Wasted Time
One of the great tragedies in life is wasted time. Time is one of the most undervalued commodities when you are a kid, and the older you get, you feel the weight of the value of time more and more. Time moves faster the older you get. I can remember when 6 months might as well have been 6 years, it seemed to take so long (I'm picturing waiting to turn 16...that 15th year seemed like a decade at the time). Now, at 41 years old, 6 months passes in a scary fast way. Most people, if you are really blessed, are working with about 70 years...
Psalms 90:10 The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
That is...3,640 weeks...25,480 days... 611,520 hours of time the Psalmist calls a time of "labor". It isn't that your existence ends when the last hour flips by...but you only have that much time to labor...to get your heart prepared for eternity. You might have even less time...maybe you have an hour, or 10 minutes left?! At this point, if Jesus doesn't return in the meantime (I strongly believe He will), I have about 30 years, or 262,000 hours, left by most accounts...I slept 5 of them away last night, and used up another 2 already this morning. By the time you pull out sleeping hours...ugh...time is short.
The Bible is clear that what I do with those hours forever will impact the measure of glory I experience. When my time of labor passes, my heart will be "set." That means I will have chosen a measure of my heart to give to Jesus to form His life in. I can really only do this in the time of labor. This is because of the nature of the fall of man. Mankind was created with an "infinite capacity" to encounter an infinite God. God is so infinitely beautiful and holy that the light of His countenance is unapproachable to our "less than infinite" frame.
I Timothy 6:15-16 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
When mankind ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of darkness (if God is light, evil...the absence of God...is darkness), darkness entered our frame. Our capacity to endure perfect light became less than infinite. By simple math, anything less than infinite is "infinitely less." Because of the darkened nature of my heart and body, God's brilliant presence would literally consume the darkness within me. I'll be needing a restored body to be in God's presence. Thankfully, the Bible promises I am going to get one. But I need more than just a body! I am made triune...in God's image. Just as He is three-in-one, so am I. I am spirit, soul (also called the "heart"...mind, will, and emotions), and body:
I Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When darkness entered Adam and Eve at their choice for darkness, they died. That is what God told them would happen, and it happened as soon as the first bite was taken. While the juice was still on Adam's chin, he died. His heart and body didn't die right away. He died in a way reflective of his triune nature. First his spirit died, and the Holy Spirit which God breathed into him left. Then, over time his heart died...he and his family slowly walked in greater measure of darkness, and then finally, Adam's body died. The resurrection...the salvation of a person...it happens in the same way. The moment I got saved by choosing to apply Jesus' sacrifice as payment for my sin and then agreeing to live under His leadership the best I could, God renovated my spirit. My spirit was made perfectly capable...infinite in capacity...to be a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes and inhabits every believer. Every saved person has a perfectly renewed spirit. BUT, there are still two more of my "parts" that need renewing.
This is where the number of hours I have becomes supercritical! My Body will be renewed at the time of the resurrection, also called "the rapture". That is when everyone alive gets changed in the twinkling of an eye and everyone in heaven gets new physical bodies for returning to earth. Forever we are going to live in a physical, tangible earth! My new body will reflect how much renewal I allowed to touch my heart. Everyone will have a different measure of glory...brightness...reflected in their physical body. Just like the moon reflects the light of the sun, you will reflect how much of your heart you gave to Jesus to renew over the lifespan you were given:
I Corinthians 15:40-42 There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.
This is because of how close you will live to the physical presence of God. God is the light of creation. There will be no sun or moon...God will be the light all of creation reflects:
Revelation 21:23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
God's infinite brightness will never diminish. Our capacity to be close to Him...to be able to withstand His infinite presence... is up to us. We have 70 years to allow God access to our hearts to make them new. The more we allow God to increase our capacity, the closer we will be to Him forever. God makes every step of renewal...from salvation to glorification...up to us. You have to choose salvation, and you also have to choose...moment by moment, sanctification. God...the Holy Spirit...is within us to help us, but He won't pass from our spirit to our heart uninvited. Because of love, every bit of renewal requires a free will choice to agree with God. He always desired full and infinite access for us to Him. Because of the fall, we have been appointed a time of labor to allow Him to renew us, if we choose...but everyone gets what they want.
If I want to spend my time on what the world is offering in the form of entertainment, toil, or trouble, I can have it. I can have anything the world offers, but if that is what I choose, I will end up wasting most of my heart (soul)-renewal time:
Mark 8:36-37 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
"Greatness," the way Jesus defines it, is to reach with all of my strength to die as much as possible to myself and let Jesus form His life in me. I do this by spending minutes and hours talking to God, reading His word, and asking Him to transform me. Taking a personal inventory of where I don't measure up to Jesus' perfect obedience and the mourning the difference..crying out to God... to bring me closer to looking and acting like Jesus. This takes time! The more I ask, the more He will do. The less I ask, the less He will do. It is so simple anyone can do it, and so simple few will.
Simply spending my little bit of laboring time wisely this way NOW will put me closer to the one who owns everything, has all power, and is the fullness of bright radiating love...FOREVER. Proximity to God...sitting at His right or left, IS greatness. If I want to live closer to where Jesus lives, I need to live more like Jesus lives...while there is time. At His appearing before me, or my appearing before Him, my heart is set...forever:
Matthew 20:21-22 And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.” But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.”
