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THE THIEF OF TIME

By Nikos Lemonidis

 

Everyone understands the importance of time for mankind.

Ecclesiastes 3:1:
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

God dealt with the issue of time on earth by speaking, the sun and the moon into being.

The Hebrew calendar is based on the rotation of the Earth around its axis (to measure day and night), the Moon’s revolution around the axis of the Earth (the measure of a month), and the Earth’s revolution around the Sun (the measure of a year).

You and I must remember that time is a valuable asset. It has long been the target of a thief.

John 10:10a:
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy....

Time is a transitory present, continually changing. It does not stop or return. How, then, should we who are Christians deal with time? Well, the Scriptures speak…

Ephesians 5:15-16:
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

What does it mean to “redeem”? According to Strong’s Exhaustive Dictionary, literally, it means “to buy up, or ransom;” figuratively, it is “to rescue from loss.” This emphasizes the free will of man. Out of the many opportunities, the best one must be chosen.

How do we rescue from loss time? As we see in these verses in Ephesians,

1. We must recognize that the days – including today – are evil.

Ephesians 6:13:
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

In a physical or spiritual battle, if you fall you are in grave danger.

Proverbs 24:10:
If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.

We need to stand one day at a time. for the duration of our lifetimes,

2. We need to walk in wisdom.

Colossians 4:5:
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.

We should not walk as in times past – as fools.

1 Peter 4:3:
For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

If someone conforms to society (doing the will of the Gentiles), it is because he conforms to prevailing ideas. This is no accident. Doctrines of demons, coming from lying spirits, have persuaded modern man much as they did Ahab.

1 Kings 22:21:
And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.

The Devil is the thief of time. He has fiercely opposed man’s need to redeem time by making man to neglect fully living each today of his life. The following lies have formed part of Satan’s devices:

LIE Number 1: There’s no need to change your ways today. You have an “eternity and a day” to be perfected.

(As if reincarnation – or more than one life – were actually possible!) The same lie is propagated since Genesis 3:4 when “the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.”

The issue of living forever is as old as the garden itself. The fallen man was taken out of Eden, “lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever” (Genesis 3:22)

The span of his life has taken a steep nose-dive from Methuselah’s nine hundred sixty and nine years to our life expectancy as described in the Psalms:

Psalm 90:10a:
The days of our years are threescore years and ten [seventy]; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore [eighty] years...

Some people will die even before reaching seventy years; they will die prematurely.

1 Corinthians 11:28-30:
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

The simple fact is that none of us know when our time will come to an end.

Luke 12:19-20:
And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.

Living every single day as being your last, will surely rescue that day from loss. The realization of the brevity of life is sobering to saint and sinner alike.

Psalm 90:12:
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

The days we live in are the last days. Now is the time when scoffers – those who do not want to stop walking in their lusts – will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:4).

While it is called today, there is time for only one thing: Repentance.

2 Peter 3:9:
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

LIE Number 2: Live in the past and not in the present

Remember, before walking with Christ, our past was in darkness.

Ephesians 2:2a:
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air....

Ephesians 5:8a:
For ye were sometimes darkness....

All people, Christian or not, tend to occupy their minds with things from their past that hurt or disappointed them. The past is gone. Learn to leave it behind.

Philippians 3:13b:
... but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind ...

You cannot carry the burden of today if you do not lay aside the past…

Hebrews 12:1a:
... let us lay aside every weight....

… and something more: newly committed sins.

(Hebrews 12:1b)
... and the sin which doth so easily beset us....

Brother, Sister, if we don’t want to faint in this life we ought to “exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13).

LIE Number 3: It is impossible to perform God’s will today.

People face all sorts of problems that to them appear to be mountains. Addictions to sin –drugs, alcoholism, gambling, pornography, spending too much time on the internet, smoking, over-eating – and the consequences they lead to such as poor health, depression, seclusion, and separation from God, seem impossible to overcome.

Psalm 79:8:
O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low.

Is this ‘very low’ condition reversible?

Mark 10:26-27:
And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?
27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.

In the Old Testament, Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews out of Babylon’s captivity to an impossible task, namely, to rebuild the Temple which laid in ruins. How does that apply to us today?

1 Corinthians 6:19:
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Zerubbabel faced a mountain. But look at the spiritual reality in contrast to the hopeless physical reality!

Zechariah 4:7:
Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.

How can we deal with such mountain-like problems?

Zechariah 4:6:
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

Brother, Sister, is our addiction to sin a mountain?

Matthew 11:23:
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Zerubbabel set out the cornerstone and kept the building straight by using the plumb line. His seemingly small beginning to carry out God’s will was not a thing to be underestimated.

Zechariah 4:10a:
For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel....

Let us not put off doing the will of God today. To delay is to deceive yourself and reward the thief of time.

Galatians 6:7-9:
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

LIE Number 4: Live in the future and not in the present

We should never boast or worry about tomorrow. To do so is either pride or unbelief.

Proverbs 27:1:
Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

James 4:14-16:
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

The Lord Jesus Christ taught us the importance of living life one day at a time.

Matthew 6:34:
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

This day contains all the evil you can handle. You risk falling today if you spending your energy in worrying about tomorrow. All anonymous societies (Alcoholic Anonymous, OA, etc) urge people to deal with their problem one day at a time. How about Worrying Christians Anonymous? Should we entertain anxiety as being without hope in this world?

1 Peter 5:7:
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

LIE Number 5: There is no specific will of God for you today.

In the prayer known as the “Lord’s Prayer,” our Savior told us we should seek God’s will on a daily basis:

Matthew 6:11:
Give us this day our daily bread.

We should seek the Lord for more than our physical bread.

Matthew 4:4:
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Who is this daily bread? The living Word, Jesus Christ.

John 6:48-50:
I am that bread of life.
49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.

How often should we gather that bread from heaven?

Exodus 16:4:
Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

Yesterday’s bread is not fresh.

LIE Number 6: Today is not a good day to start doing God’s will.

The most revered day in our society is some next, or following, Monday. On that day, people plan to start everything – whether it is to exercise more, a diet, to quit smoking or whatever. But as the Word of God says:

Psalm 118:24:
This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

In Romans chapter 14, the apostle Paul describes two types of believer: those who are weak in faith, and those who are strong in faith.

Romans 14:5:
One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike.

The strong one is the one who esteems every day alike. In the epistle to Galatians, the issue of esteeming one day over another had become a dire problem, denying the complete work of Christ.

Galatians 4:10-11:
Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

How then should we live? Let us deny the thief of time from any more victories in our life. Let us redeem our time by living every single day in accordance with God’s specific will for the day we live in… TODAY.

Hebrews 3:15a:
To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts…

 

 


From the June 2011 online issue of The Vine & Branches