Doing "Time Management" God's way!

During the First World War a certain soldier was so distraught by the conflict that he decided to desert. The account relates that his intention was to find his way to the coast of France and then catch a fishing boat back to England. The night he chose to abscond was particularly dark and black. After walking and stumbling for what seemed like miles he got totally lost. In the darkness he eventually saw what he perceived to be the outline of a road sign. With relief he climbed up the pole to the cross beam to read it. Taking out a match, he lit it, and found himself looking directly into the face of Jesus Christ. He had climbed an outdoor crucifix.

The soldier was so stunned and shaken by the image of Christ in Agony that it made him feel profoundly ashamed. He was looking into the face of the One Who had endured it all and never turned back. The next morning the soldier was back in the trenches.

Over the years this account has stirred the conscience of numerous individuals who sensed that God was asking them to either do or change some particular thing in their lives, but who had been resisting this call. Jesus endured the Agony of the Cross for our sakes, so we must be willing to obey whatever He commands. To be a “follower” of Christ one must actually “follow”. And following means obeying! There are many individuals who assume that they are Christians but because they don’t actually obey and follow His will and commands they are but deceiving themselves.

Obedience to the will of the Lord is central to having a personal relationship with Him. In order to have this closeness, our daily walk with Christ needs to be composed of a multitude of “small things”; the avoidance of little evils, little inconsistencies, and little indiscretions. It should involve little self-denials, little honesties, little passing words of sympathy, little nameless acts of kindness, and little silent victories over temptation. At the very heart of this life, will be a Godly management of our time, which both enables and prioritises having regular time for prayer, Bible study and Christian fellowship. This Divine Friendship or relationship is sometimes compared to tending a garden and we need to obediently set aside time from doing other things, in order to do this. Anna H King wrote;

“Friendship is like a garden; of flowers fine and rare. It cannot reach perfection except through loving care. Then, new and lovely blossoms; with each new day appear. For friendship like a garden; grows in beauty year by year.”

Our Friendship with the Lord, just like a garden, needs time; it needs constant tending and nurturing. And an individual needs to be fully active and attentive to make time for this, otherwise they will only drift away from Him, having become choked by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. (Matthew Ch13vs 21-22).

Lack of spending time on this Friendship can begin very subtly at first. It can almost happen without really thinking. In her book “I dared to call Him Father”, Bilquis Sheikh, a Muslim woman who converted to Christianity, movingly describes how she personally learnt the importance of giving up other activities so as to spend time with the Lord.

The following are her own words describing what happened after her conversion. A Christian called Ken said to her, “‘you’ll need some regular Christian fellowship now. Please come to our house on Sunday evenings.” And that is how I began regular meetings with other Christians. On Sunday evenings we met at their house. The living room could barely hold the dozen people who crowded in. At the meetings we sang, read the Bible and prayed for each other’s needs. It quickly became the high point of my week.”

“Then one Sunday I didn’t particularly feel like going, so I rang them up and gave some excuse. It seemed a little thing, but almost instantly I began to feel uneasy. What was wrong? I walked through the house restlessly. I then went to my room to pray. Mahmud my son crept up beside me and asked ‘Mum, are you alright? …You look as though you have lost something.’ …Mahmud was right. I knew right then what I had lost. I’d lost the sense of God’s Presence. It was gone! Why? Did it have something to do with not having fellowship when I needed it? With a sense of urgency I phoned Ken to say I would be there after all. What a difference. Immediately I felt, actually felt the return of warmth to my soul. Ken had been right, I needed fellowship. I had learned my lesson.”

But there was still more for Bilquis to discover about maintaining and nurturing this Divine Friendship. Her account continues; “As I drew closer to God, here a step, there a step, I found myself hungering even more for His Word through the Bible. Every day, as I arose, I would begin reading it. The Bible became alive to me, illuminating my day, shedding its light on every step I would take. But here too I found a strange thing. [On one occasion] I was late heading to bed and didn’t feel like getting up early the next morning to have an hour with the Bible, so I gave instructions to be awoken with tea shortly before having to get up and go out.”

“I didn’t sleep at all well that night. I tossed and twisted and had bad dreams. The next day I was exhausted and I noticed that the entire day didn’t go right. Strange! This was the second time when I seemed to be stepping out of the glory of the Lord’s Presence. What was the Lord saying to me? That He expected me to read the Bible every day? The experience left me with the feeling that I was sitting on an important truth without realising it. There were times when I felt His Presence and experienced a deep sense of joy and peace, and then there were times when I lost this Closeness. What was the key? How could I stay close to Him?”

“I thought back over the times when He seemed close and about the opposite times too, when I had lost this sense of nearness. I got out my Bible and finally read John Ch 14v23 where Jesus says; ‘When a man loves Me, he follows My teaching. Then My Father will love him, and We will come to that man and make Our home within him.’ The key to having His closeness was obedience! When I obeyed His will I was allowed to remain in His Presence.”

Looking back, Bilquis realised that she lost His nearness whenever she disobeyed Him by failing to spend time nourishing her spirit with regular Bible reading or by failing to spend time having Christian fellowship. She hadn’t initially realised the vital importance of these activities. Now she realised that sacrificing time for regular Bible reading, praying and Christian fellowship was all part of being obedient to Christ. These activities were central to maintaining and nurturing her relationship with the Lord, not “added extras” to be done as and when she felt like doing them.

Sadly, sacrificing time to be with the Lord is often one of the first casualties in a person’s daily struggle against busyness. Many aren’t willing to let go of some things in order to free themselves up to be with Him. Someday however, just like that soldier, they will come face to face with Christ and will be ashamed of their behaviour. Can we imagine what Jesus will say to such people?  “I did all this for you, but you chose to do other things rather than have time with Me.” How will such people answer?

Today many people have let themselves become totally absorbed by the busyness of everyday activities, refusing to make time for God. They are only concerned about their rights and their life style. But what about God’s rights? What about the obedience and time we owe Him in the light of what He suffered for us?

Once upon a time, a man imagined himself being in a boat which had been pushed off from an unknown shore. He was shown the direction of the opposite shore, given a pair of oars and left alone. He started to row but the further he rowed towards the other shore, the stronger the current became, pushing him off course. He met other people afloat, also being carried away. A few were faithfully struggling against the current, but most were letting themselves glide and indeed some, with total indifference, had thrown away their oars. From every side cheery voices shouted out to him that there were happy just drifting along. All seemed well. Some even mocked the few individuals who were struggling against the current. Why did they bother?

Suddenly he heard screams of terror in the distance. It was then that he saw boats being broken up by rapids. Instantly he realised drifting with the current meant certain death and that rowing to the other shore was the only way to save his life.

In this story, “the rapids” represent the prophesied Judgement of God upon individuals and the world. The “opposite shore” stands for being safe with God and in His care. The “oars” represent human freewill and of course “the current” stands for busyness which constantly tries to pull us away from the Godward direction of safety and salvation. Busyness is constantly exerting its influence upon us. Unless we actively pull on the oars by deliberately setting aside time for God, busyness will totally consume us, occupying all our thoughts and time. We will become oblivious to the terrible danger of drifting away from His shore and eventually become totally indifferent to the things of God.

Many people today have now reached this state of indifference to the things of God and are oblivious to the rapids lying a head. The world is teetering on the brink of total chaos and collapse and yet incredibly the churches in our land lie empty and abandoned. They should be full to overflowing as the sound of the rapids gets louder. The time has long since arrived to start really pulling on those oars! Resist busyness and set aside proper time for God.

