Death, Time, and Heaven

Recently my wife passed away.  When you lose everything, in a way your entire life as it was, it brings a certain new perspective to life.

All the things which used to matter often no longer seem of significance.  You realize how small many prior concerns really were.   

Until we have seen death so may things feel important.  Then we realize all which matters after having lost everything in a way. 

I suppose that the eternal perspective of scripture would say that we think in very small terms.  All of life has to be viewed in perspective of eternity with God.

Why Experts get No Listeners

I was recently reading a really excellent article by an economist lately which was far better than most economic articles I've read. I was struck as a realized the article was probably far less read than most of the prevalent economic drivel on the Internet.

I realized that the issue was that the article was too instructive. We want quick fixes. We want to know is the market going up tomorrow or not. We want to know how to make money.

We aren't really interested as a group in underlying economic currents and really understanding. All human action is motivated action.

And as humans our shortsightedness draws us away from a acquisition of knowledge and wisdom. Often we need to slow down in life.

The path to true knowledge in most fields is long and hard. The short cut to "easy answers" in life often gives us know answers.

Often we never learn because we do not have the humility to admit that learning takes time. We imagine we may sit down in and afternoon and master a topic.

True learning takes time, humility, and patience. There are no short cuts. No quick solutions.

We meet ourselves when we seek to learn. Our impatience, our shortsightedness, and our pride.

The great failure of mankind is learners is because the bible is right about the nature of man. The bible does not paint a pleasant picture of the nature of mankind, but it paints an honest picture.

And to that honest picture the bible gives a glorious solution of a the free offer of grace for all who will come to Jesus.

Making Time for What Matters

We always make time for what is important to us in life. Often we say that this or that things is important but we never do it.

Maybe the whole thing would take a weekend or a few hours. When asked we say it is important to us.

Maybe it is. But over time we never get around to it. You see we are rarely as busy as we like to claim. Especially over the long term.

We often find that we excuse ourselves in life or hide our priorities from ourselves by saying we do not have time.

It is of course good to relax and take time for ourselves. This is the biblical idea behind Sabbath. Man should not work without rest. That is not God's intent.

But often we convince ourselves that we believe things are important to us that are not. We over emphasize our busyness to disguise from ourselves what we do not find important.

You see we know what we should find important and if it is not important to us it is uncomfortable because our heart is revealed. So we excuse ourselves by saying we are too busy. This or that always comes in the way.

In the end over the long term our use of time expresses our heart. Some of us are extremely busy, but we always make time for what is important to us.

If it is truly important you make time for it.

Making Time

If I had time... "I would go to church, spend time with family, do this or that. I would, but I have no time."

It is almost always an excuse. Mainly because we make time for what is important to us. If all we can do is work then we show that only work is important to us (or maybe money).

Often we have choices with time. Our choices reveal our priorities. You see that if we never make it to church because we lack time, it is not that we lack time, but that God is not important to us.

If we would spend time with family, but don't have time, it is not that we lack time, but family is not a priority.

There are always exceptions and odd cases, but the truth is we often justify ourselves with excuses. In a fast paced world lacking time is one of the easiest excuses.

Who will question the truth of our busyness. It is true we are busy, but in the course of busyness it is our true priorities which show forth.

You see if our schedule was wide open and we had not a thing to do it would show nothing of our heart if we did this or that. When we lack time it shows more of our heart in what we choose and what we reject by pushing it to the back burner.

Theology and Time

Theology is the study of God. God is a being outside of time. Time is a created thing.

The bible starts and God is. Then he begins creation. You see many Theologies wish to place an emphasis on time or base observations upon time.

There is a truth that God reveals himself in time and is aware of the order of revelation. But an over emphasis on time is almost always unhelpful.

You see the nature of God is that he is outside of time. His revelation in time is progressive but he is not. He is not inside time.

In a sense he entered into time as his son Jesus eternally God and Man entered into history and took on human flesh. But you see Jesus is a figure who transcends time. His work breaks down the limits of time.

You see Israel's faith is a forward looking faith that is based on a promise. They are saved by believing in the promise which is Jesus.

You today we are saved by looking back but it is all the same event. Often people wish to get around the fact of Israel being saved by looking forward to the cross.

This or that is how they are saved. You see the reality is always that we are saved by trusting in the promise of God and what he says he will do.

Israel looked forward to a promise of a future event that was described in detail but not easily understood. We look back to an event in history which is described in great detail but easily rejected.

Always we are saved by faith and live by faith and walk by faith. We never get past faith.

Time

Often in life we find that there are good things we feel we should do.  But we never have the time to do them.

It is sometimes the case but not always.  We always make time for what is important to us.

You will often find the idea of a lack of time is simply an excuse.  We justify ourselves at many times by not doing the good we know we should do.

We cannot say we do not go to church because we lack time.  Or we do not have time to make this or that wrong right.  In the end it is mostly likely an excuse and an easy one.

Why I Used Many Commas in Prayers

I used a lot of commas in the prayers below. The reason is that prayers are best when we savor God though them. You cannot really savor God well if you rush worship. God takes an infinite time to truly savor well. He deserve an infinite time. He is worth an infinite time. And we will always find new and superior delights if we spend an infinite time to see and savor Him.