What people engrave on their tombstones, tells so much about themselves and their beliefs. And from time to time you’ll find me with my lunch in one hand and my camera in the other, wandering around the cemeteries amongst the tombstones.
This was written on a grave …
“I revelled underneath the moon,
(I stayed out late and had a good time at night)
I slept beneath the sun,
(I wasted my time in sleeping and laziness during the daylight hours)
I lived a life of ‘going to’,
(I’m going to do this. I’m going to do that.)
And died with nothing done.”
Is that a picture of your life, or my life? Is it?
We’re going in the Bible to a prayer of Moses in the Psalms.
“So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
What does that mean? I’d like to read it for you out of the Living Bible Translation. It says in …
“Teach us to number our days and recognise how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.”
NUMBER YOUR DAYS
God help us to use our time wisely and make every minute count.
Friends, this year is going fast! Time is moving on! “Number your days.” Satan blinds us about the fact that life is brief and this short life will soon be ended.
God’s Word declares that … Death is certain.
“It’s appointed unto men to die, and after that – the judgment.”
“Life – is – brief.”
“We have no promise of tomorrow.”
And each day is passing so swiftly. There’s a little saying that goes like this …
“Only one life – It will soon be past.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
And Satan laughs, - while - we – delay.
Friends, how we spend our time, is more important than how we spend our money. Financial mistakes, money mistakes, can be corrected, but time is gone, forever.
I remember seeing a casket ticket seller on the streets in Brisbane. He was about 99 cents in the dollar. And he used to stand on the street corner and say …
“Ticker, tocker, ticker, tocker, time’s going fast. Buy your lucky ticket now.”
Never mind about the lucky ticket, unless of course it’s one for eternal life. And that’s free anyway. You don’t have to buy that! But yes, Ticker, tocker, ticker, tocker, time is going fast.
Let me tell you friends, God has a time clock, and it’s recording every day and every hour and every minute, what we are doing, how we are spending our time. Another year is going fast, and what have you and I accomplished? What are we going to for the rest of today? Are going to sleep on God’s holy day? On His day?
What are we going to do tonight, or tomorrow, or the next day? Are we going to play ‘Patience’ or ‘Trivial Pursuit’, or will we sleep in or stand in the shower for too long when we know there are so many more important things to be done? Or lounge around in front of the TV set? Would Jesus use His time like that?
We sometimes talk about our … PASTIMES. What was Jesus’ ‘Pastime’? He said in …
“I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is still day, because night is coming, when no man can work.”
How are we using our time?
Are we wasting our time? Oh may we learn from the Lord to number our days so that we won’t be guilty of the criminal folly of spending our days as though there were no limit to them. Today friends, is soon going to pass into oblivion, never to be recalled, except, in God’s - book - of - reckoning.
There’s a good saying …
“Don’t leave till tomorrow what you can do today.”
But that saying has been abused, until everywhere, in our slack, apathetic, careless society, even Christian people like you and me, are saying, …
“Oh well, if we don’t do it today, we can put it off till tomorrow. What does it matter? Who cares?”
“Because of the soon coming fiery end, what kind of people should we be? - We should be dedicated and live a holy life.”
Yes, friends, we should desperately be like Jesus said in …
”I must be about My Father’s business.”
He said that when He was only 12 years old. He was numbering His days and using His time to the glory of God when He was only 12. At what age are we starting to number our days? At the age of 12? or 20? or 40? or 80?
Are we apathetic? Do we really care? Do we think we’re going to casually drift into the Gloryland? Friends, the Bible doesn’t teach that does it?
Just before Jesus died on the cross, He saw a fig tree – that represents you and me. And the fruit tree wasn’t bearing any fruit. It wasn’t using it’s time well. We find the story in …
“Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down. Why does it use up the ground?”
But someone pleadingly says, “Lord, let it alone this year also.” Give it another chance. Give it another year’s trial. Give it another opportunity. Heap round it fresh privileges.
“And if it then bears fruit, very good, but if not, then after that you can cut it down.”
Year after year, the fig tree failed to bear fruit. What about it? It bothers me! Does it bother you? How long can Jesus go on waiting for us to change, to follow Him, to use our time well? For this year also? Or did He say that last year? And maybe, without even realising it, we are right now, being cut down for using up the ground. I’m not talking about someone else friends, I’m talking you and me. How is it with us?
