The Day Timer
Posted by: forthrightmag <forthrightmag@...>
http://www.forthright.net
Going straight to the Cross
You want me to do what? Let me check ...
The Day Timer
by Tim Hall
Some brand names have become a part of the
American vocabulary. Mention the name "Kellogg's"
and most folks will think of breakfast cereal.
"Clorox" is a laundry bleach, "Windex" is used to
clean windows, and "Windows" is now the word for
computer operating systems. Another brand name
reveals something about our culture: "Day-Timer"
is the most familiar name in time management
products. With so many activities competing for
our attention, this scheduling tool is a common
sight with business people, soccer moms and
college students alike.
People devoted to their Day-Timers would have been
quite frustrated with one of God's commands to
Israel. On the seventh day of the week, God
commanded all work to cease throughout the land of
Israel -- the Sabbath day command. "Stop work? Are
you kidding me?" people of our age would ask.
"I've got way too much to do. There's no way I can
stop my work. Maybe I can plan a half-day or so
next month."
Such protests would have been far afield of God's
command. Consider this statement about the Sabbath
in Exodus 34:21: "Six days you shall work, but on
the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time
and in harvest you shall rest" (New King James
Version). Plowing time and harvest are two of the
busiest times of the year for an agrarian culture.
The soil has to be prepared for planting; you just
can't put it off. And when the crops are ready,
they've got to be harvested. Yet despite the
urgency of the seasons, God commanded that work
cease on Sabbath days during those two Day-Timer-
packed times of the year.
Why would God give such a command? What was His
point? Isaiah 58:13 may help us understand God's
reasoning. God promised His blessings, "If you
turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing
your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath
a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and
shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor
finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own
words . . ." In other words, the Sabbath day was
to be a perpetual reminder that God's will was
supreme above all the other business of life.
Knowing God and serving Him was to be given higher
priority than planting, harvesting, or any other
"urgent" affairs of life.
Israel struggled with this command, just as we
struggle to find time for Bible study or service
to the Lord. Our Day-Timers just won't relinquish
such large chunks of time! Maybe, though, it would
do us well to close our Day-Timer and listen to
the Day Timer. That was Moses' prayer to God in
Psalm 90:12: "So teach us to number our days, that
we may gain a heart of wisdom." God alone knows
the time of our lives. He knows how many days
remain before each of us will depart from this
planet. He alone can teach us how to best use the
time that remains.
Yes, the demands of the day are piling up before
us. But "one thing is needed" (Luke 10:41). Will
we, like Mary, choose the good part?
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Phil Sanders has made available his 18-page
response to an online article, entitled
"Unbaptized Believers Are Lost." You can read it
here: