April 6, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
THIS TIME, NO MORE TIME EXCUSES REMAIN.
“Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast Thou made all men in vain? Ps. 89:47. “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Ps. 90:12, KJV.
God gives, and takes away but only for our benefit and His glory. This corona virus is taking away a lot but is also “giving back,” depending on how you view it spiritually.
Many who have pleaded the excuse that they “just had no time” in their madhouse daily routine to study God’s Word briefly, much less in depth, just saw “Mr. Excuse” walk out of the door, slammed it shut, leaving them inside their homes alone with a long-ignored VIP guest named “Mr. Time.”
Self-quarantining, as one of the key coronavirus mitigating successful strategies, offers more than that: God, in His mercy and supervening Powers is using this to give us a precious opportunity to stock up physical emergency supplies but on neglected, precious, present truths that will be our only “safe houses” for the coming real “great time of trouble such as never was.” Note this:
“Our time belongs to God. Every moment is His, and we are under the most solemn obligation to improve it to His glory. Of no talent He has given will He require a more strict account than time. The value of time is beyond computation. Christ regarded every moment as precious, and it is thus that we should regard it. Life is too short to be trifled away. We have but a few days of probation in which to prepare for eternity. We have no time to waste, no time to devote to selfish pleasure, no time for the indulgence of sin. It is now that we are to form characters for the searching Judgment.
“The human family have scarcely begun to live when they begin to die, and the world’s incessant labor ends in nothingness unless a true knowledge in regard to eternal life is gained. The man who appreciates TIME AS HIS WORKING DAY will fit himself for a mansion and for a life that is immortal. It is well that he was born.
“We are admonished to redeem time. But time squandered can never be recovered. We cannot call back even one moment. The ONLY way in which we can redeem our time is by making the most of that which remains-by being co-workers with God in His great plan of salvation. In Him who does this, a transformation of character takes place. He becomes a son of God, a member of the ROYAL FAMILY, a child of the heavenly King. He is fitted to be a companion of angels [not become an angel].” Christ’s Object Lessons, 342.
Use your talent of time wisely, preparing for the certain eternity, not the uncertain “future.” NMF