Time To Reset

Happy New Year everyone! This is the start of a new and wonder filled year. It is time to reset our life clocks. Life in this crazy, fast paced world in which we live, will control our time if we allow it. So many things can distract our focus away from the Kingdom of God. Work, sports, fun, school, pursuit of things, life in general.

Paul tells us in Romans 13:11, to awake out of sleep, for our salvation is nearer today than it ever was before. The “Church” has been asleep for too long. It is time to get up, and shake the world around us with the gospel.

Let me interject something here that may be of interest to you. It concerns the return of our Lord Jesus. Scripture tells us that no man knows the day or hour of his return (Matthew 24:36). But Jesus did give us a clue in verses 32-34. This clue is the fig tree generation becoming a nation in 1948. Who is Jesus talking about? Some Bible scholars agree that He is talking about the nation of Israel as being the fig tree.

Israel became a Nation again, after so many years as a people without official recognition from the world. The Bible scholars then started looking to set a date for the return of Jesus. They took forty years as a generation, and added it to 1948 and came up with 1988. Did not work out, did it?

A generation can be forty years, but this is not what Jesus was saying. He meant their life span as a generation. Most people of His time understood this to be 70-80 years (Psalms 90:10). when you use these numbers you will get a different date. Add 70 years to 1948 and you get 2018. Jesus did not return that year either. But, add 80 years to 1948 and you get the year 2028. It is now 2021!

I hope this makes my message to you a little clearer. Time to wake up and reset our life clocks. We need to redouble our efforts of redeeming the time we have left. If I am correct, then the anti-christ is already here on this earth, just waiting on his time to become the deceiver he is destined to be.

Our lives should be lived as if Jesus will return any day now. This is the main thing I want to get across to my family. Don’t let life keep you from accomplishing Gods plan for you. Get busy and be the light to those who are in darkness around you. Be aware of who you are, and to whom you belong (Romans 14:8).

The Word of God tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to us (Matthew 6:33). What things? The necessities of life will be provided to you. God does not want us to be without things, or our lives to be boring. He is interested in our daily life and wants us to have the desires of our hearts (Psalms 37:4).God is our Father and has our future already planned for us (Jeremiah 29:11). All we have to do is stay close to him, and love Him with all our heart (Matthew 22:37).

Covid has made our life even more difficult to say the least. This is what I have done at our home to remind us of Gods promises. I have placed a red ribbon over our entry door to remind us of our covenant with God, through Jesus Christ, or Lord. A new and better covenant than the first (Hebrews 8:6). This ribbon is a reminder not only to us but to the devil as well, that we are redeemed from the curse (Galatians 3:13).

God wants us to redeem our time and not be filled with worry or despair. What does it mean to redeem? The word redeem, means to buy back, or ransom something. As I have said before, if scripture says something more than once, we need to pay attention to it and take a second look.

Paul being led by the Holy Spirit has just informed us that we are to redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16). God is not going to do it for us. We are the ones responsible to get our time in line with His Word, or the Bible. To me this means for us to get our life in Gods order of importance- God, Family, Ministry, then Life in general.

Our lives are just a vapor (James 4:14), as we look back on the years. But, if we look to the future and keep our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2), our time will be well spent as we cross the finish of our race of life. I remember Marilyn Hickey saying that if she had a very busy schedule planned, she had to make sure and do her Bible study and praying first before she ever started her day. Why would she do that? She was buying back her time, and this allowed God to make her time more productive, as she put Him first place.

I hope this makes sense to you as you read these words and study the scriptures I have given you. Remember, all I am doing is giving you my opinion of what I have learned. You are the one who is responsible to study the Bible and see what I have said is right.This simple message I have tried to give you today is Jesus is returning soon, and that we are to be in control of our time, and we need to use it wisely.

Remember, you will make it, just don’t give up. See you next week.