The Gift of Time

We have been given "time". When I say given, I mean, it's our's to do with as we see fit. A limited asset that has an expiration date. Each moment that goes by, means less "time", you have. We start off by thinking little about time. When young, we think about the future as a distant reality. Then we notice, as we get older, that time flies. We have all kinds of memories about the past. Though much of it we forget. Maybe that's why we look back and find it hard to believe it's gone so fast. It's then we begin to appreciate how little time we have left. Some use up their time productively, others don't.

The fleeting nature of time brings a certain challenge to our lives. For those who desire to please God and bcome all that He created us to be, understanding and utilizing time productively becomes even more significant. Here are a few biblical truths and principles to guide us in making the most of our time:

1. Recognize the Gift of Time

• Psalm 90:12: "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Recognizing that our days are numbered encourages us to live wisely and intentionally.

2. Seek God's Will Daily

• Ephesians 5:15-17: "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is."   Redeeming time means making the most of every opportunity and aligning our actions with God's will.

3. Transform Through Renewing the Mind

• Romans 12:2: "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Transformation through the renewal of the mind involves daily engagement with God's Word, prayer, and obedience to His guidance.

4. Live With an Eternal Perspective

• 2 Corinthians 4:17-18: "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."    Focusing on eternal things rather than temporal concerns helps us prioritize our time for what truly matters.

5. Serve with Your Gifts and Talents

• 1 Peter 4:10: "As every man hath received the gift, even so, minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."  Using our God-given gifts to serve others is a powerful way to honor God with our time.

6. Remain in Constant Communion with God

• John 15:4-5: "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."  Abiding in Christ ensures that our efforts are fruitful and aligned with God's purposes.

Practical Steps for Redeeming Time:

1. Prioritize Daily Devotion: Set aside time each day for prayer, reading the Bible, and seeking God's direction.
2. Set God-Centered Goals: Align your goals with God's will and purpose for your life.
3. Practice Mindfulness: Be present in each moment, fully engaging with the tasks and people God has placed in your path.
4. Eliminate Distractions: Identify and remove activities or habits that consume time without contributing to your spiritual growth.
5. Serve Others: Look for opportunities to minister and serve within your community, church, and family.

In living this way, believers can make the most of the time given to them, ensuring that each moment contributes to their growth in Christ and the advancement of God's Kingdom."By grace, through faith" is a profound truth that underscores the foundation of our salvation and walk with God. This phrase is rooted in Ephesians 2:8-9, which states:

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast."

Understanding and applying this truth can greatly impact how we use our time and live out our calling in Christ. Here’s how this principle can be integrated into the concept of making the most of our time:

1. Foundation of Salvation, The Sacrifice of Christ

• Ephesians 2:8-9: Salvation is a gift from God, not something we can earn through our efforts. This truth should humble us and inspire gratitude, leading us to use our time to glorify God who saved us.

2. Living by Grace, the Lordship of Christ

• Titus 2:11-12: "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world."  Grace teaches us to live in a way that honors God, helping us to prioritize godliness in our daily lives.

3. Walking in Faith, All the Promises are in Christ

• Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  Walking by faith means trusting in God's promises and guidance even when we cannot see the outcome. This trust enables us to take bold steps in using our time for God's purposes.

4. Empowered by Grace

• 2 Corinthians 12:9: "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."  God's grace empowers us to overcome our weaknesses and limitations, encouraging us to rely on His strength to accomplish His will.

5. Faith in Action

• James 2:17: "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."  Genuine faith results in action. By grace through faith, we are called to live out our faith in tangible ways, using our time to serve others and advance God's kingdom.

