Dearest family,

If we hear the word ‘stewardship’ the first thing we think about is what? Money. That will be the discipline that will be addressed next Sunday. We have all heard the truism: ‘show me your check-book and I will tell you what your priorities are.’ The idea here is that our use of money is the best measure of our resources. But what I argued on Sunday, in preparation for next week, is that it is not just about your check-book but about your calendar. These two are vitally related and impact each other, and we may want to conclude that the primary currency of life is not money but time. Of course, an American consumer society has its own version of how these two relate, in the words of Benjamin Franklin: Time is money!

We looked at a NT and an OT consideration when it comes to this matter of disciplining our time. I was not interested in a few techniques to manage your time better, but in some foundational biblical truths that will help us to make wise decisions about not only how our time is ordered, but what we choose to do. If you do not manage yourself you will not manage your time. If you do not value yourself you will not value your time. If you are short on purpose you will be long on procrastination. If you don’t have a sense of place you won’t have a sense of time.

A NEW TESTAMENT CONSIDERATION: redeeming time

“Be very careful then how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” (Eph. 5:15-17)
“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful…Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders, making the most of every opportunity.” (Col.4:2-5)
“The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.” (1 Pet. 4:7)
“Do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed… The night is nearly over, the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently…” (Rom. 13:11-14)

Note that the consideration of a right and disciplined use of time is integral with a knowledge of God’s will, which assumes a knowledge of His Word; with prayer; with personal holiness. The fact that you manage your schedule brilliantly does not mean that you are managing your time righteously. For a Christian, godly time management is a consequence of godly life management.

The Greek word for measureable time is ‘chronos’, from which we get words like chronology. Scripture is clear that we cannot have a spiritual handle on chromos, if we do not have a spiritual character. Think of the characteristics of Jesus, as presented by the fruits of the Holy Spirit, that are necessary for handling time rightly: peace, faithfulness, self-control and of course patience. The delays that we perceive in terms of time, are met with patience which is a delay of certain natural responses and reactions to that delay. Chronological delay that would incite unspiritual reactions, is met with a response of character that delays unspiritual reactions. Chronos is always picking a fight with character. Think about how much anger is generated by our responses to time. By the way, this is a serious confrontation between these two. Leo Tolstoy wrote: “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”

One of the key applications of the power of Christ’s redemption in the life of a disciple is presented in Eph. 5:15-17: the redeeming of time. Time is presented as a principality and a power in Roms. 8:38 – “neither present or future”. It cannot separate us from the love of God but it seeks to. The work of Christ re-arranges our view of time. Whoever believes in him “will not perish…” (the tyranny of time is powerless and is overcome) “but have everlasting life.” Salvation changes our relationship to time and our experience of time. All would be bleak and hopeless and fearful if Jesus had not entered time and humanity and supremely through his resurrection broken the power of time to destroy us, by destroying death itself. So the Bible talks about two kinds of people: the wise who have an understanding of their time and therefore the times, and the fools who do not. There are three simple things that every disciple needs to engage in order to number their days aright, in order to be disciplined in their stewardship of time passing.

separate us from the love of God but it seeks to. The work of Christ re-arranges our view of time. Whoever believes in him “will not perish…” (the tyranny of time is powerless and is overcome) “but have everlasting life.” Salvation changes our relationship to time and our experience of time. All would be bleak and hopeless and fearful if Jesus had not entered time and humanity and supremely through his resurrection broken the power of time to destroy us, by destroying death itself. So the Bible talks about two kinds of people: the wise who have an understanding of their time and therefore the times, and the fools who do not. There are three simple things that every disciple needs to engage in order to number their days aright, in order to be disciplined in their stewardship of time passing.

1. RESTORING THE PAST
Time past, as you know, has an incredible power. The power of an unredeemed, unforgiven, unrenewed, unrestored past is always active in the present. It invades present time and seeks to RULE the present and ROB the future. Is your life in a right relationship to the PAST? (Why we are committed to Healing prayer. It is a discipleship of time issue.)

2. REDEEMING THE PRESENT
The word used here in Ephesians, ‘exagorazo’, means to purchase out of – it is the idea of redeeming time, or literally buying it back, buying it up, seizing opportunity amidst opposition. It is the idea of a bargain hunter – ransoming time from the bondage of evil, rescuing it from wasteful purposes, from being the currency of anyone else but the Lord. The idea is not just negative: as in don’t waste time, but positive: proactively seizing the opportunity. Why does it need redeemed? For the reasons that Paul gives to the Romans and Ephesians and Thessalonians. Because the days are evil, the opportunity for good is diminishing, and because the day of reckoning is coming, the availability of time to live and serve God is also diminishing. Christians are presented as the wise (sophoi), marked by these two things: making the most of the time and discerning the will of the Lord. Are you redeeming the time? How? Where is time robbed, wasted, lost, surrendered, squandered? What is time spent on? What are you fearing or denying? What are the dominant objects of your focus and concern? What are the opportunities to be seized? How do you make decisions about what you do with your time. Is Paul’s advice to the Philippians important to you, to live daily asking for knowledge and discernment, approving what is excellent.

3. REMEMBERING THE END
The great accusation of Jerusalem by God through Jeremiah was: “she remembered not her end.” There are two great motivations for our holy use of time:

The fact of judgment: what is it about the use of our time, our works, that will follow us, that will not be wood, hay and stubble?
The hope of heaven: all about what kind of treasure the expenditure of our time purchases

There is a tragedy of time passing without the fulfillment of God-given gifting’s and potential. None of us want these words on our tombstone: “He had potential.” Hosea 13:13 “Ephraim…he is a child without wisdom; when the time arrives he does not come to the opening of the womb.” (Hosea ends: “Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them.” 14:9-10) There is at least one person who has taken the shortness of time to heart as the great spur for action. “Woe to the earth and the sea! Because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short.” (Rev. 12:12) The increase in the intensity of evil and demonic activity should be matched by the increase in wise fervency of the redeemed, who as such, redeem the time because these days are evil.

AN OT CONSIDERATION: resting time It’s not the time but the space that’s the problem. In a word, I gave you some ‘peas in a pod’, a number of observations about the nature and DNA of the biblical Sabbath, that although not incumbent on believers to keep, nonetheless teaches us so many things about our expectations of ‘holy time’, about the importance of rest and most particularly, about finding our rest in Jesus, the one that the Sabbath foreshadowed. If you weren’t in church these ‘peas’ won’t mean much so you will have to listen to it. But for those who were there, and gave up on notes, here were the headings: precept, principle, prescription, prefiguration, protagonist, present (as in gift), presence, provision, prevention, preservation and protection, productivity, prohibitions, promise, praise, profession. Go write your own message… if you have the time… maybe after you have read that book on time management that you have been meaning to read the last ten years!

Anyway, what I am really saying is… (sorry, no time to finish…)

Pastorally yours,

Stuart

“The train of God’s grace is always on time.” (A persecuted believer)