We’re recently started a new series called “reset”.  In the first week, we talked about how Jesus makes it possible to reset all of life, giving us a fresh start in life that impacts every key area.  We’re going to look at many of these in depth, and this week we see how Jesus resets our use of time.

There was a time in my life when I prided myself on never needing a day planner.  I remembered everything I signed up for, and never double booked.  That was high school.  Ever since, I’ve found my time needed to be managed.

Through university, I started to rely on a day planner, an old fashioned spiral bound book.  I got progressively busier, but could still say yes to pretty much anything I wanted.  I would stay up all night getting things done if I needed to.  I was young.

By the time I started working, I had to start making choices.  I can only be in one meeting, one event, or one place at a time.  When I first pastored a church, I was still working as a paramedic on the side, until I finally realized I simply didn’t have the time to do both things well.  And still today, I find myself constantly choosing between demands on my time.  It’s only escalated since having children.

I can go on.  You probably can, too.  Bottom line, unless we’re still kids, time is all about choices.  It’s a limited resource – we can’t create it, we can only choose how to use it.

The Future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.  ~C.S. Lewis

But what if you could reset your clock?

That used to be easy – whenever I’ve started a new job, I feel like it’s a chance to structure my time differently, within the constraints of set tasks, family and personal responsibilities.

But even then, it’s never clear what’s best.  Read one thing that says “say yes to every invitation, you never know who you’ll meet” but then I’ll read something else that says I should learn to say “no” to more invitations to protect my sanity and family.  Which is it?

With an extra hour, I don’t know whether I should work more, play with my kids, read the Bible, exercise, fix things around the house, or what.  Someone will advocate that each one is most important.  Time marches on.

Closely connected with goals, last week’s topic.

Question: What would you do with an extra hour in the day?  Why?  What would be your goal?

Reminder: The best way to grow spiritually this year is to join our Christianity 101 in the Cafe Course. Register for you and a friend today and come Wednesday night!

Read the Bible in Sync Today

Ryan Sim - May 14, 2014

Wednesday - Change It - Pioneer Spirit

What was the meaning of all this about Jesus’ followers speaking different languages or “tongues”? It was a sign that the impossible mission they’d been sent to accomplish was actually possible. I love to rock climb, and I used to pride myself on never needing chalk. I considered myself a good climber with just my hands, and sweat never seemed to make me slip off holds. One day, as I struggled on what felt like an impossible climb, a friend insisted I put some chalk on my fingers. I immediately realize what I’d been missing – I could actually do what seemed impossible if I put down my pride and got a little extra help from some chalk. If Jesus’ followers try to spread the good news on their own, they will flail about like me on a difficult climb. They simply don’t have the skills, the numbers, the power to reach the entire world with this message. Think of the number of languages spoken, the various cultural norms to learn, the geography to consider. But with the Spirit of Jesus living in them, speaking through them, acting through them, they could and they did. There are 2 billion people in the world now claiming to be Christians. One web site offers a film about Jesus in 1200 languages. This was all evident in how the disciples began to speak in other languages, they never even knew. People remarked that this was unlikely, since they were Galileans – not considered refined and educated people - with an accent that made it difficult to speak other languages. One of those big barriers, language, was already being dismantled by the Spirit of God speaking through them. In a world with lots of barriers, how refreshing is it to see the Spirit of God taking some down? His good news about Jesus is for everyone, who speaks every language, from every nation. Christianity is not meant to divide people, but rather it’s good news God uses to transform each and every culture, each and every nation, each and every individual. Question: Luke never says what the people were saying as they spoke these other languages – what do you think the Holy Spirit would have said through them?

From Series: "Pioneer Story"

We read through the Book of Acts as a Pioneer Story for the church.

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