"I once knew a man who was so careful with money when he talked on the telephone he would turn the lights out to save electricity. He reasoned that while on the phone, he didn't need to see anything. This man taught in a low paying Christian school and had a very limited income. He went to such extreme measures to save money because he realized how limited his supply of money was.
Time is like money. The less we have of it to spare, the further we make it go. There are people who have lots of extra money beyond what they need to survive. But there is no one who has extra time to waste. We all have the same amount of time each day. And we are all accountable to God for every moment of that time.
God wants us to be frugal with our money. But, I believe He is even more concerned that we carefully redeem the time.
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"Bob and his wife were attending a marriage seminar when to the instructor said: ""It is essential that husbands and wives know the things that are important to each other. For example, Can you husbands describe your wife's favorite flower?""
Bob leaned over, to his wife and whispered, ""Pillsbury All-Purpose, isn't it?""
Bob no doubt needed to listen to the instructor. Taking time to communicate with your spouse is one of the best ways to redeem the time but it is also one of the easiest to neglect.
Any activity worth doing is worth scheduling. Spending time communicating with your spouse is no exception. If you've been married for a while it is more important than ever that you schedule a date with your spouse just like you did when you were dating. Until you make a point of scheduling it, just like you’d schedule any other meeting, it probably won't happen.
Breaking out of your routines long enough to schedule a date with your spouse is a great way to redeem the time.
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"Fire investigators on the Hawaiian island of Maui determined the cause of a recent blaze that destroyed a $127,000 home. It was a short in the home's newly installed fire alarm system. The homeowner was quoted as saying, ""This is even worse than last year when someone broke in and stole my new security system.""
Jesus warned against putting too much confidence in things of this world that could be stolen, eaten by moths, or rusted into the ground. One way to keep from desiring more things is to consider how much time they take to acquire. Before you buy a new car that costs $30,000, stop and consider how many hours of work it takes to make $30,000. If you make $20 hour and factor in taxes, tithe and time getting to and from work, you will work 2,557 hours for that new car.
Consider that and you might decide a $3,000 used car will help you redeem the time.
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"Have you ever wished for a way to make time slow down? That’s impossible you say.
Yes, it may be impossible to truly make time go slower, but there is a way to make our perception of time slow down. It is through the Biblical discipline of fasting.
People who fast, especially for longer periods of time, often report their perception of the passing of time changes. The clock seems to slow down for them.
Another benefit of fasting is the increased amount of time we can spend in any given day with the Lord. Isaiah 58 gives us a description of the type of fast that pleases God. It involves replacing time we would normally spend on cooking, eating, and cleaning up our food with focusing on the things of God and searching our hearts before Him.
The combination of slowing our perception of time along with freeing more of our time each day, makes fasting an excellent method of redeeming the time.
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