Ecclesiastes 12:10

    It seems that whatever it is we want, the when we want it is now. In the ancient world, when something was done quickly, it was described as “ that very hour” (Matthew 8:13, John 5:42). Today we think in terms of the second (or even the millisecond)!   The reality is that some things take time. With that in mind, let's consider Revelation 2:21, “ I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. ” In this passage, Christ is speaking to an issue with immorality in the church. By no means does he condone this, yet still he says he gave time for repentance to happen. Now that time was coming to an end because of the lack of repentance.   Yet, we must acknowledge that some time was given. Often when we confront a person about an issue, and there isn’t an immediate reaction, we think it did no good.  But that may not be the case. Some things take time. Time for behavior to be changed. Time for hearts to melt. Time for conv...

    Job remarks about life that man “ is short lived ” and like a “ flower that comes forth and does not remain .”  He says that God “ put my feet in the stocks and watch all my paths; You set a limit for the soles of my feet .”   Every one of us has only so many steps we will take, only so many beats of our hearts.   So why then do we waste them?   Many of our steps go down empty paths. Wasted time, pointless path. Many of our steps pace back and forth, standing on the sidelines of our own lives.  Many of our steps go backwards to things that should be left behind.   We only have so many steps; why are we using them to move forward to a better place? Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil . Ephesians 5:15-16    Time is short. You only have so many steps to walk. Make sure that you are taking them to the full limit.  Watch your pa...

  Well, the year is coming to a close. It sure seems to go by fast.  As you think back, what are those things that you planned to do but just didn’t get around to? You had good intentions, but it just never seemed to be the right time.  Consider the advice Paul gives in 2 nd Corinthians 8. Here, Paul is fundraising for relief efforts and knows that the church in Corinth wants to help. He is encouraging them to finish what they started. He is not asking them to give what they can’t, but rather to not let an opportunity pass them by. “ So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have ”. 2 nd Corinthians 8:1  Don’t let the year pass you by on something you can do.  Don’t let a good idea go to waste.  An inch of movement is better than a mile of intentions.  If you can, do.  There is not a time like the present.  Finish the year with a good finish!

    Why did they decide to start the year in the middle of winter? It is not a solstice or equinox. It doesn’t really seem like a ‘new’ year.  If they had done it in springtime, that would make sense when everything is blooming back and nature is returning. But no that is months off.  The school year isn’t new, we are smack dab in the middle of it. There is no new sports season that starts, nothing is premiering,  no reason for the business world to take notice except we say it is a new year. There is no metaphorically, astronomically, and culturally significant reason for it.  Yet here we are in a New Year. However, there doesn’t have to be a reason to change, except it is time for one. We all need to move ahead, maybe by letting go of something (a sin, a struggle, a grudge) or making a fresh start (better habit, a spiritual commitment, a new walk).  Don’t let arbitrary date on a calendar make you start anew. The only day you need is today! As w...

  The word NOW comes from a Latin phrase, novus homo , which means “a new man” or “man newly ennobled”.   There is a powerful lesson in that. Each moment is a change we have to start over. To become a new person, to become a better person.   Now is an important concept in the Bible. Now is the day of salvation (2 nd Corinthians 6:2) Now is the time to encourage (Hebrews 3:13). Now is the time to do what is right (James 4:15-17). Now is the time to repent (Acts 17:30).  A new you starts will an action but it must be done now! Tomorrow isn’t here. Yesterday is already gone. Now is the time. There is no time like the present because we exist nowhere other than now.  Do you want a new start? Do it now!

  Chances are this week you are in the midst of trying to get everything done before the holiday season. Buy the last-minute presents, wrap those gifts, get the Christmas dinner fixed, send out those ends of the year letters, clean up before guests arrive, gas up the car, make sure the travel plans are in place. It can be overwhelming.   Did I miss anything?   It reminds me of Martha in Luke 10. Frustrated not only by all she has to get done but also by a sister that isn’t helping. When she expresses her irritation to the Lord, he gives her an unexpected response. " Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary …”.   It was not her sister that made the mistake, it was her. She is missing out on what is most important because she focused on all the things that should come second.   Could we be doing the same thing?   This time of year should be a reminder of what matters most. Don’t let al...

  There are 30 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 365 days in a year (give or take). It’s always been that way and will continue to be that way. Time moves on at the same pace it always has.   But it sure doesn’t feel that way.   You might think back to the 90's as ten years ago but check again it was thirty. You may think your favorite movie just came out but consider you took your wife to it on your first date. That concert that is coming to town featuring that new band, their last hit was a decade ago. Time has a funny way of speeding up the longer you take it in.   It works the other way as well. We think we spend lots of time doing something and in reality, it has only been moments. We waste huge chunks of time and it is over in a flash. Time flies but it also grinds along at a snail’s pace.   Yet in reality, it is all the same. It’s how we use it that makes it feel different. Consider Paul’s word in Ephesians 5:15-16, “ Therefo...

