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"The pastor of a small church was the only one who knew how to light the gas heater. One morning as he began the sermon the heater went out. Soon cold air began circulating over the chilled audience. Oblivious to the situation, the pastor continued with a long winded message until finally a shivering elderly lady had her grandson take a note to the pulpit which read: “The blower is still blowing, but the fire has gone out.” Unfortunately, that gives a picture of some of the activities we as Christians tend to get involved in. At one time there was fire there. God was blessing and people were benefitting from it. But with time, the fire went out and the blower just kept blowing. When that happens we have two choices. Either relight the fire and warm things up again. Or shut down the blower and look for fire elsewhere. God shows himself in the Bible as a pillar of fire. Gravitate toward the fire and you’ll redeem the time. "

"Two bachelors were talking when the conversation went to cooking. ""I got a cookbook once,"" said the first, ""but I could never do anything with it."" ""Too much fancy cooking?"" asked the second. ""You said it.” Replied the first guy, “Every one of the recipes began the same way, 'Take a clean dish and...'"" The bachelors would have done a lot better to invest in disposable cooking methods. If you don’t like scrubbing a baking pan, line it with aluminum foil before baking or just use a disposable aluminum pan and throw the whole thing in the recycle bin when done. Line the bottom of stove pans and ovens with foil. It’s a lot quicker than scrubbing and scraping. The Old Testament laws had a lot to say about cleanliness, long before germs were ever thought of by man. Just as with those bachelors, it probably seemed like a waste of time to some people. But the health benefits of cleanliness, definitely redeemed the time. "

"I ran across a couple of interesting quotes recently while doing my research for a new book on the benefits of early rising. The first one said: “The early worm that gets eaten by the bird, so sleep late.” The same profound pundit noted, “It’s the second mouse that gets the cheese.” While those both made me laugh with their cleverness, they really didn’t reflect a true time management principle, by implying that the pathway to success involves sleeping late and arriving late. Early rising and being punctual for appointments are both hallmarks of a disciplined lifestyle. People who sleep late and arrive late seldom rise to greatness in any worthwhile pursuit. If you want to know the pattern for true success, just picture the life of Jesus and ask what He would be like in your situation. Would He hit the snooze and arrive at work a half hour late? Getting your advice from Jesus, not clever quotes, will redeem the time. "