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Printed
February, 1956
Symbolic
Code, Vol. 11, No. 4
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HOW
IMPORTANT IS TIME?
(The
sermon which was selected for this issue of The Symbolic Code is the one Brother
V.T. Houteff delivered May 27, 1944. It
is especially timely now as we have already launched into a new year.
And it may serve as a guiding thought to "the children of
light" who are "not in darkness" as to the lateness and
importance of the time in which we now live.)
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PRAYER
THOUGHT: "As something strange and new, these words fall upon the ears of
the wondering multitude. Such
teaching is contrary to all they have ever heard from priest or rabbi.
They see in it nothing to flatter their pride or to feed their ambitious
hopes. But there is about this new
Teacher a power that holds them spellbound.
The sweetness of divine love flows from His very presence, as the
fragrance from a flower. His words
fall like 'rain upon the mown grass; as showers that water the earth.'
All feel instinctively that here is One who reads the secrets of the
soul, yet who comes near to them with tender compassion.
Their hearts open to Him, and, as they listen, the Holy Spirit unfolds to
them something of the meaning of that lesson which
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humanity
in all ages so needs to learn."--Mount of Blessing, pp. 17, 18.
We see
by this that everything strange is not always wrong to teach. The Jews in Christ's time had not learned the things humanity
needed then to learn. Let us pray
that this afternoon we may learn more about the things we need to learn.
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Eccles.
9:10, 11--"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for
there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither
thou goest. I returned, and saw
under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,
neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet
favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."
Whatever
duty we are called upon to perform, we must do it diligently with 100% of our
might in order to get it done right and on time.
All of you have heard it said many times that "if a thing is worth
doing at all it is worth doing right."
Still even though it be done perfectly if it is done late it may never be
of any value; and what we leave undone will be undone forever so far as we are
concerned.
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Eccles.
9:11--"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the
swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet
riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and
chance happeneth to them all."
Everyone
has time. Everyone has chance.
The winner of the race is not victorious simply because he was born to be
swift, but it is because of the meeting of time and chance in his life.
No, it was not just natural for him to win the race.
In order for him to win he first had to spend the necessary time to fit
himself for the race, and then the chance to run came.
The same principle holds true in every field of endeavor.
One must first study to fit himself for duty while he has the time in
which to do it and then comes his opportunity to demonstrate or use what he has
learned. The successful man, then,
makes good use of his time and then watches and avails himself of his
opportunity to serve when it presents itself.
For instance, Abraham Lincoln, in his spare time, learned to be President
of this country, and so when his chance came he was ready to fill the office
admirably. To make a success in
anything one must start out by mastering the most elementary fundamentals and
then keep on progressing in advancement step by step.
Honest
men who gain wealth do not do it
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because
they naturally knew a great deal or were naturally skillful.
It was because they used well their time and their chance.
They, too, had put forth the necessary effort to equip and train
themselves to be successful when their chance came.
Those who do not make profitable use of their time cannot possibly live
successfully.
Nobody
can tell just what electricity is. And
what about time? What is time?--Nobody here knows.
In the
beginning, "the evening and the morning were the first day." Day is a
measurement of time, and God created it. The
day, as you know, is composed of twenty-four hours, an hour being merely a
shorter measurement of time. Since
the earth can measure but twenty-four hours each time it turns on its axis,
Earth, then, has as its only means of time measurement its rotation on its axis
and its circuit through its orbit. Do
you realize that were it not for this we would be without time? Instead, it
would be eternity. Therefore
eternity has no time. Time is
manufactured. Daniel refers to
"Time, times, and half a time" which explains what time is.
It is a span measured by the completion of a full round of the earth in
its orbit. That is one time. The
repetition of it makes times. Then
what is eternity? It has no measurement, for it is never to repeat it-
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self
like the years do. Time is given us
that we may know what part of eternity man has existed on this earth.
Which do
you think is the more important: time or eternity?--Time is everything, for
without it there is no eternity; still eternity is not time because it cannot be
measured. Time saved is even more
important than money saved, for you can not save money if you do not save time.