Face it, honestly. Do we imagine that we are just gliding down the stream of time unnoticed? As surely as we are here today, God’s eye is upon us. He knows how many years of gracious privilege have already been granted to you and me. He knows how many golden opportunities we have so carelessly thrown away. A record is being kept of how we spend out time. Are we prepared for the day of reckoning? The day of Judgment, when all will come out into the broad daylight?
God is longsuffering. He is patient. But there is an end to it. Is His patience running thin for you and me? Is it?
As we go through this year, how is it with us? Are we carelessly trifling with the time that God has given to us?
Well that fig tree still didn’t bear fruit like it should have. It was still a hypocrite. It was still just warming a pew. It was still hearing God say,“Because you are a lukewarm Christian I’m about to spew you out of my mouth.” And so Jesus finally had to say, ‘cut it down.” “Cut it down.”
If we as parents watch our little child, and notice that it doesn’t grow physically in twelve months, wouldn’t we be sad and disappointed? Isn’t our Father, our heavenly parent, also sad and disappointed if we, His children, don’t grow spiritually in the next twelve months – or the past twelve months?
We need food to grow. Jesus called Himself the ‘Bread of Life’. Yet why don’t we hunger for Him as we would if deprived of physical food? Perhaps we do hunger, without recognising what it is that we really need. And so we mistakenly turn to, …
“That which is not bread.”
What’s an example of “that which is not bread”? It could be many things. It could even be the TV. Here’s a little poem that was given to us by a dear young black couple we met in the U.S. It’s called … The BIBLE and the TV GUIDE.
There on the table side by side –
The Holy Bible and the TV Guide;
One is well worn but cherished with pride
(not the Bible but the TV Guide).
One is used daily to help folk decide.
No! It isn’t the Bible, it’s the TV Guide.
As pages are turned, what shall they see?
Oh, what does it matter. Turn on the TV.
Then confusion reigns, they can’t all agree,
On what they shall watch on the old TV.
So they open the book in which they confide,
‘No, not the Bible, it’s the TV Guide’.
The Word of God is seldom read.
Maybe a verse or two when you fall into bed,
Exhausted and sleepy and tired as can be,
Not from reading the Bible, but from watching TV.
So then, back to the table, side by side,
Is the Holy Bible and the TV Guide.
No time for prayer, no time for the Word,
The plan of salvation is seldom heard.
(BUT REMEMBER)
Forgiveness of sin so full and free
Is found in the Bible; and not on TV.
Newspapers can be the same as TV. … THAT WHICH IS NOT BREAD.
If we read the paper or watch the news for just half an hour a day, we lose 160 hours every year. That’s four whole working weeks a year.
We lose one whole working month every year.
Friends, we’re supposed to be strangers and pilgrims down here on this earth – passing through a strange country. We need to spend a lot more time with God’s travel guide to the gloryland – the Bible. And we should be out telling others about Jesus instead of sitting in front of the TV and saying, “I’m too tired to go out and speak for Jesus today.” When we do that we fool ourselves, we hurt our Saviour, and the devil laughs.
Delphine and I used to have a couple of gymnasiums in Brisbane. Our best and worst advertisements were the gym members. If they came regularly and trained hard, they got the results they wanted and were happy. And because they were happy about the results, they told other people about the gyms and so we got more members. Some other people didn’t get the results because they did a lot of talking and not much working in the gym. And so we had a sign up that said, …
WANTED - LESS TALK - MORE ACTION
And that’s what Jesus wants in His business too.
Am I guilty of this problem? Are you guilty of saying, “I must go and visit so and so. I must talk to so and so about Jesus” – and don’t do it – time and time again? Yes, Jesus wants ‘action Christians’ – good examples – good ambassadors. We should stop being a thorn in Christianity and DO what we SAY we’re going to do.
There’s that little story in Matthew 21:28-31 that talks about the two sons. One said to his father, “I’ll do the job Dad”, but he didn’t do it. The other son said, “No, blow that Dad, I’m not going to do the job”, but afterwards he repented and went ahead and did it. Then Jesus asked, “Which son did the will of his father?” The second one of course. And then He said something that’s very serious. Jesus said, …
“If we’re just talk with very little action, the despicable tax collectors and harlots will go into the gloryland before we do.”
