Time

Good morning and welcome in everybody Today I want to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.

From an hourglass to a digital watch, time keeping has always seemed to be very important to many people, especially an employer.  It’s been claimed that somewhere around 1880, Willard and Harlow Bundy invented the key recorder, which was basically a machine that would track the amount of time that workers were on the clock. It registered when they punched in and when they punched out of work, using a time card, and then the employer would pay them according to the correct amount of time for their labor.  I think that one of the things that we learn in this life, is that your time is rewarded, according to the time that you invest in something. It just depends on what you’re going to invest it in.

This reminds me of the Christian life.

There are many of us who don’t have to punch a time clock each day, but there are numerous unregistered hours during each of our days when we need to ask ourselves a question, how are you utilizing the time that God has given you?  If somebody were to give you ten dollars, how would you spend it?  Would you spend it wisely?  Maybe you would buy some beef jerky, a can of pop, and some peanuts, but at the end of the day, a receipt would show exactly what you spent your money on.  What will you use your time for while here upon the earth? Will it be spent for God’s purposes, or your own?

As the Lord Jesus walked from place to place, He called out to men to preach God’s Word. The thing that is required to preach God’s Word is your time and energy, which is something that a lot of people in this world refuse to give up.  They choose to punch the clock for their own benefit, rather than Gods.   Each day, many people want to use their time for various activities that are meaningful to them rather than in service to Christ.  They focus on amassing earthly riches, or building an expensive home, and become swallowed up in the temporal cares and concerns of this world, rather than pursuing the teachings of our faith.  Many people are not preaching God’s Word, simply because they don’t want to make the time, and won’t forsake the things of this world.  Time is a very important commodity, and many people are so focused on the world and it’s affairs that they are incapable of becoming a servant of God.  It comes down to what is going to be the most important thing in your day, serving yourself, or serving God. It comes down to doing your own will, or doing the will of Christ Jesus.  In order to serve Christ perfectly, we must be capable of forsaking the world.

Mark 10:28-31  Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.  And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,  But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.  But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.

Remember, that in this passage, there is no mention of the word ” husband.” The reason why, is because it’s forbidden for a wife to leave or forsake her spouse. It’s a commandment of Christ.  A man of God is led by Christ, not by a wife or his family.

1 Corinthians 7:10  And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:

When I first read this passage from Mark 10, I wholeheartedly believed this promise, and shortly after I was baptized by submersion into the Christian life, I forsook everything that I owned.  I even left the new home that I had been working on and improving.  This is how I eventually ended up where I am today.  Because of the circumstances, God took me full circle, to the place that He wanted me to be. Because of faithfulness to this passage, I have reaped over 100 fold blessings, and watched this promise come to pass in my own life.  In order for these things to happen, your love for God and His Word has to be the greatest love of your life.  It has to be greater then anything, or anyone. Discipleship is a high calling.  The word forsake means to abandon or to leave.  You must be capable of walking off on possessions, belongings, jobs and relatives. Your love for Jesus has to be greater then your children, and even your own wife.

Luke 14:25-27  And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

The Lord Jesus needs to be the greatest love of our life. Love for the things of the world only pulls each of us away from a closer relationship with God.  Instead of focusing our eyes on Him, they become focused on the world.

1 John 2:15-17  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

To preach God’s word requires that you love Jesus more than anything else, but for some, their family just gets in the way

Luke 9:59-62  And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.  Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.  And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.  And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Did you notice in this passage what was first in these men’s lives?  It was family relationships.  First means above all others in importance.  Some people are just not fit for God’s kingdom because God does not take precedence over all others in their life.  Men need to get up and preach.  God has picked our draft card, and it’s time to enlist and show up for duty.  God calls on to men to preach His Word and become a soldier for Him, but in order to do so, you must deny yourself and turn away from the affairs of this world.

2 Timothy 2:4  No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Consider God’s soldiers in the Old Testament, who denied themselves, forsaking the world in order to serve the Lord Jesus.  Instead of seeking after the riches or pleasures of this world, they chose to be filled with the riches found through a relationship with God.  Moses did the same thing. He left his entire earthy inheritance behind, in order to obtain the inheritance of eternal life.  The Apostles left their earthly occupations in order to follow Christ, forsaking everything to follow Jesus.

Today I ask you, are you serving the Lord Jesus Christ? What have you given up in this world, in order to devote yourself wholeheartedly to God? Will you men preach the Word as commanded by Christ? God doesn’t need our money and possessions, He wants us to preach.  He wants laborers, who are ready to fish for men.   Are you willing to give back the life, that He has first given to you?

How are you going to utilize……

……….Time

Let’s think about these things for today.

We can be found on your web browser by searching tlkjbc, or by going to our blog at

tlkjbc.wordpress.com , or you can find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods.  Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️

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