If
earth, through its constant movement and change of location in the universe,
represents time, then everything might represent time.
Plants represent time, for you can tell by its size how old a plant is.
In another form human beings represent time.
Trees represent time by their growth.
The Bible represents time, for it took time for man to live the history
It records, to write It, to print It, to manufacture the paper on which It is
printed and the machinery that prints It, to grow and process the material for
Its cover,--it all represents time. The
workman's wages represent time paid in money.
Neither gold or diamonds are obtained without the representation of the
time element being present both in the commodities themselves and again in the
money that people give in exchange for them.
Through
this discussion you can see that
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time is
vitally connected with material though it is invisible. It is far more important to save time, for time is priceless;
it is just like salvation. But the
sad fact is that but few people realize how valuable time is.
In view of the great value of time what sin it must be to waste it! Yet
to all are given time and chance.
In one
hundred years there are about 36,500 days.
In a general sense that amount in terms of dollars is not much, for today
money is meas-ured by billions of dollars.
But a person's lifetime is in reality very short, and composed of three
periods: childhood, prime, and old age. It
is usually in his prime period of life that man is most productive, and since it
is but a part of his lifetime, he should never waste a minute of that time.
We
should see that we get 100% value out of every minute we live. To accomplish this we must conserve our energy by eliminating
useless and unnecessary effort. In
that way our endurance is lengthened and we can actually accomplish more.
Since it does take time and effort to talk, for instance, we should avoid
useless talk, and learn to make every word count for good only.
Lost time can never be recovered regardless how we wasted it.
It is gone for eternity. Therefore
how valuable time is!
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We
should perhaps ask ourselves this question more often than any other: Am I doing
something now that I may regret in eternity? And if we are we should at once set
about to substitute worthy pursuits for the useless or worthless one.
The Christian's great duty is to accomplish the things that God wants
done. Doing that makes us rich in
one way or another. Should a man
then rob us, God will reimburse us. Really,
no one can cheat us if we engage ourselves in doing the things God wants done,
but the man who tends only his own interests never actually gets very far,
especially when his accomplishments are evaluated in the light of eternity.
And "there is no limit to the good a man can do if he does not care
who gets the credit."
Chance
is what brings us eternity. Therefore,
if we make use of time and chance, we do not have to worry about eternity.
Are you
personally aware that time and chance are given to each of us, and that if we
would be successful now and in the hereafter we must as judiciously invest our
time as we would our money? Are you a time "spendthrift" or a time
wizard? Are you just existing, or are you preparing for your great
"chance"? Each must answer this question for himself.
Soon that great chance will come to every soul, and when it comes it will
prove the faithfulness
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or the
unfaithfulness of our stewardship over the time that was given us to prepare for
it. As you stand now, are you
ready?
"Our
time belongs to God. Every moment
is His, and we are under the most solemn obligation to improve it to His
glory....Of no talent He has given will He require a more strict account than of
our time.
* * *
"...We
shall individually be held responsible for doing one jot less than we have
ability to do. The Lord measures
with exactness every possibility for service.
The unused capabilities are as much brought into account as are those
that are improved. For all that we
might become through the right use of our talents God holds us responsible.
We shall be judged according to what we ought to have done, but did not
accomplish because we did not use our powers to glorify God.
Even if we do not lose our souls, we shall realize in eternity the result
of our unused talents. For all the
knowledge and ability that we might have gained and did not, there will be an
eternal loss.
* * *
"Whatever
the line of work in which we engage, the word of God teaches us to be 'not
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slothful
in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.' 'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might,'
'knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye
serve the Lord Christ.'"--Christ's Object Lessons, (1941 edition) pp. 342,
363, 346; (1900 edition) pp. 345, 365, 349.
In the
day that we must account for our stewardship WE WILL BE ABLE TO GIVE A GOOD
ACCOUNT OF EVERY OTHER TALENT ENTRUSTED TO US IF WE CAN SHOW THAT WE HAVE MADE
THE MOST PROFITABLE USE OF OUR TIME. That
is how important time is. May God
help each of us to be wise time investors.
* * * *
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