Time (pt 1)

This last week at the Campus Ventures large group meeting I had the opportunity to give the students a message about time. In the preparation leading up to giving this talk, I ran into several things that became worrisome to me. Now, what caused me to worry was not that I felt unqualified to speak (I am unqualified, and have already accepted that fact) or that I didn't think my speaking would be affective (again, I've long since come to terms with the fact that God will be the one to change hearts, I have no ability to do so), but it came from the fact that I didn't even know what I was to speak about. In the planning stages, I was told that my topic was "time." I hope most of you by now have realized that this is a pretty vague topic of discussion. I probably stressed over this point for about three or four days before God reminded me that this was part of a bigger series and that what I needed to be focusing in on was, well first off Him, but secondly that I'm not talking about time in general, I'm talking about time in how it relates to His eternal purposes. He then led me back to Eph 5:14-17, which is what my talk became based on. This passage will also be the basis of a three or four part series of blogs in which I will discuss the talk I gave at CV. Hopefully this is helpful for you.

Before I begin, I want to start with what I will actually be discussing. I'm not giving a time management talk here, although some aspects of it will lend themselves toward that direction. Time management is a tool to use your time more effectively, but one's time can just as easily become more effective at fighting against the kingdom of God as it can promoting it. So what I want to talk about is the importance of orienting our time with God's eternal purpose in mind. During the first week of school this semester, Cody Johnson (director of CV at UW) related that "God's eternal purpose is to display His wisdom to the universe by conforming us to the image of His Son." I would say it another way, that God's eternal purpose is to display His glory throughout the world, and that the primary way He chooses to do this is through His adopted children being conformed to the image of His Son. So when we look at the topic of time, what we are really looking at is how and why our time should be thought of in the perspective of this eternal kingdom mindset. So we should start with getting ourselves oriented in understanding what our time (essentially our lives) really are when looking through the lens of eternity. I want to specifically look at Psalms 39:4-5 and 90:10-12. In Psalm 39, we are forced to deal with the idea that "every man at his best state is but vapor," and in Psalm 90 we have to come to terms with the fact that the only "boast" of this vapor "is only labor and sorrow." Our seventy or eighty years on this earth are only a vapor in light of eternity, and the cry of both the psalmists here is that the Lord would teach us to number our days to gain a heart of wisdom. With that in mind, let's jump right into the main content.

So, like I said earlier, this entire series is based on Ephesians 5:14-17. For the sake of getting the big picture, I will reproduce the entire passage here:

Therefore He says, "Awake you who sleep, Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light." See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 

There is a lot to unpack, and so for part one of this series I want to discuss just the first verse.

Therefore He says, "Awake you who sleep, Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

As the Lord pressed me to ponder this verse, three words stood out to me: sleep, dead, and light. It has seemed to me that through reading scripture that sleep and laziness are equated. Here are a list of verses that exemplify this point: Prov 6:6-11, Prov 10:26, Prov 12:11, Prov 13:4, Prov 19:15, Prov 20:13, Prov 21:25-26, Mark 13:33-37, Romans 13:11-12, and 1st Thess 5:5-6. When you read through these verses, a pattern starts to emerge. We are commanded by scripture not to slumber, but to be awake and to be diligent in our work. Now we are not necessarily talking about physical sleep, although for some this may be a part of the problem, but what we are actually talking about is a mental or spiritual slumber. This kind of sleep is equivalent to death, which is why Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, could pen the phrase "Awake you who sleep, Arise from the dead." This type of sleep is what happens when one shuts themself down from diligently and faithfully following after the Lord and His commandments and instead are coasting because they have already received their salvation and are saved from hell (this type of sleep is also descriptive of those who have not received Christ's redeeming grace, but the main focus of this talk is with Christians). Spiritual sleep will always lead to death, whether it be a spiritual death (in terms of those who are not saved) or the death of God's glorious plan for one's life. We must actively engage in fighting off the drowsiness of Spiritual slumber.

And God has given us the Way to fight it: namely Jesus. Jesus gives us the light, and that Light is Jesus Himself. He, as He normally is, is the key to resiting the temptation of falling asleep from the wine of this world. To get into the right understanding of this, we must see that Jesus being the Light is not some analogy that is supposed to show us that He reveals to us the way or that He explains things so that it makes sense, but He, in a very physical and real way, is truly light. In Rev 21:23, John sees that "the city [the new Jerusalem] had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is it's light." In the coming kingdom, Jesus Himself will be the light so much so that there will not even be a sun. If that image doesn't get you in the right mindset, I don't know what will. And because His light is so penetrating, it is even able to open the minds of our understanding. Psalm 13:3 says "Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death." David knows that without Jesus "enlightening [his] eyes" he will fall into a spiritual slumber that will lead to death. And when Paul prays for the Ephesian church, he prays that "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. (Eph 1:17-18)" The point is that without the Light enlightening our eyes, we will fall into slumber, which leads to death.

One last thing that I want to mention is that although we are to be diligent in seeking after God and His light with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, we are not to simply replace laziness with being busy. Being busy and being diligent are not the same things. As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, we can easily fill our lives up with worthless things that do not honor God, and actually work against His kingdom on this earth. In fact, I would say that if you are not busy with God's purposes and plans, then those things that you are busy with are, in no uncertain terms, idols. If you read through Deut 11:13-16, you can see that if you are not concerned with the commandments of the Lord, then your heart can be deceived, and will cause you to "turn aside and serve other gods and worship them." You will worship other gods (or idols) if your heart is not set on the commandments of the Lord. You can fill your time with good things that in other contexts may even be what the Lord has ordained, but if you place those things above the Lord, then they are idols and need to be cast down in your life. So we cannot remain idle, we cannot be busy with worthless things, but we need to be watchful and focus our lives on the Light that is Jesus Christ.

I will continue this topic over the next couple of days, continuing to meditate on Eph 5:14-17 and other passages that relate. The next one will be specifically focused on vs 15 and 16. Take care and God bless.