We spend a lot of time thinking about how to use the time we have. We plan out our day for tomorrow, we plan vacations for the future, we look forward to the weekend when we can hopefully slow down a little, and we look forward to retirement when we’ll have more time. Time, time, time. Time is one of the most precious things given to us, and how we use our time says a lot about us. Sometimes time flies, other times it drags, but always it marches on. My grandmother was fond of saying, “Time waits for no man.” So given that we only have so much time in this life, it’s all the more important to use it wisely.

What do you want to do with your time? I love the words from Psalm 84:10–11 that say “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD will give grace and glory; no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” These verses remind us that where we spend our time is more important than any self-satisfaction we may derive from personal pursuits. In a world where status is coveted, we ought to intentionally step away from the noise occasionally to be still and to consider the fact that a day in the courts of God is better than a thousand—a thousand anywhere else, spent any other way. And to be a doorkeeper—the lowest of the low among His servants—is better than the highest honor among the tents of wickedness. Where would you rather be? How would you rather spend your time? Can you say with the Psalmist you would rather be a servant in His house? 

Hundreds of years after the Psalmist wrote these words, Paul told the Ephesians to be wise and thoughtful about how they conducted their lives, “making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:16). The best use of our time is any time spent in service of the Lord. Whether it’s having a Christlike attitude at work when you’d rather not, or making a meal for someone, or doing something kind for a stranger, any time that we use to serve the Lord by serving others is time well spent. 

How do you spend your time? Where do you spend your time? Let’s not spend our time among the tents of wickedness. Today, let’s commit to spending our time wisely, to live in His presence, and to come into his courts in prayer. As we do that, we can rest in his promise that he will not withhold any good thing.

This summer we started a small garden in our backyard. We have tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, green beans, and carrots. Almost daily there are noticeable changes in the plants: new branches, new flowers, and even some itsy-bitsy zucchinis forming. There is a certain sense of mystery and wonder in the simple act of growing a garden. It is a fairly predictable process—put seeds/seedlings in soil, water regularly, weed, wait for harvest—but at the same time it is anything but ordinary. We actually have zero control over the amazing processes going on in those plants. All we can do is manipulate some of the conditions. We plant and water and tend, but that is only a partial explanation of the results. We provide the right conditions and seemingly magically, the little seeds that looked so lifeless become a living, growing thing. They take carbon from the air, and water and nutrients from the soil and produce delicious and nutritious things for us to eat. The plant life that God has created is nothing short of a miracle.

Paul used plant growth as an analogy for understanding spiritual growth of Christians. When he wrote to the Corinthians, he rebuked them for the way they were dividing into groups based on a preference for certain Christian leaders. They were saying things like, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas” (1 Cor. 1:12). He told them that their behavior in this regard indicated that they were immature in their faith (1 Cor. 3:1). What they needed was to realize that it doesn’t make you more special than other people if a great Christian evangelist or teacher was the one who taught you the gospel. “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Cor. 3:5-7).

While we can and should honor Christian leaders for their work and faithfulness (1 Thess. 5:12), we must remember that it is God who ultimately gives the growth. The power is not in humans, it is in God and in his word. When you help others grow spiritually, remember that we just plant and water. God gives the increase. As a church, let us plant the seed of the word—deep in our own hearts and in the hearts of children and grandchildren, coworkers and neighbors, the mailman, the cashier, the barber, the hair stylist, and everyone else we know. Let us water it with prayer, meditation on the word, fasting, and worship. And let us trust that God will give the growth.

Each day is like a miniature lifetime. The sunrise each morning is a symbol of birth and new life. Birds begin singing to welcome the new day and some flowers, like the morning glory, open in the morning when the sun comes up. The morning is when we (hopefully!) feel rested and strong and ready for the day’s tasks. And the light that comes with the dawn of each new day is a reminder of God’s light that he has shone into our hearts. “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). Without God’s grace revealed through Jesus Christ we would be stuck in the dark night of sin’s power. But through the grace of Jesus Christ, God gave his light to us and we are born again. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (1 Peter 1:3). Let each sunrise be a powerful reminder that God has given you new life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

The sunset each evening is a symbol of the end of life. Morning glories close their petals, birds find their roost, and we feel tired from the day’s demands and activities. After dark we lie down and drift into unconscious rest. Nightfall is a daily reminder of the reality that we will all one day face death. With the advent of electricity, technology has mostly conquered the night, but remember that for most humans throughout history, there was very little they could do to change the thick darkness that nightfall brought—they had at most perhaps a small lamp that gave a little light. Even with our technology, the night still represents the unknown, something that we cannot see past. And night is all the more frightening if you must face it alone. It’s much better to have a friend with you. Let each nightfall then be a reminder that you dare not face death and eternity without Christ. And let it be a sweet reminder of Jesus’ promises and presence in your life, Christian. You know your Lord; you know your destiny.