    There are two enemies that all men face.   One follows him for his entire lifetime, the endless pursuer for all to see. The other looms ahead, in the shadows of the unknown, waiting to attack. The first can never be outrun, the second can never be caught.   Who are they?     The past and the present.     For many their past looms over them. They can’t seem to escape the misdeeds of times gone by. Others are controlled by their fear of the future. What could go wrong, what horrors lurk ahead?   These enemies see too much to overcome.   Consider however the line Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “ What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us”.   Paul would have agreed. In Philippians 3:13-14, he wrote, “ Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,   I pres...

       If you try to teach your children about what is right and wrong after they have left your home it’s too late.    If you tell your loved one that you appreciated them while standing on their grave it’s too late.   If you wait to ask after they’ve already made their decision, it’s too late   If you apologize for your behavior as they are walking out the door, it’s too late.   If you wish you hadn’t done it after you already done it, it’s too late.   If you wait to serve till the service is already going, it’s too late.   If you start to prepare when the moment of action has come, it’s too late.   If you wait to be a leader until there is no leadership, it’s too late.   If you refuse to move until everything is just perfect, it’s too late.   If you start to build the new home after the old house has fallen down, it’s too late   If you wait to obey until the Day o...

 Sunday mornings can be a hectic time. Little ones to get out of bed. Clothes to be put on (and then taken off and others put on). Get breakfast, get your Bible, and get in the car, We ARE LATE. It’s a miracle we ever make it on time. Yet, that isn’t the late I’m talking about.   You see if we get to worship and the first time we thought to pray is the opening prayer, we’re late to worship. If the song is the first time we thought to praise God, we’ve been tardy. If our giving is just remembered as the plate is being passed we are somewhat overdue.   We worship on the first day of the week but we often confuse it for the last day. I’m not just talking about how we structure our calendars. I’m thinking of how worship is often tacked on to the end of our lives instead of being first and foremost. We can’t get to it because so many other things come before.   If we begin with the things of God first, the rest of life has a way of fitting in but if w...

Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. Romans 13:11   It was just seemly a few years ago when I took some of the youth group to the local fair when one of my young people saw a ride and made an excellent point. The ride was called Starship 2000. It was meant to look all futuristic but the ride itself was well aged. The young man exclaimed, ‘you know that ride is old because when they made it the year 2000 was far into the future’. We laughed because it was 1999.     Now here we are staring down at the upcoming year 2019. That story is over 20 years old. Yet in some ways, the year 2000 still kind of seems far off to me. It can’t be that we this far into a new millennium.  How has time passed by so fast?   That is the funny thing about time. It is constant and runs the same no matter what yet for us it the speed seems ever-changing. Monday...

   In the twenty-fourth chapter of Acts we read of a sermon that was delivered to Felix; But some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla, his wife who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. But as he was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened and said, "Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you." Acts 24:24-25   Although Felix was just looking for a payday (vs 26) this sermon seemed to have an effect on him.  It probably bothered him since Felix didn’t have much self-control and wouldn’t seemly fare well in the judgment to come.  Felix was there with his third wife Drusilla, a woman he had seduced away from her first husband.  These convoluted marriages seem to be all the rage in these ruling circles (Mark 6:17),  but the truth Paul preached didn’t jive with this type lifestyle.  So Felix sent him away for a mor...

  Meeting :   ˈ<mēdiNG>   noun   The bane of the office workers, a time waste of enormous portions from the Latin Meddle,  a torture device   Ok, that isn’t the real definition, even though it does sometimes seem close. Meetings in the workplace are often a time sink that never accomplishes anything more than having a meeting.  Disorder, complaints, confusion, meandering. They drive people mad!  Rather than encourage efficiency they seem to destroy it.   So why do we do it? Well, sometimes they work.   Consider the lunch meeting a few animators had with their boss. It was to come up with ideas to follow-up their soon to be released movie about toys that came to life. As they set in the Hidden City Café, several movie pitches were bandied about.  They turned out pretty good.  A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., and WALL-E all came from that single lunch meeting of  Pixar employees in 1994. ...

  How we measure time is a funny thing.  I’m not talking about how “ time flies when we are having fun ” or the fact that “ a watched pot never boils ” but how we answer the simple question, what time is it?   All you have to do is go thru daylight savings to know that the clock can be kind of arbitrary.  However, that is nothing compared to the way it used to be. In the past, the time was measured by the sun.  Whenever it was overhead it was noon.  That meant most cities had their own time.  That’s why town clocks were predominate, it told everyone the time for that town.  In fact, to stay with the sun, a watch had to be adjusted 1 minute for every 12.5 miles you traveled!   All that changed with the train. For the first time, we could move faster than the sun.  So in order to get everyone on the same page (or clock), we moved to time zones. Today even that is harrowing since we can fly thru a couple of time zones in a mo...

