Last Second

Early this afternoon I had surgery on the left side of my neck and left shoulder.  There were two Lipomas, fatty tumors, which needed to be removed.  Not my first surgery.  My wife and I were counting on the way to the hospital, I think this was my 13th surgery, good thing I am not triskaidekaphobic.

As I was in the prep area waiting to be taken to the OR, from time to time I glanced at the clock on the wall to see how much time was left until they took me back.  The clock was typical generic clock, round, black rim, white face with black numbers, and a red second hand.  The second hand did not move smoothly, rather it jumped from second to second.  It got me to thinking.

Each of us will have a last second.  At some point that second hand will jump and it will be the last time, in this life, that we will experience a second.

In Psalm 90:12, the psalmist tells us that we are to number our days.  To calculate how long we have to serve the Lord here.  We are to do that so that we can present to Him a heart of wisdom.  I take that, like we are told in the parable of the rich man and Christ’s explanation in Luke 12:16 – 32, that we are to place our relationship and service to Him as first place in our lives.  We are to arrange our lives to maximize our impact for Him.  In the past I have had conversations with people who say that they are going to give Him the second half.  Become significant after they have become successful.  I am not sure that there is anything wrong with that, I have suspicions but not sure.

I am pretty sure, based on what Christ shared in Luke 12:16 - 32, I am not going to know how long that last half will be.  I am sure I will not know when the last second is.

Household Order

Just finished an overview of 1 Timothy.  I have studied this book before but I always start fresh.  I saw things here that I have not seen before, and I revisited themes that were familiar.

I have said this before but every study of a book should start with an overview.  If not you are in danger of not understanding the purpose of the book as you go through your section by section analysis.

It is interesting to me that this time through the thing that stood out was the concern Paul had that Timothy lead well, keep the household in order.  I saw some other things about one controversial passage but I will save that for later.

Paul is concerned about the teaching of sound doctrine in Ephesus.  Has the need for that teaching changed?  Other than my time in seminary, I do not recall much emphasis on doctrine in the churches I have attended in the last 40 years.

Apparently we do not need that any more.  Must have been a cultural thing.

“Personal” Bible Study

We were in Mark 14 this week.  Second week for that chapter.  One of the men listed all of the people in the chapter and how they related to Jesus.  His chart is below.

The next thing he did was an excellent example of application.  He when through each of those attitudes and asked the question is he relating to Christ in that way.

It was hard for him.  It brought up some issues that he is praying through.  It was hard.  It was very personal.
We all need to follow his example.  We are not to do Bible study to make us smarter.  No, it is to change our life and give us a closer relationship with our Lord.

My friend did that this morning.  He is a gifted teacher of the Word.  He dives deep into the text with access to the original languages.  Yet one of the men in the study remarked that in all the years he has known him this was his best study.

Why?  It was personal.