One day, when we are with the Lord, there will be no more night. We will live with the Lord forever, in one eternal day. John tells us “And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Rev. 22:5). But until then, each sunrise and each sunset is a lesson: a reminder of the new birth we have in Christ, and a reminder of the coming night that we no longer fear because we have Jesus with us.

In the market for some real estate? Looking for somewhere to call your new home? Let’s take a spin around town and see some of the best properties for sale. After a quick tour of the properties you can decide which one you’d like to call your new spiritual home. Let’s start our tour at the center of town where two roads meet. We’ll take the one on the right first—Love Street. The houses on this road are nice, spacious homes. They have very beautiful yards and the wide front porches look inviting. The homes are very attractive, but when you get out of the car and inspect the houses for yourself you begin to notice that something is not right with these homes. The walls are not straight, and the corners are not square. Light switches turn on lights in other rooms, and water faucets are not connected to the water. The oven and dishwasher are stacked where the washer and dryer should be, which are in the kitchen where the oven and dishwasher should be. You quickly realize these homes are beautiful, but not functional. 

We return to the town center and take the other road—Truth Avenue. You eagerly begin inspecting some of these homes to see if they are functional. To your delight, everything works properly and they are all built exactly to code. Everything is square, light switches and faucets work, and appliances are in the right place. But these homes have a different flaw. Clearly, no effort was made to make these houses beautiful. They look grey, cold, and lifeless. The yard is full of gravel, and the house is boxy and drab on the exterior.

You hurry back to the center of town, disappointed in the houses that are beautiful but not functional and functional but not beautiful. And there on the corner of Love Street and Truth Avenue, you see the perfect house. It is both functional and beautiful. It has the best qualities of each of the other houses without the flaws they suffered from. Clearly, this is a beautiful home that was built with much care and hard work.

As Christians, we must build our spiritual house on the corner of Love and Truth. It is possible to prioritize one to the exclusion of the other. If we accept a watered-down definition of love and de-emphasize truth, we are like the houses that are outwardly attractive but not built according to the proper standards. On the other hand, if we staunchly emphasize truth but forget to be loving, we’re like the other houses. Yes, they’re “built the right way”, but who’d want to live there? It’s not right to emphasize love to the exclusion of truth, but neither is it right to emphasize truth to the exclusion of love. Paul told the Ephesians that growing into Christian maturity involves “speaking the truth in love…” (Eph. 4:15). Never let go of truth and never let go of love. We need both.

To all the dads reading this, happy Father’s Day! One of the many things that the Bible teaches us about God is that he is our Father. As our Father, God does many things for us. Christian fathers strive each day to be more godly and provide for his family and his church the things that God provides to his children. Here are three things that God gives us and that Christian fathers strive to give to their family.

First, God provides protection. While he does not shield us from every harm or inconvenience, he is nevertheless a shield around us (Ps. 3:3). He surrounds his people (Ps. 125:1-2) and we have the assurance that nothing that happens to us was a result of any inability on God’s part to protect us. He allows us to experience difficulties that we can overcome with his help, but he never gives us more than we can handle with the help of his strength (1 Cor. 10:13). Fathers, you reflect God when you take steps to protect your family from harm–physical, emotional, and most importantly, spiritual harm. Be the watchdog for your family and be on the lookout for things that threaten the spiritual health of your home, your family, and your marriage. 

Second, God provides affection. It may sound trite, but it is true: God loves YOU. The greatest expression of his love for the people he created is seen in the fact that he sent his Son to die and bear the punishment for your sin so that you can be reconciled with God (John 3:16). He spares no expense in showering love on us. Fathers, you reflect God when you show affection to your family. Your wife, your kids (even grown children) and your grandchildren–they all need and want your affection. Let them know how loved they are. And remember, by the way you self-sacrificially love your family, you are teaching them something about God and his love for them.

Third, God provides direction. God teaches us in the Bible about things that matter eternally. He gives us guidance on how to live life in a way that is holy and wholesome and that pleases him. Fathers, you reflect God when you provide guidance for your family. You give this to them from your own life experience, but more importantly you give them guidance by bringing them in contact with the word of God to benefit directly from his wisdom.