Practical Application:

1. Daily Dependence on Grace: Start each day by acknowledging your need for God's grace and asking for His guidance.
2. Acting in Faith: Take steps of faith, trusting God to lead you in how you spend your time and resources.
3. Serving with Grace: Use your gifts to serve others, reflecting God's grace in your interactions and endeavors.
4. Faithful Stewardship: Be a good steward of the time, talents, and treasures God has entrusted to you, recognizing that they are given by His grace.
5. Resting in Grace: Find rest in the assurance that God's grace covers your efforts, allowing you to live with peace and confidence.

Encouraging Others:

Encourage fellow believers by reminding them that their salvation and daily walk are grounded in God's grace. Share testimonies of how faith has guided your use of time and inspired you to live purposefully. Emphasize the importance of staying connected to Christ, who is the source of our grace and the perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).

By continually returning to the truth that we are saved "by grace, through faith," we can approach each day with a renewed sense of purpose and a deeper commitment to living out God's will, making the most of the precious time we have been given.

Knowledge?

WIKIPEDIA... 

Knowledge is a familiarity or awareness, of someone or something, such as facts (descriptive knowledge), skills (procedural knowledge), or objects (acquaintance knowledge) contributing to ones understanding. By most accounts, knowledge can be acquired in many different ways and from many sources, including but not limited to perception, reason, memory, testimony, scientific inquiry, education, and practice. The philosophical study of knowledge is called.. epistemology? 

"the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion."

Justified belief?

Memory is selective.

Tracy and I were talking. She said, "remember when"? I had to say, "no".  It was then I realized memory is very selective for each of us. I realized then my memories or the ability to remember was a function of the Spirit and not an ability of my mental capacity.

What does this mean? It means that our memories are the way the Spirit brings to remembrance those things that help us see the present more clearly and His motivation is to help us make decisions for the "future". He helps us remember today, what He said yesterday, so that we can make wise decisions for tomorrow.

Keep a journal and make it easier on yourself. Oh yeah, don't ever forget to always "Call on the name of the Lord".

Choices. The distraction.

Choices. The distraction.

Memory and reason are the foundation of an observer's ability to choose. It presupposses a comprehension of tensed facts created by previous choices. The truth condemns and choice proves to be my down fall. Why? I was not designed to rely only on my memory and ability to reason.

Two things make it more complicated. The accuser,  and the tense facts that I created.

It seems I am unable to foresee and comprehend the ramification of my choice and it's effect on the continuum.

"Now" is where I become.

Now is where I am. Where I am changes and that change is beyond my control, mostly. Try to stop the moment from passing by. Can you? It is just like your choices. Can you stop making choices? Try it...

See what I mean, you've just experienced the determinism created by the interaction of mass and energy.

Tensed facts are created in the the continuum of reality that I call "Now". In their creation they become unalterable. They are created by the temporal, dynamic cause and effect interaction of mass and energy.

The observer, you and me, are confronted by reason and memory. We remember the way things were and we anticipate how things could be. I say "could" because memory and reason give us the ability to make a choice. This, not that. It is the power to over-ride the determinism of the continuum.

All of us are becoming... what? It's up to us to choose. We can't stop making choices but we can decide what we will choose.

We can't stop making choices but our choices determine who we become. The dynamic cause and effect interaction of mass and energy can be overcome by choice. Our choices determine our destiny... or do they?

All of us are becoming.

Now is where I am. Where I am changes and that change is beyond my control, mostly. Try to stop the moment from passing by. Can you? It is just like your choices. Can you stop making choices?

Tensed facts are created in the now of the continuum of reality. In their creation they become unalterable. They are created by the temporal, dynamic cause and effect interaction of mass and energy.

The observer, you and me, are confronted by reason and memory. We remember the way things were and we anticipate how things could be. I say "could" because memory and reason give us the ability to make a choice. This, not that. It is the power to over-ride the determinism of the continuum.

All of us are becoming... what? It's up to us to choose. We can't stop making choices but we can decide what we will choose.

Presentism vs Eternalism

What exists resides in the now. What exists is temporal because it is dynamic and constantly changes and the change is tensed because cause and effect produces the change.