Have courage to seek the truth

"How much more important it is to get knowledge than gold and to choose wisdom rather than silver!" Proverbs Ch 16v16

It is often said that the South of England is particularly wealthy and affluent. While this may be true in one sense, the Bible regards real wealth in terms of one's "knowledge and acceptance of God." Scripture describes a certain kind of individual who thinks "I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing" while refusing to see that in reality they are actually "poor, miserable, blind and naked." (Rev Ch 3v13)

The story is told about a poor preacher who was travelling on a ship with a large group of wealthy merchants. In the course of their conversation one of the merchants asked the preacher what his business was. He replied, "I suppose you could say that my business is giving people knowledge and information on how to live and find happiness. Such knowledge is invaluable." Several of the merchants ridiculed him; one cried "How do you sell knowledge?" Another joked "I suppose he trades information and guidance for bread and wine"!

Partway through the journey pirates overtook the ship and stripped the passengers of all their goods. Only the preacher who carried no valuables was unaffected.
Finally, when they landed, the preacher began to give talks to the town folk imparting his knowledge on how to live and where to find the happiness only God can bring. These talks created great interest and attracted large audiences from the whole area. He explained that Jesus was actually "The Way, the Truth and the Life" (John ch14v6) and that knowledge and acceptance of this fact would change their lives forever. (St Augustine taught the same thing, often telling people that God has made us for Himself and that our hearts will remain restless and weary until they rest in Him.) Soon the preacher made friends and settled into the community as a respected leader and useful guide. On the other hand the merchants now dressed in rags were unable to find employment. Finally in desperation they called upon the preacher for help and asked him to use his influence to get them jobs. This he graciously did, and after he had found work for them all, the merchants realised the truth – that having knowledge of God and the understanding this brought about how to live, was indeed of greater value than mere material possessions.

Today, many people have fallen into the trap of regarding wealth in terms of material possessions. They feel they are better off than previous generations and of course in one sense they are. The reality however, is that in the way that really counts, many people are poorer and are spiritually poverty stricken and starving. Society is richer in material things but it has also lost something and that "something" is quite profound. We see the symptoms of this loss every day in how unhappy and discontented people have become; how selfish and greedy and awkward! What has been lost is the knowledge of God and the understanding this brings about how to be happy, content and at peace in one's soul. Scripture describes such people as ones who spoil and destroy their lives through a lack of this knowledge. (Hosea Ch4v6). They may be well educated enough to know how to put a man on the moon, but they lack Godly knowledge on how to live with themselves and their fellow man on earth!

Our society is broken because many people no longer know the basic laws of God which were designed to bring happiness and order to their lives and that of their families. They haven't the least knowledge or understanding of the meaning of life and what we are here for. They haven't any idea of where to look for guidance, hope and strength when life gets tough and they lack the perception that they are accountable to a Holy God for all their thoughts, words and actions.

Gaining a knowledge of God and learning about (and obeying) the laws He has given us, answers all these profound questions and would bring instant relief. Unfortunately, however to attain this Godly knowledge and help there is one big obstacle individuals often have to overcome-- family and friends!

I have encountered numerous individuals who have indeed sensed that turning to Jesus Christ and gaining knowledge of Him would help them at the depths of their being. They have sensed that Christ is indeed "The Way, the Truth and the Life". But bizarrely the moment they start exploring these spiritual matters they face ridicule, often from those who claim to love them most, namely family and friends! "Oh you're not going to church again are you, you went last month"? "Oh you‘re not reading the Bible again, that's two days in a row. It's such a waste of your time." What about kind words such as "Well, if it makes you happy I am pleased for you"? It's as though those around them don't want that person to find answers. They are lost themselves and have the attitude "let's all sit in this empty confusion together." And so it can take courage for individuals to seek knowledge of God and not let others put them off finding the answers to life.

This is the moral behind one of the most peculiar stories I have ever come across. It is a story from Ethiopia used to teach people to have the courage of their convictions and not be put off by the lies of those around them.

Once upon a time a man was taking his prize lamb to market. Three thieves plotted to steal this lamb in a unique way, simply by telling lies about it! As the man was walking along with the lamb over his shoulders, the first thief approached him and asked "Why are you carrying that dog on your shoulders?" The man laughed and replied "This is not a dog, it's my prize lamb which I am taking to market." Some time later the second thief approached him and said "What a fine looking dog you have, where are you taking it?" Puzzled the man took the lamb off his shoulders, looked at it carefully and said "It's a lamb and I am taking it to market." Shortly before he reached the market the third thief met the man and said "Sir I don't think they will allow you to take your dog into the market." Completely confused, the man took the lamb off his shoulders, left it on the ground and walked away in disgust. "I was convinced this was a lamb but if three other people say it's a dog then it must be a dog."