Revelation 3:21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
Psalms 90:10 The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
That is...3,640 weeks...25,480 days... 611,520 hours of time the Psalmist calls a time of "labor". It isn't that your existence ends when the last hour flips by...but you only have that much time to labor...to get your heart prepared for eternity. You might have even less time...maybe you have an hour, or 10 minutes left?! At this point, if Jesus doesn't return in the meantime (I strongly believe He will), I have about 30 years, or 262,000 hours, left by most accounts...I slept 5 of them away last night, and used up another 2 already this morning. By the time you pull out sleeping hours...ugh...time is short.
The Bible is clear that what I do with those hours forever will impact the measure of glory I experience. When my time of labor passes, my heart will be "set." That means I will have chosen a measure of my heart to give to Jesus to form His life in. I can really only do this in the time of labor. This is because of the nature of the fall of man. Mankind was created with an "infinite capacity" to encounter an infinite God. God is so infinitely beautiful and holy that the light of His countenance is unapproachable to our "less than infinite" frame.
I Timothy 6:15-16 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
When mankind ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of darkness (if God is light, evil...the absence of God...is darkness), darkness entered our frame. Our capacity to endure perfect light became less than infinite. By simple math, anything less than infinite is "infinitely less." Because of the darkened nature of my heart and body, God's brilliant presence would literally consume the darkness within me. I'll be needing a restored body to be in God's presence. Thankfully, the Bible promises I am going to get one. But I need more than just a body! I am made triune...in God's image. Just as He is three-in-one, so am I. I am spirit, soul (also called the "heart"...mind, will, and emotions), and body:
I Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When darkness entered Adam and Eve at their choice for darkness, they died. That is what God told them would happen, and it happened as soon as the first bite was taken. While the juice was still on Adam's chin, he died. His heart and body didn't die right away. He died in a way reflective of his triune nature. First his spirit died, and the Holy Spirit which God breathed into him left. Then, over time his heart died...he and his family slowly walked in greater measure of darkness, and then finally, Adam's body died. The resurrection...the salvation of a person...it happens in the same way. The moment I got saved by choosing to apply Jesus' sacrifice as payment for my sin and then agreeing to live under His leadership the best I could, God renovated my spirit. My spirit was made perfectly capable...infinite in capacity...to be a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes and inhabits every believer. Every saved person has a perfectly renewed spirit. BUT, there are still two more of my "parts" that need renewing.
This is where the number of hours I have becomes supercritical! My Body will be renewed at the time of the resurrection, also called "the rapture". That is when everyone alive gets changed in the twinkling of an eye and everyone in heaven gets new physical bodies for returning to earth. Forever we are going to live in a physical, tangible earth! My new body will reflect how much renewal I allowed to touch my heart. Everyone will have a different measure of glory...brightness...reflected in their physical body. Just like the moon reflects the light of the sun, you will reflect how much of your heart you gave to Jesus to renew over the lifespan you were given:
I Corinthians 15:40-42 There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.
This is because of how close you will live to the physical presence of God. God is the light of creation. There will be no sun or moon...God will be the light all of creation reflects:
Revelation 21:23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
God's infinite brightness will never diminish. Our capacity to be close to Him...to be able to withstand His infinite presence... is up to us. We have 70 years to allow God access to our hearts to make them new. The more we allow God to increase our capacity, the closer we will be to Him forever. God makes every step of renewal...from salvation to glorification...up to us. You have to choose salvation, and you also have to choose...moment by moment, sanctification. God...the Holy Spirit...is within us to help us, but He won't pass from our spirit to our heart uninvited. Because of love, every bit of renewal requires a free will choice to agree with God. He always desired full and infinite access for us to Him. Because of the fall, we have been appointed a time of labor to allow Him to renew us, if we choose...but everyone gets what they want.
If I want to spend my time on what the world is offering in the form of entertainment, toil, or trouble, I can have it. I can have anything the world offers, but if that is what I choose, I will end up wasting most of my heart (soul)-renewal time:
Mark 8:36-37 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
"Greatness," the way Jesus defines it, is to reach with all of my strength to die as much as possible to myself and let Jesus form His life in me. I do this by spending minutes and hours talking to God, reading His word, and asking Him to transform me. Taking a personal inventory of where I don't measure up to Jesus' perfect obedience and the mourning the difference..crying out to God... to bring me closer to looking and acting like Jesus. This takes time! The more I ask, the more He will do. The less I ask, the less He will do. It is so simple anyone can do it, and so simple few will.
Simply spending my little bit of laboring time wisely this way NOW will put me closer to the one who owns everything, has all power, and is the fullness of bright radiating love...FOREVER. Proximity to God...sitting at His right or left, IS greatness. If I want to live closer to where Jesus lives, I need to live more like Jesus lives...while there is time. At His appearing before me, or my appearing before Him, my heart is set...forever:
Matthew 20:21-22 And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.” But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.”
Revelation 3:21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
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