Protection, affection, and direction: fathers, the more you give these things to your family, the more you resemble God, who is the best Father there is. Your wife, your kids, your grandkids, and your church need these things from you. Our world desperately needs godly fathers. Will you step up to the plate? Will you answer the call?

Wisdom is an elusive thing. We live in an information-saturated world and we have greater and faster access to knowledge and facts than ever before. But wisdom is not nearly so prevalent. Where should we look for wisdom? Prestigious schools? Engaging life-coaches? Motivational speakers? Social media? The Bible teaches us that there is ultimately only one source of wisdom—God himself. God offers to give us his wisdom and he promises that if we search for it diligently we will find it. 

In Proverbs 2:1–8, Solomon tells his son, “My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come wisdom and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.”

Wisdom can be found if we seek it in the right manner and seek it from the right source. According to these words of Solomon, the correct way to seek wisdom is with diligence. Wisdom is more valuable than many riches (vs. 4) and must be sought as such. We should seek wisdom with the same earnestness and zeal that we would search for a hidden treasure or a deposit of gold. In our day and age, knowledge (information) comes so easily and with such little sacrifice that wisdom by comparison seems all the more difficult to find. But things worth having seldom come easily, and wisdom is no exception. As we go through life, let us be diligent about pursuing wisdom.

In addition to seeking wisdom in the right manner (diligently) we must also seek it from the right source. Ultimately, wisdom only comes from God (vs. 6). He delights in giving his wisdom to the upright, to those who walk in integrity (vs. 7) and he watches over their way (vs. 8). Many people are looking for wisdom everywhere except God and his word. God’s word doesn’t answer every question we’ll ever have, but it does give us wisdom. It teaches us how we should live lives that honor and glorify God. It keeps us from going through life unreflectively and forces us to come to terms with the things that matter most in life: our brokenness, our need for Jesus, our mortality, and eternity. Turn to God for his wisdom and diligently seek it in his word. His wisdom will guard us from many harms in this life and lead us to eternal joy in the next life.

“I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.” (Psalm 145:1-3)

These are the opening lines to one of the greatest expressions of praise in all of Scripture. This Psalm is one long chorus of praise, a reflection on the greatness of our God. These opening three verses confront us with three truths about praising our God.

First, praise is personal. “I will extol you, my God and King…” When we praise God, we do not praise an impersonal force or Being. He is “my” God, and he is your God too. He is our God not in the sense that he belongs to us, but that we belong to him. He is our God in the same way that a man is a child’s father; not because the father belongs to the child but because the child belongs to the father who gave him life. In the same way, God brings us into existence and gives us life. We praise him as our personal God, to whom you and I belong. He is “my” God. He is your God. 

Second, praise is endless. Praise is not a one-and-done thing. It’s not something we do once as an initiation into the faith, after which we never praise again. We praise God “every day” and “forever and ever.” We wake up every morning to praise him with our words, our thoughts, and our actions. Praises for God should never be far from our thoughts and words. In the words of one hymn, “Every step we are breathing in Your grace; evermore we’ll be breathing out Your praise” (Never Once, Matt Redmon, 2012). May we constantly breathe out his praises.

Third, praise is inadequate. Somewhat ironically, praise can never fully express what it tries to describe: the greatness of God’s character and glory. He is “great” and “greatly to be praised” but his “greatness is unsearchable.” Nothing can ever fully or adequately praise God’s greatness. There is no human way to describe God’s greatness; it simply cannot be put into words. This is why praise is endless; we never finish praising God because we can never exhaustively describe his glory and splendor. Realizing that we can never fully praise God doesn’t discourage us and lead us to stop; it’s just one more reason to praise him all the more! If we could completely describe him, then we would be able to comprehend him and that would mean he is lesser than us. We praise him because he is great and his greatness is unsearchable. This week, use the words of Psalm 145 to give voice to your praise for God. Praise him personally and endlessly, rejoicing in the fact that our praise can never even begin to exhaust the greatness of our God.

God has always expected his people to hear, love, and obey his voice. Just like parents teach children to obey (for the children’s own safety and good) so God teaches his children to obey (for our own safety and good). Hearing, loving, and obeying God’s voice is foundational to having a relationship with him. To put it in other words, our relationship with God is built on his terms, not ours. We are not free to disregard his commands, even if we think we have a good reason for doing so.