  Back in 1887 at a small neighborhood grocery store, a middle-aged gentleman named Emanuel Nenger gave the assistant a $20 note to pay for the turnip greens he was purchasing.  When the assistant placed the note in the cash drawer she noticed that some of the ink from the $20 came off on her hands, which were wet from wrapping the turnip greens.  She'd known Mr. Nenger for years and was shocked. She pondered, "Is this man giving me a counterfeit $20?"   She dismissed the thought immediately and gave him his change, but $20 was a lot of money in those days so she notified the police. Once they verified the note was counterfeit, they procured a search warrant and went to Emanuel Nenger's home where they found in his attic the tools he was using to reproduce the counterfeit bills. They found an artist's easel, paint brushes, and paints which Nenger was using to meticulously paint the counterfeit money. Real Bill Fake Bill painted by Emanuel Nenger ...

  Does it seem like everything is in a hurry these days?  We seem to be constantly rushing in everything we do, even our meals.  We eat fast food.  We make instant coffee.  We grab a meal in a bar as we fly out the door.   I’ll even admit to microwaving my pop tart because it takes a whole 30 seconds in the toaster. We have gotten used to instant gratification, we want and we want it now! We have no desire to wait.    But Proverbs 12:27 tells us:  “ A lazy man does not roast his prey, But the precious possession of a man is diligence ”.   To roast a meal takes effort and time and the lazy hasn’t got either of those. The time in preparation makes a better meal. Rushing and demanding doesn’t satisfy. Those that take the instant gratification mindset will be constantly disappointed.   Those they are diligent will be able to find the things that will bring long term happiness .

    In my first job as a youth minister I took the kids on a picnic . We filled an ice chest with drinks and sandwich fixings and spent the afternoon at a local park.  After I got home later that night I was too tired to clean out the ice chest so I set it on the back patio and proceeded to forget about it for the next couple of days. After four or five days in the hot Texas sun, I remember I need to clean out the ice chest. It was then and there I learn that there are something that should never be put off .     Proverbs 3:27-28 tells us:   Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in your power to do it.  Do not say to your neighbor, "Go, and come back, And tomorrow I will give it," When you have it with you .     Don't put off opportunities to do good. Don't wait till you get around to it. There are not any round to it’s. Someday isn't on any calendar. As George H. Lorimer puts ...

Monday Morning Scattershooting while wondering,  why they have a sign road saying 'Falling Rocks'. What exactly am I supposed to do with that information? They may as well have a sign saying "Random accidents ahead"    A preacher friend once told me a lazy man can hide for a long time in ministry.  The older I get the more I see that to be true.  Ministry has totally different set of hours than any other profession.  There are times when you are so busy you can’t even eat and there will be those that accuse you of never working.  Other times you will have done nothing and people will pat you on the back for you efforts.  Unfortunately, the perception of how much you work is what people often look at, not at the real amount of work.  Some people think if your car is at the building when they drive by you are working, even if you are nowhere to be found.     The temptation comes to a minster to manipulate perception to...

Crazy hypothetical:   Ghosts World* You have the choice to live in this world as a ghost. You will never experience pain, hunger, or any physical need. You will be able to see everything that goes on in the world but never able to interact with any person. You can travel anywhere visit anyplace, do anything (ride roller coasters,  be on the field at the Super Bowl,…) but not interact and change anything that goes on. You will be able to taste and smell food and drink but it will have no other effect on you. You can touch and feel anything but it won’t respond to your touch.  You will have no limits on what you can experience but with no contact. Your life will end just when it would if you don’t take the option (so if you would have died at 6o with a regular life you will have 60 years as a ghost.) Would you take the deal? Would you do it for a short time if it meant several years off your life? What if you take the deal in would never end, would you do it?...

In 1989, Microsoft was set to release its new Windows 3.0 operating system.  They were worried that many wouldn’t adjust to the new graphical interface and wouldn’t understand how to use the mouse to “drag & drop” files and icons.  It was decided to create a game as a way of training people to these new methods.  It wasn’t a top notch assignment so it was given to an intern, Wes Cherry, to create.  He did even bother to work out a deal for royalties for his work.  No one at the time realized how popular the game would become. Solitaire is now considered the most played video game in the world. It has gone well beyond a training game to a national pastime.  Lost business productivity by employees playing Solitaire has become a common concern since it became standard on Microsoft Windows.  Hundreds of thousands of hours are wasted by office workers all over the world chained to their computers, trying to make those cards bounce. I find this...