That’s sobering isn’t it?
WANTED - LESS TALK - MORE ACTION!
In some parts of the United States of America, when cattle are prepared for slaughter, a tranquiliser is put into their food for some time. This drug makes even the wildest beasts calm and listless. They quietly eat and get fat in preparation for the approaching slaughter.
The sin of talking about doing something but not actually doing it, is a bit like that. The sin of ‘procrastination’ or ‘putting off ’ is a tranquilizer like that.
Procrastination is the tranquilizer which Satan is using to prepare us for the final day of destruction. The sin of putting off until tomorrow what we should do today. Wasting the precious time that God has given to us. Procrastination is the thief of time. But it is more than that. Procrastination is the thief of Life – Eternal Life!
Friends, don’t we put off so many important things? Maybe even now, we’re still putting off eternal life by not giving up some of the little things that Jesus wants us to clean up in our lives.
“Some day,” you say, “I will seek the Lord:
Some day I will make my choice:
Some day, some day, I will heed His Word,
And answer the Spirit’s voice.
God’s time is now, for the days fly fast,
And swiftly the seasons roll;
Today is yours, it may be your last;
Choose life for your precious soul!
Choose now, just now; there’s eternal life at stake;
O, what will your answer be?
‘Tis life or death; and the choice you make
Can be for eternity.
Choose now, just now, for the Lord is here,
And angels your answer wait,
Choose now, just now, while the call is clear;
Tomorrow may be too late!
A railway worker knew what God wanted him to do, but he kept putting it off. He said, “I’ll wait a few years till my retirement, and then I’ll do what God wants me to do.” Well, retirement never came. One day his mangled body was carried away.
He’d been killed in a train smash. Retirement is not a safe season to wait for, when obedience to God is concerned. And nor is ‘Tomorrow’.
Does that railway man represent us, friends?
A certain lord kept a fool or jester in his house, as great men did in olden times, for their amusement. This lord gave a staff, or walking stick, to his fool, and charged him to keep it until he met a greater fool than himself, and if he met such a one, to deliver it over to him.
Not many years after, the lord fell sick and was dying. His fool came to see him and he asked him a question, “Where will you go, sir?” “On a long journey,” said the lord. “And when will you come again? Within a month?” “No,” said his lord. “Within a year?” “no.” “What then – never? “Never.” “And what provision have you made for where you’re going? “None at all.” “Are you going away forever,” said the fool, “and you haven’t made suitable provision before your departure? Here, take my staff, for I am not guilty of any such folly as that.”
Am I? Are you? - Friends, we’ve got to number our days, and use them wisely.
Do you have a list of the things you plan to do tomorrow? A list written down? Or will you just bumble into the day and whatever doesn’t get done, doesn’t get done, and who cares? Please, make a list tonight of the six most important things you should do tomorrow. Not the six best things, but the six most important things. Be honest!
Then tomorrow, go to it with a will and cross each job off as it’s completed. Maybe there’s Bible study. Maybe there’s prayer. Maybe there’s cleaning the car or the oven. Maybe there’s calling on some sad and lonely person and sharing with them. And if you get all those six important jobs done, that’s great. And if you don’t, before you go to bed tomorrow night, write up a new list of six things and put any unfinished jobs from today at the top of the list. Throughout the day, we should consider the next half hour as the most important time of our life, and use it efficiently.
A little poem says –
I have only just a minute,
Only sixty seconds in it,
It’s up to me to use it,
I must suffer if I lose it.
Give account to Jesus if I abuse it,
It is only just a minute,
But eternity is in it.
How much time did God give me today? 24 hours. How much time did He give you today? 24 hours. We say, “There’s not enough time in the day.” Isn’t there? “So and so’s got more time than I have.” Have they? We’ve all been given 24 hours of time in each day. How we use that time is up to us.
Lord, teach us to number our days … Help us to spend them as we should.
God says, “We’ve got to be faithful stewards or managers, of time.
The Bible says in …
“Don’t be fools, be wise, redeem the time.”