King Saul learned this lesson the hard way in 1 Samuel 15. The Lord commanded him to go and destroy a wicked nation neighboring the Israelites. Saul was not to spare any of the people or their possessions. God’s words were very clear on this point: “Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them…” (1 Samuel 15:3). Saul fought against the Amalekites and defeated them, but he and the people under his leadership saved the Amalekite king alive and preserved the best of the livestock (15:8-9). Because of this disobedience, the Lord revealed to the prophet Samuel that King Saul was rejected from being King. When Saul met Samuel the next day, he tried to convince Samuel that he had obeyed the command of the Lord, but Samuel saw through Saul’s words and stopped him. He asked him, “Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?” Saul protested, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. (…) But the people took the spoil… to sacrifice to the Lord your God.”

Saul failed to recognize that obeying the voice of the Lord is more important than sacrifices. Samuel said to him, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offering and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.” While we do not offer animal sacrifices any longer, the principle holds true. To obey God’s voice is better than any outward show of piety or devotion. God is after so much more than just worshippers who go through the motions. He is after your heart. He wants you to know his voice, to love his voice, and to obey his voice.

Are you listening to the voice of the Lord? Is his word your guide in life, the thing that— more than anything else—shapes your values, your priorities, and your life decisions? It is easy to fall into the rut of just going through the motions, going to church, and looking like a Christian without really loving and obeying the voice of God. As you go about your life this week, remember that God is after your heart, your obedience, your love, and not just external acts of religion.

Over the years, I have received some very thoughtful and generous gifts. When you are on the receiving end of a gift like that, it is so encouraging to realize that the gift-giver just wants to give generously and quietly and finds joy in meeting the needs of others. When they give in private, they may not be seen by men, but Jesus assures such people that their Father who sees in secret will himself reward them (Matt. 6:4). Paul was encouraged by the generosity of the Macedonian churches, and he told the Corinthians about the example that the Macedonian churches had set: “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us” (2 Cor. 8:1-5). 

Paul was in the process of taking up a collection from the churches in Greece to take back to the churches in Jerusalem who were suffering from a severe famine. He praised the Macedonian Christians for the way they gave generously to the cause in the midst of their poverty. But their greatest act of giving was not financial and it happened before they had given any money at all: “they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.” There is no amount of money we could give that could substitute for giving ourselves—our heart, our affections, our entire lives—to the Lord. But once we have given him our lives, then we find it easy to give in other ways too.

While he was on the topic of generosity, Paul did not miss the opportunity to point his readers to the greatest act of generosity ever: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). Christ left the glories of heaven for a time to come and suffer on our behalf so that we could be co-inheiritors with him. This is the greatest act of love, the greatest act of grace. Our giving is just one more way to be like Jesus, who gave us so much.

In the ancient kingdoms long ago, the king led a busy but luxurious life. Unlike many of his subjects, he did not work every daylight hour just to provide a meagre living for his family. He had the very rare opportunity in the ancient world to receive an education from world-class tutors and substantial collections of books. He lived in a spacious dwelling that had all the comforts money could buy—including hot water pipes to heat his house during the winter. He traveled quickly and more comfortably than anyone else in the kingdom. He dined on a variety of the finest foods that were brought to him from all over his kingdom—all prepared to suit his taste. I could go on and on describing his life, but the point is that kings of the past led very pampered lives, by all standards.

But in describing the life of ancient kings, we have described our own lives. We do not eke out a living by farming overworked land, and we have money in the bank to buy the things we need and a whole lot more. We have the opportunity to pursue education. We live in spacious homes that are way bigger than what the majority of humans in the past lived in. And our homes have amenities that could not have been imagined 150 years ago—like air conditioning! We travel faster and more comfortably than any other age in world history. At the store we can buy fresh food from all over the continent. If we don’t want to cook, we can go out to eat, and chefs will prepare our choice of food to our taste. The point is, we live lives of ease; we live like kings.

The temptation for us who have lives like I’ve just described is that we fall in love with the ease of our lives. We run the risk of slowly becoming so accustomed to having everything exactly the way we desire that we practically forget what it feels like to be denied. And as only kings could in bygone ages, we can control so nearly every aspect of our lives that we don’t have to be exposed to anything or anyone we don’t want to be exposed to. And therein lies the real danger: a life of ease and control means that we can isolate ourselves from anyone who is unlike us. Ask yourself, How often do I associate with people more than a few steps down the socio-economic ladder? How often do I get to know and befriend people who speak English as a second language or barely speak it at all? Am I taking the gospel to the nations right here in my neighborhood and in my city (Matt. 28:19)? Do I associate with people of low position (Romans 12:16)? And which will I choose to love: the comfort of my little kingdom or the glory and advancement of His kingdom?