Pastor's Pen
by Buzz Dahlen
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:  a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,  a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace…  He has made everything beautiful in its time.  Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
Most people don’t realize that these words, made famous in the 60’s by the Byrds, in their song,  “turn, turn, turn” are actually in the Bible.  “To everything, turn, turn, turn.  There is a season, turn, turn, turn...” Well, I don’t bring it up because I want to talk about old 60’s tunes.  I want to talk about time.
Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes, says that there is a time for everything and a season for everything under heaven.  By the way, I want to encourage you to pick up your bible, turn to Ecclesiastes, and read it.  It is a fascinating book to read.  But this is not a study on Ecclesiastes, either.
There seems to be a time for everything except a time to waste time.  How much time are you wasting?  It can be an interesting question to ask your self.  I suppose the answer depends a lot on what you should be doing or what you are not getting done.  I do not feel that way.  There is always something that can be done and too often, we can waste our time, doing what we think should be done.  Then again, we can waste our time and not do anything.  These are not my concerns.  Certainly you have heard the term, “I had the time of my life.”  Could you be wasting your life?
Jesus said, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”  What do you think He was referring to?  Could He be trying to tell us to reconsider what our time usage priority is?  Is He trying to get us to stop and think about what we are ”spending our time” on?  Maybe it would help to read this verse again with the surround context included.
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.  What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?  Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?  If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."  Mark 8:34-38
Many people take time to go to church.  They take time to read the bible.  They take time to pray.  These things are not bad; I’d say they were beneficial.  But I want to suggest that Jesus is encouraging us to, not necessarily do more, but do something different.  I want to suggest that He wants us to not just take time for Him, but also make Him our priority.
What if we had the attitude that God has all of my time and I take time for other things as apposed to other things have all of my time and I take time for God?
We have all seen those commercials where the businessman dies and on his tombstone it’s written, “I wish I had taken more time for my kids.”  Someday, we will all stand before God I am confident that if we are asked any question at all, it will be, “What did you do with the time I gave you?”
Have you used the time to give your life to Christ, or do you think there will be time enough to do that tomorrow?  I have wasted so much time…  I don’t want to waste another minute.  “Dear God, my time is Yours!”  If you stop to think about it, when you give God all of your time you have given Him everything.  “It’s all Yours God.   What do you think, is it time to pray that prayer?

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