ARE YOU REDEEMING THE TIME? : PART TWO
Copyright 1994 - 2008 Endtime Prophecy Org
Last Updated : July 23, 2006
The Lord's Day Or Your Day?, Room For Improvement, Fight To
Win Back Your Time, Proper Time Management, Are You Equally
Dedicated To The Lord?, Faith Without Works, Vulnerability
Of This Ministry, My Personal Goals, Rewarded According To
Our Works, Brevity Of Life, Reward Or Shame And Contempt, A
Good Story Or The Good Book, Importance Of The Word, Study
The Word With Diligence, You Are What You Eat, Conclusions
In the Book of Psalms we find the following inspiring verse
which we like to quote a lot in our home. It is an excellent
verse to quote in the morning as your day begins:
"This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice
and be glad in it." Psalms 118:24, KJV
As Christians, if we truly believe that each and every day,
and not just Sunday, belongs to the Lord, isn't it only
right and proper that we should dedicate at least a small
portion of each day to the Lord, to prayer, and to the study
of His Word? Wouldn't this be much more pleasing to Him than
our dedication to meaningless books of fiction which do not
really feed our souls? Wouldn't the Lord be more honoured by
our attempts to reach out to others concerning our faith,
than by time wasted watching violent, sex-filled videos, or
a highly-intense football game, or perhaps an anticipated
boxing match? Isn't the Lord and His Word more important
than going out drinking or playing cards 'with the boys'?
Isn't our time better spent in communion with Him, than in
cruising around town in order to proudly show off our new
car? Isn't being filled with His Spiritual Light through His
Word more important than playing a 'Dungeons And Dragons'
game which may only lead to worse evil? Aren't God's true
heavenly visions in the Bible much better than going out to
see the latest 'Star Wars' epic which is full of nothing but
lies, silliness and fantasy?
Obviously, I can provide many more examples, but I am sure
that my point is well made. Whose day is it really? Is it
our day, or is it the Lord's day? If it is truly the Lord's
day, then why aren't we giving Him at the very least a small
part of it? If we each take the time to honestly examine our
personal lifestyle closely, I do not doubt that we will find
at least a few areas which require improvement. If Satan is
going to fight so hard to steal our time from us, then we
must fight even harder to win it back; and one way in which
we can do this is by adopting good spiritual habits. We need
to guard our free time, and use it wisely; because once this
life is past, only what is done for Christ will truly last.
Proper time management has become an important concept in
the modern business world. Over the past several decades,
the owners and managers of many companies have become very
keen on how their employees spend their time, being as it is
directly related to how productive they are for the company
profit-wise. Any employee which does not meet a certain
level of productivity can easily be dismissed from his job.
If the children of the world place so much importance on
time management, even if their only motivation is to earn
more money, shouldn't we as Christians do the same? Should
not we be willing to give as much time as possible to our
true Employer in Heaven, as we do to our Earthly bosses, or
even to our own selfish pleasures? All of these other things
are merely time-wasters in which worldly people indulge
themselves. Are we of the world, or are we of the Lord? As
the old saying goes, let me see how you live your life, and
then I will tell you what you believe, and what you consider
to be most important; because your life is an open book. As
the Apostle James wrote:
"Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew
me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my
faith by my works...But wilt thou know, O vain man, that
faith without works is dead?...For as the body without the
spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."
James 2:17-18, 20, 26, KJV
So then, it is very important that we all take Paul's words
very seriously when he tells us 'Redeeming the time, because
the days are evil'. Time is indeed short, and the days are
truly evil. In regards to this ministry, it could come to a
complete halt at any moment; either due to the Y2K glitch,
or possibly due to a variety of other reasons. If it weren't
for the Lord's protection and blessing, and our and your
prayers, Satan could easily have found a way to destroy this
ministry at any moment without any advance warning. It is
because I realize these things, that I work so hard to get
out as much information to you as I can, while there is
still time; and believe me, I still have a great quantity of
articles I have started, which you have never seen before.
As I mention in 'Are You A Burning Ember For The Lord?', by
God's Grace, I will continue to burn brightly at both ends
as long as He will allow me to. I have no intentions on
giving up. I plan to stay focused on the task which He has
set before me. I hope to run the rest of the race to the
finish line. I hope to redeem the time, and to spend the
rest of my life wisely in service to Him and others.
