Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Talk Tuesday-Redeeming The Times

As Easter Sunday approached, the following passages jumped out at me during my personal devotions:

"Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time."
Colossians 4:5

"See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time time, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:15-16

When I looked up the Greek in the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, the definition I found was; exagorazō-to redeem; to make the most (of the time). Why is there an air of urgency and purpose in Paul's message?

"For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night." 1 Thessalonians 5:2

"Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation." 1 Thessalonians 5:6

The Apostle Paul exhorts us to be mindful of the times we are in and to use it wisely. We are being reminded that while no one knows at what hour our Lord Jesus Christ will return, the fact remains that He shall return. How we spend our lives here on earth is not measured by the quantity of our possessions, but by the way in which we live in honour of the One who gave life. When I think of 'Redeeming the Times' the following scriptures come to mind:

"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." Colossians 3:2-3

"Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. " Matthew 28:-18-20

What do you think of? What does it mean to you, to 'redeem the times?' We want to hear from you. Please click the comments link below to share your thoughts with us here at BGO. God bless!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the Post. I really do believe we are living in the end times and we ought to live before God as outlined in Col.3:2-3
"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.......for our real lives is hidden with Christ in God."
When we set our minds on things above, how can we not feel the burden to evangelize? How can we not desire to see others come to know Jesus. How can we not share the message of salvation? How can we not pray that others will see that we are living in the endtimes.
Look around _ disasster after disaster is hitting the world - this is a sign of the end of the age: " Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places, all this is just the beginning of birthpangs."
Time is of the essence. Let us evangelize in whatever sphere we find ourselves.

Anonymous said...

Good question! My buddy Brian (who was instrumental in my coming to the Lord) use to come to my house when we were young, single, Christian men. I was famous for making these humungous cups of tea (with cookies of course). Many times these ‘moments’ would happen spontaneously, late at night during a work week. Then we would say to each other almost in unison ‘come on buddy, let’s seize the moment’!! We would encourage one another jokingly to stay up and grab the moment! Forgo a little bit of sleep so we could spend time together as buddies and brothers. So that’s what comes to mind for me. We must ‘recognize’ moments from God that we can maximize and then enjoy them and use them. In regards to the Kingdom I guess this means we have to walk daily in an intentional frame of mind, looking to discern such moments where God is doing ‘something’ (or wants to do something)....So to me it is about ‘discerning’ – discerning a ‘God moment’ – and then joining God in that moment wherever it is and however He leads.

Natasha said...

Anonymous # 1, you make me think of 2 scriptures that I often reference in my prayer time regarding evangelism:

Joel 3:14 (New International Version, ©2011)

14 Multitudes, multitudes
in the valley of decision!
For the day of the LORD is near
in the valley of decision.


Matthew 9:37-38 (New International Version, ©2011)

37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”