Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Time for What Matters
Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. —Ephesians 5:16–17
So what is the difference between a lie and an excuse? Not all that much. An excuse has been defined as the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. Or another way to put it: an excuse is a lie all dressed up for dinner.
Even after we become Christians, we can still offer excuses. And sometimes we make excuses as to why we can’t read the Bible: “Well, I am so busy. This life is so full. I just can’t find time to read the Bible.” Or, “The Bible is so big. I don’t know where to start.” Or, “Sometimes I don’t understand it.” Or, “You know, I read the Bible in church on Sunday. Isn’t that enough?” These are excuses, not reasons.
Let’s say that you got a call this week from your doctor, who said, “You know those tests we did on you? We need to talk.” And when you meet with your doctor, you learn that you only have weeks to live. I would venture to say that your schedule would open up and that you would have time to read the Bible, because you would want to know about the afterlife that you are headed toward. I would predict that you would have time to pray, because you would need God’s strength to get through what lies ahead.
You see, it all depends on our perspective. We will make time for what is important. We find time to read the newspaper. We find time to watch our favorite TV programs. We find time to surf the Web and spend hours looking at nothing. And yet we don’t have time to open up the Word of God and let Him speak to us.
We need to make time for the things that really matter.
Summary sentence: How important is reading God’s Word to you?
Tags:study God’s Word
Copyright © 2011 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
and
Listen to Greg Laurie's daily broadcast on OnePlace.com.
Watch Greg Laurie's weekly television broadcast on LightSource.com.
SPECIAL OFFER
“To God Be the Glory”
Lost Boy: The Next Chapter has not only won awards at film festivals around the world, but—more importantly—has won hearts and lives for Christ. To share this story with an even wider audience, it is being released as an audio edition, including the documentary film, as a special ministry package. Lost Boy: The Next Chapter – Audio Edition and DVD is our gift to listeners for their donation of any amount.
You may have read Lost Boy, the book, when it first came out, but I think you will be blessed in an even deeper way by the rest of the story.”
—Greg
