Every hour we spend meaninglessly is potential blessing to Christ's kingdom unrealized and potential eternal reward lost forever. (Google image, What is the value of time?)
Satan wants to rob God and to rob us of our reward by robbing us of the wise use of our time. The question, "What are you doing with your life? involves the second question, "What are you doing with your time?"
We all need time for fellowship with family, friends, and others. We do not lose time by fulfilling our normal duties. God wants us to fulfill our reponsibilities to family, our employer, and our church.
He wants us to have wholesome fellowship, and needed wholesome recreation. This is important for physical and mental health. However, the pastor is responsible to teach his people how to use free time wisely. Otherwise the time is wasted, lost forever.
Ten minutes is long enough to read another chapter or two in God's Word. A Christian who uses prayer lists can always wisely invest ten minutes in prayer.
Do heaven's books have a record of our unused or wasted time? Undoubtedly! We need to see time in its tremendous potential for Christ's kingdom and for our eternal reward. We will one day give an account to God of what we did with our lives. That includes what we did with our days, hours, and sometimes even what we did with our minutes.
If all the idle minutes of the members of your church during one week were invested in prayer for your services, your ministry, and for church outreach there would be greatly increased blessing, multiplied results, and touches of revival blessing.
The senior citizens and retirees of your church are your special responsibility. Have you taught them how to invest their time for maximum blessing and maximum reward? Retirement time is not theirs to squander any way they choose. It is a special trust from God.
In dozens of ways God can use portions of their time in visiting the sick, the aged, helping with duties around the church, helping in evangelistic visiting, in special work with children. Teach them the privilege of massive reading of God's Word, of major prayer investments. Make them special prayer partners of your ministry, supplying them with weekly lists for prayer.
What is more healthful than to exercise by walking? Have you ever tried investing a half hour or more a day in a health walk during which you intercede for your church your community, your nation, missions, your loved ones? Try a pray-walk; it can be blessed!
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Used by permission of the author and Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana. Creative reading style by Jean.
Ablaze for God
#63 Teach the Stewardship of Time & Possessions
by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 188-190) ZondervanPublishingHouse
We understand that You want us to take time for family, friends and others, and to fulfill our responsibilities to employers and to our churches.
As we're to have wholesome fellowship and recreation for our physical and mental health, we ask that You help our pastors/teachers guide us in some ways to use our free time wisely.
May we see that time gives us the tremendous potential for spreading Christ's kingdom where we live.
Because we'll give an account to God of what we did with our lives, we ask for Your Spirit's help to learn how to best use our allotted time.
We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Today's Bible verse-
and the truth shall make you free. (36) If the Son
therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."
Rom. 14:11, 12 "For it is written, As I live, saith the
Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue
shall confess to God." (12) So then every one of us shall
give account of himself to God."
Matt. 6:33 (KJV) "But seek ye first the kingdom of
God, and his righteousness; and all these things
shall be added unto you."
Today's quotes-
~ Pastor John Hagee- Let’s resolve together today to stand up for the truth found in God’s Word. The battle belongs to the Lord, but the fight to save our children and our grandchildren from becoming products of this increasingly godless world, is ours. Christ died so that we might be set free. He has given us a book filled with truths. Don’t let society and our modern culture dictate a new set of rules. Remember, " . . . you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32).
Mark I. Bubeck- "To believe God for revolutionary revival in our nation is a challenge equal to the one Nehemiah [see Neh. 1:11] met by showing his expectant faith. From a human perspective, there is much against revolutionary revival ever happening.
Evil has put its foundations deep and is on a bold revival march of its own. The church, ridiculed and even ignored by most people, seems unable to rise to the challenge. This noble body looks insipid and weak to its critics. The 'shakers and movers' of our day have given up on the church — and for good cause.
Where will we find an expectant faith like that of Nehemiah? Where can we turn for hope and help?" (pp. 127,128, THE SATANIC REVIVAL)Today's popular post-
Jean Oathout: The very thought of trusting someone to do what they think best where we're concerned is difficult for most of us.
We have our own agenda, and are quite sure we know what's best in a given situation . . . right?
Upcoming posts-
21st- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
Constant Communion
23rd- Saturday's post by Lee Forbes
#65 Help Your People Discover and Develop Their Spiritual Gifts
26th- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
#66 Train Your People for Witnessing and Soul-Winning
28th- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
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| BY BRAND THUNDER |
Jean's blog (Click to see snippets of the 7 recent posts)
Jean's published book Paper back $7.95
(Be sure to "look inside" to see contents
through the 2nd devotion)
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