What about you? Are you doing the same; or will you someday
stand before Him empty-handed? Will all of your works be
burned because you spent your time foolishly building upon
the wrong foundation? Our works in this life will surely
follow us to the Judgement Seat of Christ, and then He will
determine which ones were truly done for Him, and which ones
were only done for ourselves. Consider the following verses:
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;
that every one may receive the things done in his body,
according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."
2 Corinthians 5:10, KJV
"If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that
pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy
soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every
man according to his works?" Proverbs 24:12, KJV
"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father
with his angels; and then he shall reward every man
according to his works." Matthew 16:27, KJV
"...I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will
give unto every one of you according to your works."
Revelation 2:23b, KJV
"And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write,
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth:
Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their
labours; and their works do follow them."
Revelation 14:13, KJV
"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and
the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is
the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those
things which were written in the books, according to their
works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and
death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and
they were judged every man according to their works."
Revelation 20:12,13, KJV
As the Apostle Paul also tells us in his Epistle to the
Romans, now is the time to awake out of sleep, and to begin
doing our works for the Lord, because the imminent Day of
our Salvation, and our graduation into the next life, may be
much nearer than we think. Consider the following verses:
"And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to
awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than
when we believed." Romans 13:11, KJV
"Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what
is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a
little time, and then vanisheth away." (James 4:14)
"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this
the judgment:" (Hebrews 9:27)
"But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall
be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which
thou hast provided?" (Luke 12:20)
So as you can see, even if Jesus were not to return for
another twenty or fifty years, that does not necessarily
mean that you personally have that long. You could be dead
tomorrow due to an illness, or an accident, or due to any
number of unforeseen reasons. God forbid that such a thing
should happen to you; but if it did, would you be forced to
shamefully look back at all of the time you wasted doing
foolish things which were of no importance to your Eternal
Destiny, like reading fictitious novels simply because they
have a good story line? The choice is really up to you. I am
reminded of the following verse found in the Book of Daniel:
"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt." Daniel 12:2, KJV
Personally, rather than read a good fictitious story, I
prefer to read the Good News in the Good Book; and I prefer
to share the Good News, that is, the Gospel, with those who
need to hear it. As Paul wrote, I prefer to set my mind and
heart on things above, in the Heavenly Realm, and not on
things of this Earth, particularly when such things are not
even true. Jesus said that the Words that He speaks unto us
are Spirit, and they are Life; and He also said that it is
only His Word which washes us clean. Can the same be said of
worldly books and novels which are written by men who do not
even possess the Spirit of God? Paul tells us to think on
the things which are true, honest and pure. King David also
informs us that God esteems, or magnifies, His Word above
His very name. Should we not do the same by spending our
time wisely reading and studying it diligently, instead of
wasting our time reading the fictitious and often erroneous
works of worldly men? The Apostle Paul, in fact, warns us
against such things. Consider the following verses:
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit,
and they are life." John 6:63, KJV
"Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto
you." John 15:3, KJV
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever
things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if
there be any praise, think on these things."
Philippians 4:8, KJV
"I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name
for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast
magnified thy word above all thy name."
Psalms 138:2, KJV
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain
deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of
the world, and not after Christ." Colossians 2:8, KJV
That certainly leaves out fictitious novels which are of no
spiritual value. To conclude then, there is so much to be
learned from God's Holy Word, that I don't believe that any
of us can truly grasp it all in one lifetime. I have been
studying the Bible for many years now, and I still don't
understand it all; and I probably never will until the day
that I am with Him. In the meantime, I will continue to
search the Scriptures daily, and to study to show myself
approved before God, that I might not be ashamed. I will
continue to hide the Lord's Word in my heart, because 'You
are what you eat'; and that principle applies to our lives
spiritually, as well as physically. Please consider the
truth found in these final verses:
"These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that
they received the word with all readiness of mind, and
searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were
so." Acts 17:11, KJV
"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth." 2 Timothy 2:15, KJV
"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin
against thee." Psalms 119:11, KJV
I truly hope that you are redeeming your time wisely, and
that your spiritual diet is a healthy one. I pray that this
article has been a blessing in your life.