The Best Use of Time

I've been reading  Donald Whitner's book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.  Overall, It's  a very good book, and I would recommend it.  However, as with any book provokes thought, there are times  when I want to take issue with it.  This morning was one of those times.

This morning he was talking about stewardship as a spiritual discipline.  A very good and astute observation.  Discipline is what disciples do, and stewardship is one of the disciplines that we are definitely called to do.  Whitner talks about stewardship mainly in terms of time and money.  I have no problem with what he says about money, but the time part, I think requires some further thinking.

The argument he makes  is that as Christians we ought to  make the most of our time,  use every bit of it to God's glory.   He uses the well-known verses from Ephesians 5:15-16  "Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. "

Okay, okay, I get  it.  We are a nation of lazy time-wasters.  Telling people in our television-soaked society  to quit wasting time is like telling fat people that they should stop eating.  It's just too easy.  Of course we waste time at times. But if we worried every minute whether or not we were wasting time,  we would all be nervous wrecks.   What Whitner means, of course is that we waste time not doing the Lord's work, and he is right, of course. We could all do more for Him.  But it does disturb me that the disciplines that we preachers preach about most are the ones that benefit us the most.  We preach about people evangelizing, and our churches get bigger.  We preach about tithing and our churches get richer. We preach about redeeming the time and --well, you get the idea.  Meanwhile,  the spiritual disciplines which do not benefit the church quite so much,  prayer and fasting for example, or meditation, simplicity, and solitude, get less attention.

I have a problem with the way Ephesians 5  is interpreted.  Paul is not saying that days are evil.  Time is neither good nor evil.  It's how you use it.  The evil days that Paul mentions are evil because of what men were doing in them. 

Paul's day was evil, at least for the majority of humankind.  Life was  mean and short for most people.  A third of the world was in slavery, most of the rest were subsistence farmers.    It was a mean cruel time to be alive.  Paul is telling us to make the most of the time we have, to savor the moments we have, not to waste them in meaningless drudgery or pointless semi-pleasures.  Drunkenness is not fun, not really,  neither are sexual pleasures which steal our souls and give nothing in return. 

Contrast this with Ecclesiastes 2:24-26

 "A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?  To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. "

When we eat and drink, and find satisfaction in our work,  we are not wasting time.  In fact, according to Ecclesiastes, it is the only time we are not. 

Here's the thing.  We Christians, especially those of us weaned on the Calvinist work ethic, have somehow got the impression that an idle moment is a wasted moment. We were created to work, work,work.

But we were also created to enjoy the world He gave us.  Time and the world around us have value, even if they are not used "productively."  A moment closing our eyes, enjoying the wind on our faces, or listening to the singing of birds and the laughter of children, is not wasted.  Neither is a prayer wasted when we are not asking God for anything, nor are we wasting paint to paint a picture of a sunrise. These moments have intrinsic value in themselves, and need no excuse. 

In my fifty-eight years of life,  I have "wasted" a great deal of tiem. Some of it I am sorry for, Some of it I am not.  I do not regret a moment that I have enjoyed.  I do regret many moments of worry and regret over the things I have not done. 

It seems to me that the real  use of time is to enjoy God, not to work  out of drudgery and duty.  Time is not for using,  but for enjoying.  Living now, in the moment,  is how we glorify God and enjoy Him forever. 

Some time ago, when I was going through a difficult time in my life,  a friend of mine gave me a little book called The Precious Present  about a man who sought to find the the greatest present ever given.  In the end, he discovered that the most precious present was--the precious present.  It is now. 

If we really seek God, and want do to His will, and if we realize the value of our moments and days,  then we will not waste time. We will not want to waste time,  because doing the worthwhile thing  will be our joy, and we will find satisfaction in our work.

Some people hate their jobs.  They watch the clock all day,  waiting for the moment they can go home. Other people love their job. The moment's fly by and they look forward to going back to work,  resting  only to satisfy their bodies  long enough to get back into it. 

Some people see serving God as a duty.  They give Him what they must, but watch the clock and wait for the time when they can get back to their "real" jobs.  Other people find satisfaction in serving God,  and cannot wait for more opportunities to do it.  The stewardship of time is a natural result of understanding our relationship to Him.  If we enjoy doing what God wants us to do, it is not a burden. 

I once had  friend who was doing seven jobs in the church.  I called him on it,  suggesting that more people should be working, and that he needed more time off.  He laughed and put his arm around me.  "Bill," he said,  "Some men play golf. Others fish,  others garden. That their hobby.  My hobby is church work.  Don't take my hobby from me."

If our heart is in the Lord, then serving Him is joy.   We don't have to be told to do it.

Derailing the Faith Train

My first effort to share my faith was at a Billy Graham Crusade in 1970.  A lot of my friends volunteered to sing in the choir, but since I had little or no interest in singing, but I wanted to go down to the crusade with them, I volunteered for counselor training which was being held at the same time as choir practice.  I was ushered into a room with several hundred other people and shown how to use a little booklet called  "Steps to peace with God." I have used that little book hundreds of times since. 