So likewise, there are many who are rightly convinced that the answer to life's problems, lies with knowing Christ, but they will also require the courage of their convictions to complete this learning because there are those who would try to deter them. The key to happiness is knowing God. Knowing how to live in a right relationship with God and being at peace with Him is real wealth and treasure and what really matters. Others may say differently, but a lamb is always a lamb no matter what others may say and God continues to be God no matter how others may deny Him!

Listening out for God's guidance

The crash of golfer Payne Stewarts' plane in 1999 was a bizarre incident. He and five companions boarded the jet with two pilots at 9.20am. Some time later the plane was spotted flying at 45,000 feet with no-one at the controls. For unknown reasons due to depressurisation, both pilots and the passengers became unconscious. One of the Air Force pilots watching the plane run out of fuel said "it's a helpless feeling to pull alongside another aircraft and realise that the people inside are unconscious and heading towards death. There was nothing I could do to help even though I was only 150feet away from them all."

One safety investigator said later "aeroplane depressurisation can be very gradual and insidious. The problem may have developed slowly and if everyone was having a good time they would have failed to notice any tell tale signs. It is one of those occasions where you are feeling fine, and feeling happy and you don't know what's happening, but the reality is that you are in great danger."

It doesn't take much to see a parallel between what happened to those on board that plane and what is now happening to the human race "on board planet earth". Alarms and sensors would have been activated on the plane however passengers either ignored these warning signals or didn't even notice them in the first place, because they were so preoccupied. Likewise today our media and Bible prophecy are ringing out warning signals concerning the great dangers now facing the human race, but many individuals either don't take these warnings seriously or don't even notice them, because they are too preoccupied. They are too preoccupied with buying a larger house, getting promotion, planning the next holiday and so on, to notice these warning signs. Indeed, it seems that the louder the warning signals are (such as growing tension between Israel and Iran or problems in the Eurozone) the louder becomes the sound of people caught up in their own pleasures and pursuits. And individuals aren't just ignoring these so called "outward signals" they are also ignoring the "inward signals" coming from their own personal conscience which is saying "it's time to start seeking God and His help to sort out the mess we are in."

In 2nd Timothy Ch 4 vs3,4 Scripture predicted that an age would come when "people would not listen to truth but according to their selfish desires would turn their ears away from the truth and believe in lies." God has faithfully given humanity many different kinds of  "warning signals" to stir us and make us think. For instance, He has given us the signs and evidence of fulfilled Bible prophecy. No less than one third of the Bible is prophetic in nature and many of these predictions have already been fulfilled although written centuries or indeed several millennia before the events they were predicting. Does that not make individuals sit up and think? With many it does, but unfortunately with many it doesn't.

Again, God has given us the sign of a moral compass, our  conscience. Our conscience tells us that when we do wrong there will be unpleasant consequences for ourselves and those around us. One look at the state of our society today shows exactly what happens when we ignore our conscience. Our conscience was right after all! But does that sign and experience make us all sit up and think that we ought to take God seriously and put Him first in our hearts? With some it does but sadly with many it doesn't.

In addition to the signals coming from fulfilled Bible prophecy and from our conscience, God sometimes adds modern day prophetic signs. Many of you may remember the strange incident of the clergyman in New York who had a vision of 9/11 several weeks before the destruction of the Twin Towers. He and members of his prayer team were visiting the area in July 2001 when God gave him a vision of what was going to shortly happen, along with instructions to describe this vision in his church magazine. This magazine was printed and distributed in August, four weeks before 9/11. Why did God give him this vision? And why was the cleric commanded to print it in his magazine and have it distributed before the event took place? The only logical answer is that God was trying to give the world a loud warning which could never be denied. It couldn't be said to be "after the event" because it was in the public domain four weeks before 9/11 took place. This warning caused sensational news at the time but did it make all who heard about it sit up and think that they should repent of their sins and turn to the Lord as their Saviour? With some it did, but with many it was simply a curious incident, now long forgotten.

