{"id":6515,"date":"2015-05-12T00:02:52","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T00:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6515"},"modified":"2015-05-19T15:56:25","modified_gmt":"2015-05-19T15:56:25","slug":"a-two-week-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6515","title":{"rendered":"A two-week break"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hi! I am going to take a two-week break to focus on other projects. I plan to return to the blog on Monday, May 25th.<\/p>\n<p>Before I take off, though, I&#8217;d like to share two\u00a0portions of Scripture\u00a0that I spent some time mulling over today. They are the well-known &#8220;redeem the time&#8221; references and I&#8217;ve posted them in the NASB translation.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span id=\"en-NASB-29322\" class=\"text Eph-5-17\"><sup class=\"versenum\">15 <\/sup><\/span><em>Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, <\/em><span id=\"en-NASB-29321\" class=\"text Eph-5-16\"><sup class=\"versenum\">16\u00a0<\/sup><em>making the most of your time, because the days are evil<\/em>.<\/span> <span id=\"en-NASB-29322\" class=\"text Eph-5-17\"><sup class=\"versenum\">17\u00a0<\/sup><em>So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is<\/em> (Ephesians 5:15-17).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span id=\"en-NASB-29548\" class=\"text Col-4-5\"><sup class=\"versenum\">5\u00a0<\/sup><em>Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity<\/em>.<\/span> <span id=\"en-NASB-29549\" class=\"text Col-4-6\"><sup class=\"versenum\">6\u00a0<\/sup><em>Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person<\/em><\/span> (Colossians 4:5-6).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These biblical references about &#8220;redeeming the time&#8221; pinpoint two key components of the Christian life.<\/p>\n<p>First, Colossians 4:5 lets\u00a0you know that\u00a0<strong>you are to redeem the time<\/strong> <strong>whenever\u00a0you are around unbelievers\u00a0or anyone else who\u00a0you might consider an &#8220;outsider&#8221;<\/strong><em>.\u00a0<\/em>You are, as Paul wrote to Timothy, to take pains with your behaviors, attitudes, and words so that\u00a0you exemplify the Lord Jesus in your life (see 1 Timothy 4:12-15).\u00a0You never know when\u00a0you are entering a door of opportunity for the Lord to minister His light to someone;\u00a0you redeem the time around others by letting His compassion, respect, and graciousness direct your daily interactions wherever\u00a0you go.<\/p>\n<p>Second, Ephesians 5:15-17 informs\u00a0you that\u00a0<strong>you are to redeem your own <em>personal<\/em> time day by day<\/strong>\u2014whether you&#8217;re in public, around your own circle, or all by yourself. Pay attention to your\u00a0expenditure of time; make the best possible use of it.<\/p>\n<p>Matthew Henry, a Bible commentator alive in the 1700s, wrote\u00a0something eye-opening about<em>\u00a0<\/em>time. He suggested that it\u00a0is a talent given to you by God to use for a good purpose. It is misspent and lost when\u00a0it&#8217;s\u00a0not employed according to God&#8217;s design. Mr. Henry also stated that if you have lost or misused\u00a0time in the past, you must endeavor to redeem it by doubling your diligence\u00a0to do what you are called to do from here on out. Why? Because the days are evil. Why?\u00a0Because as Seals and Croft sang back in the &#8217;70s, &#8220;We may never pass this way again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Until Monday, May 25, redeem\u00a0the time!<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi! I am going to take a two-week break to focus on other projects. I plan to return to the blog on Monday, May 25th. Before I take off, though, I&#8217;d like to share two\u00a0portions of Scripture\u00a0that I spent some time mulling over today. They are the well-known &#8220;redeem the time&#8221; references and I&#8217;ve posted [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6515"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6524,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6515\/revisions\/6524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}