This book contains two illustrations that in  evangelical churches have become iconic--the "Cross Bridge" illustration  and the "Faith Train " illustration. 

The "Cross Bridge" illustration goes like this--a person wants to get to God, but sin interferes, open up a chasm between God and people  We try to build bridges to God with our good works--religious practices,  intellectual efforts, or whatever.  None of them work. So God builds a bridge to us--the cross of Jesus.  The cross enables us to reach God though Christ.  It's about the most simple way of explaining the Gospel I know.

The "Faith Train" illustration comes after the bridge illustration,  after a person has received Christ.  It is used to explain how we can know we have been saved.  It  consists of a train with three cars--an engine, a coal car, and a caboose.

• The engine is labeled 'Fact." The fact is that God has accepted us whether  we feel any different or not. 

• The coal car is "Faith."  Faith connects us to the facts and gives us something to hold on to.

• The caboose is "Feeling."  A train will run with or without a caboose. The fact of God's forgiveness coupled with  faith will get us to heaven, whether we feel anything or not.

As I said, I learned the Cross Bridge and the Faith Train illustrations while in my teens. I still think the bridge is for me the best way of explaining  how to receive Christ.  But lately I question the usefulness of the Faith Train.  Here's why.  

Don't get me wrong, I accept the basic premise.  We are saved though faith in the fact of God's grace.  But  feelings are not a caboose that is slapped on the back end of our psyche.  Salvation is more than a cognitive process. It is a life-changing, life rearranging  act of God, both initiated and manifested though actions, emotion, and intellectual assent.  Our whole self is involved in accepting the Gospel, not just our brains. It is an inner transformation, accomplished by God  through  the Spirit working in and through our minds, will, and emotions.  It not just a matter of our heads. It  also involves our hands and hearts. 

What we think certainly affects what we do and feel.  But the opposite is also true--what we feel and do also effects what we think.  Scripture supports this. Wisdom and knowledge begin with the fear of the Lord--an emotion.  God is defined by love--another emotion.  The idea that our devotion to God is brought about by accepting a fact alone does not reflect the truth. 

I do not deny that factual knowledge plays an important part. We must believe that the Cross and the resurrection really happened, and were not some metaphoric myth.  Our commitment to Christ will not last long if we do not believe it is true. The fallacy of liberal Christianity is that it is essentially non-factual Christianity. We cannot base our lives on something we only think may be true.  We do not buy insurance on the basis of a probable promise, or set up our retirement accounts on the basis of probable yields.  What makes us think that people will willingly give their lives for a Savior who may or may not be real?  If the Gospel may not be true, why  lay our lives down for it? 

 Faith in the reality of Christ keeps us going when our faith is shaky and our emotions weak. But emotions and actions keep us going when our faith is weak.  God works though emotion and ritual when our minds are unsure.  The idea that our intellect exists in a vacuum, unaffected by  our feelings is just not right.  Feelings are not a caboose we can live without--they are the blood, bone, and marrow of our spiritual nature.  Without our feelings, we will never possess absolute certainty, because absolute certainty is a feeling.

If we truly believe that faith rests entirely on fact, then why do we spend so much time singing in church?  Why do we quote St. Augustine's statement that we do not understand in order to believe, but believe in order to understand?  Why do we encourage people to evangelize their neighbors by being friendly, if faith rests on facts alone?  Without feelings,  faith is powerless and facts indecipherable.  Without feelings the power to obey is lost.  All our efforts to be good would be as  limp and useless as a sail without a wind.

Along with facts and feelings there is also action.  "Faith without works is dead," said James.  Unless we live out our faith and feelings,  then they dissipate into a mass of good intentions and remorse.  The spiritual disciplines are the reinforcers and concretizers of our faith.  The daily habits of the Christian life put that faith to work, and solidify the thoughts of our mind and the feelings of our hearts.  Faith without prayer,  feelings without worship,  and knowledge without study make no sense, and cannot last for long.  

Christians need emotional passion, intellectual study, and consistent action to keep assured of their salvation.  

A more accurate picture of the train illustration would be this--there are three engines on the front of the train--fact, passion, and action.  These three combine their strength and pull us forward.  When one fails, the other two are still with us.  Together they can get us much farther than any one of them can do alone. 

The Bride of Christ

There are no words which adequately describe the relationship of Christ to His church. So when we talk about it, we have to use analogy and metaphor. The New Testament uses several metaphors to describe it—he Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, a royal nation, a chosen priesthood. No metaphor though is more powerful or descriptive than the Bride of Christ.


The New Testament gives two references to the church as the bride. The longest is Ephesians 5:25-33

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

This passage tells us several things we need to know.