The problems facing our world and our nation, or indeed any problems facing us at a personal level won't go away by ignoring them, any more than ignoring the reality of God stops Him from existing. Let us all respond to the warning signs God has provided and make it our resolve to follow Him faithfully and loyally every day and every hour of our lives. May it be our heartfelt aim that whether Jesus comes or calls, He will say to us "well done thou good and faithful servant" and not "depart from Me because I never knew you".

Rely on God alone

A father once asked one of his three little daughters who had just gone to bed, if she had said her prayers.  When she said  that she hadn’t, he asked  if she was frightened  going to bed without having prayed.  She answered “not tonight Dad, for it is my turn to sleep in the middle.”  When telling this story over a hundred years ago to a church congregation, Dr John Robertson went on to add, “I can relate to the feelings of that little girl.  When I was in the middle of a large congregation I felt I did not have to rely on God.  I had a vast church around me, great ecclesiastical authorities to support me, and I was an influential man – a Moderator of the Presbytery of the City of Edinburgh.  With all these things around me, I didn’t feel any great need to lean on God.  I began to feel I could do without prayer, because ‘I was in the middle’.  Now I am retired however, and I am no longer in the middle – I now realise I can’t do without the Lord Jesus”.

In Psalm 118 verse 9 it warns “it is better to trust in the Lord, than to put your confidence in man.”

I wonder how many of you have noticed that often the last thing people ever think about today is God.  When trouble comes they call on the help of Social Services, or the NHS.  They rely on the support of neighbours or friends, or rely on the support of  benefits.  Again, it is very noticeable that when some large scale tragedy occurs we are informed that “counsellors are being brought in to help the bereaved” – only a decade ago it would have been clergy that would have provided this service.  It seems to be that the more material and social help there is around us the less people think about praying to God for His help.  Contrast this with say a hundred years ago.  In those days there was no welfare state, no financial safety net and no team of counsellors.  Poverty really was poverty and medical treatment was in its infancy.  With many people God would be the first Person they would approach for help – not the last.  As far as they were concerned God was the One to be relied on to help.

Today all too many people are putting their “confidence in man” in other words they are relying on material things such as their wealth or health, they are relying on their financial security, their job, pension ,family or whatever.  They seem confident that these things will never fail.  They feel “they are in the middle” and don’t need God. But Scripture teaches that we must not put our trust in earthly things – the only one we can really rely on is the Lord Himself.  Trouble comes to everyone of us at some point in many forms so while all is going well it is vital to make sure we are not relying on anything other than God. 

Taking an example from the world of finance this is a lesson that those with savings in Northern Rock will no doubt have thought about!  Again, those  with savings in other financial institutions may feel quite confident that all is well – but the economic state of the country – indeed the entire world is far from “well”.  The Bible states “do not put your trust in uncertain riches”, and never has this warning been truer than in today’s climate.  As I visit around the parish I often ask myself the question “how would this family or that family cope if they lost their material support such as their wealth, their house, their health, their circle of friends etc?   They rely on these things, they depend on them – they feel “they are safe in the middle” and give no thought about God.  What would they do if they lost it all?  To whom would they turn?  What preparation have they made in heart and soul for such a time of trouble?  In Deuteronomy Chapter 8 is a very timely word of caution; “when you have eaten and are full beware that you do not forget the Lord your God, lest when you have eaten and are full and have built beautiful houses and your silver and gold are multiplied, and all your possessions are multiplied, that you forget all about God, ……….. you must remember that it is God who has given you these things.”  God has given us all these things to enjoy, not to rely or depend on.  They have been given as a blessing, not as something to take over our lives. 

What has happened today is that many people have replaced “God” with material possessions and society is all the poorer for it.