What exists in the now creates tensed facts that are unalterable.

The change is deterministic outside of the observer's ability to choose. The ability to choose comes from the capacity to remember what things were like and the ability to anticipate what things will be like. Memory and reason.

Choice creates the potential to break the bonds of determinism.

Once the choice is made it becomes unalterable.

The now is eternal. Divide infinity in half, what do you have? Calculate how many moments eternity holds?....

The truth is always simple.

God's Now and ours.

"Now" is reality. "Now" is what exists. What exists is the totality of all that interacts. The interaction of Mass and Energy plays out in the now and is the physical realm.

God's "Now" is the direct experience of all tensed facts as they come to exist in the now. For God, space is of no consequence. He knows everything because He is everywhere. He is the ultimate "reference frame" for the universe.

Our "now" is limited by location and the speed at which information comes to us. This limitation of information acquisition creates a "horizon". This event horizon is established by the limit of the speed of light that creates the illusion of time flowing with past, present and anticipated future.

What can contain God? Time? No. Eternity? No. Space? No. If God is eternal, that which is in Him resides in eternity. "Now" is eternal because the now is in God.

What exists is dynamic and temporal, because God is dynamic and temporal. Our experience dynamically exists in the eternal temporality of God.

Duration is the observed rate of change in a given inertial frame. Duration is subjective to the observer. Changes in the rate of change are undetectable for an observer in a given inertial frame.

The eternal temporality exists in an uniqueness of tensed facts. These facts have causality that is determinate outside of the creative ability of life to choose. Choice can over-ride determinate causality. This choice creates the realm of "possibilities" for creative innovation.

This physical realm exists as part of the Spiritual realm. Because of the limitations of the physical realm I cannot experience the totality of all that exists in the Now.

The Illusion of Time and the "Now" of reality.

Understanding that time is an illusion brought about because of my ability to remember my observation of things when they were different, I am now able to consider "Now".

Past, present, future are words we use to make sense of the "eternal temporality" of God that we exist in. God is temporal therefore His creation is temporal. The now is what exists. It is dynamic and temporal. Dynamic in that change is constant, temporal in that the movement is tensed. Our mind is just like God's mind. The difference, He is not limited by location. God experiences temporality like we do but for Him duration is flexible because he is not limited to an inertial frame. (A day is like a thousand years...) For us duration is the observed rate of change in a given inertial frame. Duration is subjective to the observer. Variations in the rate of change are undetectable for an observer in a given inertial frame.

Without the mind's memory and reason time has no meaning.

"we experience a piece of music as a whole with the help of memory and anticipation"

Wolfhart Pannenber.      

The illusion of time helps us make sense of reality. It brings cohesion to existence and our place in the "eternal temporality" of God.

What is Time?

The illusion of Time is the observation of the interaction between Mass and Energy.

This interaction of Mass and Energy results in Movement. Movement produces change and it is the change recognized by an observer that gives Time it's conception. For each observer in a given inertial frame the rate of change is observed as constant.

Movement, then, is also continuous in the

way in which time is - indeed time is either

identical to movement or is some affection of it.

                                           (Aristotle, Metaphysics)

The rate of change can vary in a given inertial frame but since the change affects the whole frame of the observer it can not be detected. This change therefore appears constant for a given observer’s locale. An observer can compare frames and detect variations in the rate of change relative to each. This gives the illusion that Time slows down or speeds up.

We percieve time passing because we remember when things were different and we call it the past. We think of the future because we can anticipate how things will be different. The observer recognizing change brought about by movement is only possible because of memory. Reason can anticipate change and the mind imagines the future. This all happens in the present now. The Now is held together by God who upholds the physical reality that creates the illusion of time by the observation of change brought on by movement that is a result of the interaction of Mass and Energy.

Without the mind's memory and capacity to reason time has no meaning. The illusion of time helps us make sense of reality. It brings cohesion to existence and our place in all that exists.