First it tells us how much God loves us. He loves us like a bridegroom loves his bride.

Second it tells us how God thinks of us as one person. We are His bride, not his brides.

Third, it tells us the importance God places on our relationship to Him. No human relationship is deeper or stronger that the one between a husband and wife. Yet Paul says that this sacred relationship is only a picture of a greater relationship in heaven. Our relationship to God is more important than our relationship to our spouses—or for that matter our children and grandchildren.

The other reference is Rev. 21:9

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."

The two great traditions of the ancient church were the Western, exemplified by Paul, and the Eastern, exemplified by John. If the same metaphor in John and in Paul, it must be important. The whole church must have used it.

This metaphor came from the prophets of the Old Testament. Isaiah says in Isa 62:3-5

You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. . .for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married. As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you;as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride , so will your God rejoice over you.

Jeremiah uses a similar image in Jer 2:2

"'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me

We are the bride of Christ, not yet the wife. That does not happen until heaven. The wedding happens in heaven, while we are on earth, we are just engaged.

The image of the church as fiancé has special meaning to me right now. Two of my daughters are engaged. The house is full of talk about weddings. I think I understand what a bride must go through before she gets to the altar.

There are many parallels between the pre-nuptial state and the state of the church. There is a sense of hope and anticipation, as well as the romance and excitement. God wants us to love Him as passionately and as deeply as an engaged couple loves each other.

In our society, though engagement has a crazy side to it. We are obsessed with the wedding and not the marriage. Engagement has become a time of temporary insanity in which we throw caution to the wind and spend like drunken sailors--thousand dollar dresses, ten thousand dollar receptions, bridal carriages, limousines, orchestras, flowers, and every imaginable indulgence. We spend what we do not have to make every detail perfect. The fuss about weddings is the reason some couples choose to elope.

As the bride of Christ, we do not have to worry about the wedding or the ceremony. Our heavenly Father is paying for all that. We do not even have to plan it. It will be done for us in heaven, with the angels of God as attendants and servers. So what is left for us to do, to be the bride of Christ? What do we do in our engagement period? Several things:

1. We get to know our spouse. Before you get engaged, you think you know your girl friend. You don’t. You just know the face she wants to show you during courtship. But when you get engaged, you really begin to get to know her. Hopefully, you get premarital counseling. It’s amazing the answers that come when we sit down and face some honest questions. Getting to know each other is the main task of this period of life.

The main task of the church on earth is to get to know God. Worship is the first way we do this. Worship is getting your eyes off ourselves and onto Jesus. As we do all things for His glory, He reveals Himself more and more; It takes a lifetime to really know Jesus. In that lifetime, we need to stay close in prayer and worship.

2. We get to know ourselves. In the movie Runaway Bride, a woman gets engaged several times, but never gets married, instead, she keeps running away from the altar. At one point in the movie, someone tells her that the problem is that she does not know how she likes her eggs. When she was with one fiancé, she liked them poached, with another, she liked them scrambled, with another fried. She tried to please the man by pretending to be just like him, and having the same likes and dislikes. But we cannot be phony for a lifetime. Sooner or later, we have to face ourselves.

In the church is we often put on false faces. We pretend to be better than we are. It takes a lot of faith to be honest to God. There is a word for putting on masks. It is called hypocrisy.

3. We burn our address book. In the wedding ceremony, one of the questions we are asks is this—forsaking all others, are we willing to keep ourselves only to Him? If we are not willing to do that. We should not be getting married.

The church needs to purify its love for Jesus. We do that by forgetting the interests which have occupied us in the past. Married men still notice pretty girls they do not pursue them. Instead, we look to ur spouses to be our total fulfillment.

How often we are guilty of spiritual adultery! We need to look to Jesus and Jesus alone for our fulfillment. Cut off everything that will come between us and our relationship

4. We must learn to work in concert with God. Every relationship is like a dance. One leads, the other. Christians are always looking for some magic formula for righteousness. If we keep these commandments perform these rituals, we are going to be right before God. But it does not work this way. Relationships require learning the intimate details of our spouses life, responding to their moods, and hearing what is left unsaid.

There is no magic formula for knowing God’s will and His ways. We just as we work in concert with Him. It requires a lifetime of living to know His ways.

5. We deliver the invitations. God may be planning the wedding, but he expects us to deliver the invitation. When the wedding feast of the Lamb comes, and the church is united in final matrimony to God, who would you like to see as guests there?

Now is the time to invite other people to join us in the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Who would you want to bring as a guest to it? We have to invite them today.

The only reason God has not taken us to heaven (though He is just as anxious to do so as we are) is that the number of those who are to be there is not yet full. We must grow to the size God wants us. We must reach the others who are supposed to be wedding guests.

If you are not telling others about Jesus, then you are neglecting the greatest task you have. It is the one thing that God has left for us to do. Invite others now, so that the wedding will be full.