[an error occurred while processing this directive] TheBible.net: When Will We Find The Time?
When Will We Find The Time?
by Tim Nichols
So many things that we intend to do in the future seem to just continue to be pushed further and further in that direction. Procrastination is really nothing more than the failure to plan our work (and other things that are important for us to do) and to work our plan.

    We seem to live at times as though we have a vast quantity of time ahead of us, but James reminds us that it "is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (4:14). Job saw that his "days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle" (7:6) and "swifter than a runner" (9:25). He saw that "{m)an who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away; He flees like a shadow and does not continue" (14:1, 2). David was inspired to write that our days are as "handbreadths" (Psalm 39:5). James reminds us that we will pass away like a flower of the field (1:10). Peter also wrote that "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away" (1 Peter 1:24). We are incouraged by the word of God that, "the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:17).

    So we ask you to consider: "What in the world are you doing for heaven's sake?" What you are now doing with your handbreadth is what you will likely continue to do with it if you do not make decided moves in new and better directions.

    Are you thinking, if you have not yet done so, that you will obey the gospel of Christ and put Him on in baptism someday? What day? Is there no sense of urgency in the knowledge that tomorrow may not greet you with another sunrise -- or that Jesus might come again before that day arrives? "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).

    What of your other plans to do right things for the cause of Christ? "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit'; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow" (James 4:13, 14a).

    Parents, when do you intend to begin giving serious attention to the training of your children in the ways of God? You cannot wait until they are gone from your home to begin helping them in every way possible and availing yourself of precious opportunities to get them to Bible classes, to teach them at home, to help them attend gatherings of other Christian youth where they will be taught eternally important truths and associate with other young people who want to go to heaven. You cannot wait to "bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4) after they are already UP. The program for training under the Law makes a good model for those of us who live under a much better covenant!

    You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth (Deuteronomy 11:19-21).

    We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children; That the generation to come might know them, The children who would be born, That they may arise and declare them to their children, That they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments (Psalm 78:4-7).

    Fathers, please plan your work as fathers and then work your plan while there is yet time. Mothers, please design your maternal trade and then trade that design for nothing in this world while the opportunity is before you. Food, clothing, and shelter are not nearly as important as are those things that will endure beyond the grave.

    When do you plan to begin inviting your friends to learn the everlasting gospel (Matthew 28:18-20)? The sense of urgency in the New Testament truths concerning eternity involves us in the business of "pulling them out of the fire" (Jude23) and yet we seem to treat their condition as though it were less serious than a common cold. "Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you" (1 Timothy 4:16). Although it may be true that our efforts might be hindered by attempting to say too much, too soon, or too strongly -- our earnest endeavors to bring our neighbors into contact with the gospel need to be real and unceasing if we mean to ever get our work done in this lifetime (and we'll have no other).

    May God help us to examine our lives, deliberately order our lives, and implement our strategies. An unknown author has well said: "Only one life, t'will soon be past; Only what's done for Christ will last."

This item originally appeared at My "Two Cents" Worth


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