the afternoons at various ministries of the church, so school tied me up 8 hours a day. I also had responsibilities with the youth group I was leading at my church and worked 6 hours every night in a factory assembling hydraulic pumps on third shift.
Needless to say, I was often a zombie between responsibilities. I remember early one morning I arrived home from work, took a shower and laid down for a quick nap before leaving for school. I awoke to my alarm clock blaring at me. I had slept a half hour too long and that alarm was just now waking me. I rushed around, drove like a NASCAR driver all the way to the school in downtown Ft. Wayne.
When I pulled into the parking lot, however, it was empty. I was confused. I checked my watch, and it was on the right time. I tried to recall if this was a holiday; no. Then it dawned on me: this was Saturday! I could be sleeping in. What a bummer.
Paul advised the church in Rome to be careful about esteeming one day above another (Romans 14:5). And sometimes it would be better to observe that rule. Its always better when God picks the day or the hour He wants to accomplish something in our lives. Let’s let Him control the times in our lives.
Tags: late, time
When he was in college, Adam had a Music Major. So, Anita and I traveled to the school’s musical programs to support him. The program usually began with students playing with professionals (or at least alumni) in a great orchestra. As the individual musicians arrived and took their seats on the stage, they would begin their tune-ups.
What a racket! No two instruments were together. The music they all performed together was a harsh kind of chaos, each making their own unique sounds (or noises). It was not pleasant, but abrasive.
Then the conductor stepped up on a small platform and tapped his music stand with his baton. Everything fell silent. Then the conductor began to signal with that baton and such a pleasant, calming harmony came from those individual instruments. What made the difference? It was the harmonious leadership and timing of the conductor.
The Holy Spirit is the Great Conductor of the spiritual music produced by the individual members of the Body of Christ. Working together, under the spiritual Conductor’s guidance, we became an example of harmony. Different instruments all harmonizing together to make a beautiful sound. Let’s let the Spirit lead us.
Comment here about the last time you saw some really neat harmony among your brothers and sisters.
Tags: disharmony, Holy Spirit, music, time, unity
An interesting thing happened years ago when we were worshiping in our smaller building. Adam was young at the time and noticed that I had a small alarm clock sitting on the pulpit we were using. He asked why that clock was there. I told him it was there so I could see what time it was and end on time.
Later, I was preaching away and wrapping my message up. I was at a quite serious point and just bringing people to the altar call point when the alarm went off on that clock. My concentration was broken as I quickly tried to process what was happening.
I pushed the snooze button and shot young Adam an “evil eye”, but it was too late, the church was in an uproar and the sermon was over.
The moral of the story is if you’re going to give people information, give them all the information. If you don’t fill in the blanks, they’ll fill them in themselves.
Tags: humor, interruptions, time
If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,000 that carried over no balance from day to day…Allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and every evening canceled whatever part of the amount you failed to use during the day, what would you do? Most probably you would draw out every cent every day, of course, and use it to your advantage!
Well, you have such a bank, and its name is TIME. Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off as lost whatever of this you failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balances, it allows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against tomorrow.
With that illustration in your mind, what will you do different, if anything, today with your account?
Tags: account, budget, responsibility, time
Back in the days before electric clocks and batteries, clocks were powered by a swinging pendulum and mainspring. Evangelist Dwight L. Moody told the following story about Lady Pendulum:
“When Mr. [Ira] Sankey and I were in London a lady who attended our meetings was brought into the house in her carriage, being unable to walk. At first she was very skeptical; but one day she said to the servant, “Take me into the inquiry room.”
After I had talked with her a good while about her soul, she said, “But you will go back to America, and it will be all over.” “Oh, no,” said I, “It is going to last forever.”
I couldn’t make her believe it. I don’t know how many times talked with her. At last I used the fable of the pendulum in the clock. The pendulum figured up the thousands of times it would have to tick, and got discouraged, and was going to give up. Then it thought, “It is only a tick at a time,” and went on. So it is in the Christian life – only one step at a time.
That helped this lady very much. She began to see that if she could trust in God for a supply of grace for only one day, she could go right on in the same way from day to day. As soon as she saw this, she came out quite decided. But she never could get done talking about that pendulum. The servants called her Lady Pendulum. She had a pendulum put up in her room to remind her of the illustration, and when I went away from London she gave me a clock – I’ve got it in my house still.”
Tags: decision, pendulum, time
The driver of the hearse foolishly tried to warm himself on a rainy Saturday morning by drinking on the job. He didn’t get warm, but he did get lost on the way to the cemetery. The funeral procession waited in vain at the grave for hours. Later that evening, police found the driver asleep in the hearse by the side of the road. By then it was too late for burial, and the cemetery wouldn’t accept the casket on Sunday.
On Monday, the local newspaper reported tha the body of the 62-year old man “was finally laid to rest – 2 days late for his final appointment.”
Actually, his final appointment was kept right on time. His tardy burial in no way altered the fact that his conscious soul had passed into eternity precisely at God’s appointed time.
We learn two lessons from the story. #1 That hearse driver probably has another job today. #2 We’d better stay ready because we will not be late for our final appointment with God.
Tags: appointment, funeral, late, time
A couple of years back we were receiving catalogs regularly from a company known as 20th Century Plastics. This company marketed plastic page protectors in various designs for photograph albums, baseball card collections, etc. They had some creative new ideas, but they had an old-fashioned name. Consumers today are looking for new-fangled gizmos and gadgets, and I just don’t think the company name earns a lot of confidence with customers.
I think the same applies for the names 20th Century Fox in Hollywood or 20th Century Data in Dallas. The company name dates them out of the market today. Consultant Frank Delano says, “You can’t do business in the 21st Century with a 20th-century name. You need a name that is really universal with no limitations.”
Speaking of blowing the lid off limitations, Jesus said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 1:8). Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet, and Omega is the last. Jesus is the A and He’s the Z, and everything in between.
Tags: 21st century, name, time