WHAT IS IT TIME TO DO NOW?
“It is time to seek the Lord.”
Should I be particularly concerned about my spiritual condition at the present time?
“…knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep … for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed.”
”Remember how short my time is.”
What is our spiritual work during the time allotted to us?
“Now then, we are ambassadors (or representatives) for Christ.”
When should we do our work for God?
“Don’t say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest.”
Behold, I say to you, “Lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.”
As a faithful steward or manager of time, what three things should I do now?
“Blessed is he that READETH, and they that HEAR the words of this prophecy, and KEEP (which means DO) those things that are written therein: FOR THE TIME IS AT HAND.”
So that verse tells us that because of the urgency of the moment, with Jesus’s second coming at hand, that we should be READING God’s Word, the Bible. We should be listening carefully as we HEAR God’s Word being presented. And we should be conforming our lives and DOING the things He asks us to do. All of the things He is asking us to do.
Friends, with time so short, and with this year marching on so fast, I want to wish, and pray, for each one of you today, not just for a ‘Happy Year’, but a ‘Holy Year’ also. And I hope you’ll wish me the same - a Holy Year, with Jesus deep in my and your hearts.
It’s important, because the sands are falling in the hourglass. Life is but a hair’s breadth, a bullet speeding to its mark, a cloud coming, going, gone! So teach us to number our days and recognise how few they are and help us to spend them as we should.
The Bible says in …
“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.”
Friends, what is your life? It’s like a vapour, that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away. The Bible warns us “not to boast about tomorrow; “for you do not know what a day may bring forth.”
Friends, listen to these verses from an old poem by William Knox.
Today, the clasping babe may drain
The milk-stream from its mother’s veins.
Tomorrow, like a frozen rill,
That bosom current may be still.
Tomorrow! Mortal, boast not thou
Of time and tide that are not now!
But think, in one revolving day,
That even thyself may pass away.
Friends, the Devil wants us to waste today on things that are not of eternal value. But Jesus wants us to use today wisely. Just like two dogs fighting, there are two natures fighting inside us.
“It seems as though there are two dogs fighting in me. One is a black dog and he is very savage and very bad. The other is a white dog and he is very gentle and very good. But the black dog fights with him all the time.”
And someone asked, “And which dog wins?”
The Indian replied, “Whichever one I feed the most and say sic ‘em to!”
And so if we have the white dog, Jesus, deep in our heart, with His nature, then when Satan knocks on our heart’s door with His nature, and encourages us to use our time carelessly, in a lukewarm way regarding eternal things, then we don’t have to fight Satan by ourselves. All we’ve got to do is send Jesus, the white dog, to the door, and say ‘sic em!’, and He’ll send the devil running.
Determine today, to use your time well and wisely, for the sand is falling fast in the hourglass.
Years ago, the last time the movie star Tyrone Power appeared before the cameras of Hollywood, he made a special appeal for the public to assist financially against heart disease. In the scene, …
Power picked up an hour glass, slowly turned it over, and watched the sand trickle from one end to the other.
“For all of us,” Power said, “the most precious element we have is time. But time runs out all too soon for many millions because of a health enemy that takes more lives than all other dreaded diseases combined.”
A few days later in Spain, the well-known actor succumbed to an attack of the very disease against which he was helping to wage war. How little did he realise that very soon, time would run out for him!
Many of us, friends, while urging others to get sin out of their lives and prepare for eternity before it is too late, little realise that for us also, time is running out.
I have a message called ‘THE HOUR’ --- It’s very practical and explains the steps we need to take to secure a wonderful relationship with our heavenly Father and Jesus. It’s in the ‘LIFE LESSONS’ section on my website.
This day is ours, there may be no tomorrow.
This day is ours from dawn to setting sun.
May we at evening like a worthy steward,
Hear, in our heart, the Master’s words, “Well done.”
Friends, if you have been blessed and challenged by this message, then please take time now to send it on to your friends. To God be the Glory!
Thank You,
Ray Archer
The words of this little book guarantee a reduction in stress and depression, and an increase in happiness and good attitude in life, whether you are an atheist, agnostic, Christian, or someone searching for meaning in life.
Best wishes for ‘A Better Life’ – guaranteed!