1. “freetime”, leisure and quiet-time

-
Sorry for not posting for a while. I have been so busy that blogging has fallen by the wayside. All things related to work, teaching Sunday School, Introduction to Christian Ethics, running our Harvest Hope agency and all other family matters in between have been keeping me busy.

I am reading a book on prayer (among so many others) called "Alone with God" by Dr. John MacArthur. I intend to post my thoughts stemming from my Bible reading and supplimental reading from the book. Here is the first installment:
************

Free time and the ways it disappears was the subject about which I was going to write. Stepping back to consider the matter, I suddenly realize that "free time" is illusionary. What I mean is that "free time" should not exist--the concept is a cultural phenomenon. Theologically speaking, time and its stewardship should be theocentric (God-centered) and each moment should be filled with God-ward thoughts. This is one principle of the Sabbath.

Free-time is threatened because we have tried to compartmentalize time itself from God and try to save a slice of time as our very own to do with as we please. Considering what one may or want to do in leisure-time, the reflexive consideration is about those things that consume too much of our time. Somehow we are to have "God time" on the list: does it fit into the beginning or end of the schedule? Should I have quiet and prayer time in the cobwebs of the percolating dawn hours, or just before I pass out at dark:30?

Makes one wonder: whatever happened to the Sabbath?

Another question: Should 2 hours and 40 minutes of each day be tithed?

John MacArthur reminds us that each waking moment should be prayerful, as one cannot pray in the unconsciousness of sleep. On the other hand, Charles Spurgeon once commented that our minds should be so God-directed that, in the event of sleep our first waking moment should be as if our sleep was accomplished in prayer.

Getting our heart set on God has nothing to do with how much free time we have or not. Nor should it depend on our leisure time--except for this: free time and leisure time are my idols. I am convinced that in our current mind-set, the Sabbath has been twisted and reshaped into this other time-slot bezerker.

Does it really matter that I am a morning or evening person when the Bible makes no distinction? What is clear is that the day was made for waking and the night for sleeping. A more precise question could be, “does my alertness really influence the quality of quiet time and prayer?” Possibly, but this should not matter as now alertness becomes an excuse.

The true questions are: is my heart God-set? What is my priority in Christian living? The answers to these reveal both who and what is most important to me.

The sad reality: I don't live out God-centeredness well because I am a practicing humanist.

Popular posts from this blog

The Island-Fish

-
Image
  “O ye passengers, whom may God preserve! come up quickly in to the ship, hasten to embark, and leave your merchandise, and flee with your lives, and save yourselves from destruction; for this apparent island, upon which ye are, is not really an island, but it is a great fish that hath become stationary in the midst of the sea, and the sand hath accumulated upon it, so that it hath become like an island, and trees have grown upon it since times of old; and when ye lighted the fire upon it, the fish felt the heat, and put itself in motion, and now it will descend with you into the sea, and ye will all be drowned: then seek for yourselves escape before destruction, and leave the merchandise.—The passengers, therefore, hearing the words of the master of the ship, hastened to go up into the vessel, leaving the merchandise, and their other goods, and their copper cooking-pots, and their fire-pots; and some reached the ship, and others reached it not. The island had moved, and descended...
Read more

“And so, about this tomb of mine . . . “

-
Image
  “VANITY, saith the preacher, vanity!  Draw round my bed: is Anselm keeping back?  Nephews—sons mine … ah God, I know not! Well—  She, men would have to be your mother once,  Old Gandolf envied me, so fair she was!  What’s done is done, and she is dead beside,  Dead long ago, and I am Bishop since,  And as she died so must we die ourselves,  And thence ye may perceive the world’s a dream.  Life, how and what is it?  As here I lie In this state-chamber, dying by degrees,  Hours and long hours in the dead night,  I ask “Do I live, am I dead?”  Peace, peace seems all.  Saint Praxed’s ever was the church for peace;  And so, about this tomb of mine.  I fought With tooth and nail to save my niche, ye know:  —Old Gandolf cozened me, despite my care;  Shrewd was that snatch from out the corner  South He graced his carrion with,  God curse the same!  Yet still my niche is not so cramped...
Read more