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l ime ma rc hes o n ."
"Time and tide wa it
for no man." "Time is o f
the essence." " Time is
money." "A stitch in time
..,j
.._
saves nine." "There's no
time like the present." "Procrastina–
tion is the thief of time." "T ime
passed me by."
Time Never Stands Stlll
Even during Joshua's long day–
when the sun stood still - time con–
tin ued "for about the space of a
whole day." Time is an ever present
element that is impossible to grasp
and store, ever elusive but ever
there. I t is the mos t abundant re–
source available, inexhaustible, yet
constantly rationed in the same
frustra tingly sma ll amounts. A con–
stant in an ever changing universe.
Not something through which you
pass, or which passes by you, but an
ever present companion with which
you live.
You can't touch, smell , hear, see
or feel time-but you can sense it
wi th your mind. You can' t stop it ,
speed it up or slow it down. You can
accept it as a friend or fight it as an
enemy-or you can ignore it.
Wha tever you do with time, as
long as you live, you have a fresh
supply to iovest each day. You can' t
"save" time, but you can more prop–
erly
use
ít so that wha t future time
you have can be thoroughly rewa rd–
ing and enjoyable. The time to im–
prove the quality of your life is
a/ways
NOW.
Today is the first day
of the rest ofyour life.
A Day at a Time
We a re a ll ooly one heartbeat away
from closing out our time bank ac–
count. Whatever long-range goals
we may have must always be con–
sidered in the framework set by the
apostle James: "Look here, you
people who say, 'Today or tomor–
row we are going to such and such a
town, stay there ayear, and open up
a profitable business.' How do you
know what is going to happen to–
morrow? For the length of your
Ji ves is as uncerta in as the morning
fog- now you see it; soon it is gone.
Wha t you ought to say is, ' If the
Lord wants us to, we sha ll live and
The
PLAIN TRUTH December 1977
do this or tha t"' (James 4 : 13- 15,
The Living Bib/e).
There is nothing wrong with plan–
ning for the fu tu re. J ust be sure you
recognize "God willing"
must
be the
setting for those plans.
I'm sure you've heard the old
saying, "Live every day as if
it
were
your last." Tha t's not from the
Bible, but
in
principie it is biblica lly
confirmed.
God's plan for mankind encom–
passes 7000 years- too long a span
for any one of us to pa rticipa te
throughout. God encourages repen–
tance- which in essence is a thor–
ough recognition on our part th a t
we have spent our
past
time un–
wisely, sinfully- so that we can dedí–
cate our
new
life (still one day a t a
time) in a manner that wíll be pleas–
íng to God, and us, and tha t wi ll
br ing us to ete rna! life-when time
will not be the limiting factor it now
is.
So there is no ques tion that God
wants us to make long-range plans–
e ternity is the longes t-range pla n
you can make!
The Bible records an important
overvíew of the fan tastically suc–
cessful lífe of Abraham, the fa the r
of the faithful (who lived 175
years!): "And these a re the
days
of
the years of Abraham's life which
he lived, an hundred threescore a nd
fifteen years" (Gen. 25:7).
Seventy-five "days of years"
passed before God made His prom–
ises to Abraham. Anothe r 25 long
"d ays of years" passed, replete with
trials, before the promised seed ,
Isaac, was born. Each of the three
days
Abraham spent taking Isaac to
Mount Moriah to sacrifice him must
have been a tormenting time. Of
Isaac hímself the Bi ble records:
"And the
day s
of lsaac were an hun–
dred and fourscore years [180]. And
Isa ac gave up th e g hos t , a nd
d ie d ... being o ld a nd
f u // of
days ...
"(Gen. 35:28-29).
Moses prayed in Psa lm 90,
"Teach us to number our
days
and
recognize how few they are; help us
to spend them as we should" (Ps.
90: 12,
The Living Bible).
The highest mounta in is climbed
one step at a time, and the longest
life is lived one day a t a time.
DON'T
SPEND
TIME-
INVEST
IT!
Time is the unique and univer–
sal element available to each
living individual in exactly the
same amount. Each day brings
a fui/ bank account of 24
hours-and the quality of your
lije depends directly on how
you use those hours as they
inexorably pass by. Don't ju.<tt
spend them- invest them.
by Jon
Hill
27