Coffee Stains: The Three Clocks

I stayed in an apartment this past weekend that had three clocks. The one in the bedroom proudly announced that the time was 12:50. The one in the living room kindly disagreed. He assured me it was 7:53. And the one in the kitchen showed just as much confidence. For him it was 7:23. The three clocks had one thing in common” “they didn’t run anymore. Twice a day, each one told the time perfectly, according to Greenwich Mean Time. The only problem is, who knew when that happened?

These timepieces remind me of a lot of Christians. Somewhere along the way, they figure they’ve arrived and they just stop. That’s bad enough, but they scream at everyone who passes by, ‘What are you doing? I’ve got the right time! Listen to me.’ They’re stopped and they want everyone else to stop and just hang there with them. Please understand me, the Truth doesn’t change. Jesus said that He was the same eternally. I don’t have a lot of patience for those who are constantly seeking ‘new truths.’ The exciting thing about the truth, though, is that you can know it more and more deeply and intimately. When I started riding a bike, we wobbled a lot, my bike and I. Now I know it better and we just wobble at certain times. I probably wobble more than my bike. Are you going deeper in your knowledge of the truth in Christ Jesus, or are you hanging there, yelling at people going by that you are right, two times a day?

” For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death …” (Phil. 3:10, Amplified Bible translation).

The apartment where I stayed was in a little church which had been involved in some nasty fights” “strong personalities trying to direct everyone in their direction. They KNEW the truth” “and were willing to destroy the work of God to keep everyone there at the point where they had stopped. People who are “RIGHT!” cause a lot of hurt in the Kingdom. The church reached a handful in a departmental capital of 35-40 thousand people. I couldn’t help wonder if the clocks weren’t a metaphor for what had happened in the church. Fortunately, I had my watch with me.

Hmmm …

‘If you think you’re too small to influence the world, just try to sleep with a mosquito in your bedroom.’ (anonymous)

Hmmm … hmmm … 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3: 16….and Zeph. 3:17, (NIV) “The LORD your God is with you,  he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you,  he will quiet you with his love,  he will rejoice over you with singing.”