Redeem the Time
October 18, 2016
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061
866-295-4143,
fbns@wayoflife.org
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The following is from THE MOBILE PHONE AND THE CHRISTIAN HOME AND CHURCH. ISBN 978-1-58318-198-0. Many Christian homes and churches are losing a frightful percentage of their young people to the world. This practical and far-reaching youth discipleship course deals with the parent’s part, the church’s part, and the youth’s part in discipling young people. It covers salvation, child discipline, the Christian home environment that produces disciples, reaching the child’s heart, Bible study techniques, how to protect young people from dangers associated with the Internet and smartphones, how to use apologetics, and many other things. The section on building a wall of protection deals with such things as having a basic home phone that teens can use under parental oversight, using filters and accountability software, controlling passwords and apps, the power of pornography, the dangers of Facebook and video games, avoiding conversation with members of the opposite sex, and monitoring the young person’s attitude. The course explains how the church and the home can work together in youth discipleship. It describes the characteristic of a church that produces youth disciples, such as having qualified leaders, officers, and teachers, maintaining biblical standards for workers, being careful about salvation, being uncompromising about separation from the world, building godly homes, discipline, prayer, and vision. It deals with how to train young people to be effective Bible students and how to involve them in the church’s ministry. Finally, the course deals with eleven biblical principles of spiritual protection that young people must build into their own lives. These are living to please the Lord, living by the law of the Spirit, practicing humility, pursuing Christian growth, pursuing edification and ministry, pursuing honesty, practicing vigilance and separation, pursuing pure speech, redeeming the time, pursuing temperance, and obeying and honoring one’s parents. The Youth Discipleship Library, which can be purchased from Way of Life Literature, contains the associated training materials that we describe in this course. Available in print and as a free eBook from www.wayoflife.org.

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“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16).

Don’t waste the precious time God has given you (Ecc. 12:1). Using one’s time wisely is an important part of spiritual victory and fruitfulness.

The book of Proverbs warns frequently about being a sluggard (Prov. 6:6-11). We deal with this in the Way of Life Literature Advanced Bible Studies Series course on Proverbs.

Consider some of the greatest time wasters today:

Video games. We have looked at the danger of video games, but here we consider its role in wasting time. The average gamer spends eight hours per week playing video games. This equates to 416 hours per year. Last year, a teen told me he wanted to learn to study the Bible on his phone, but when I asked to look at his phone, I found that it was filled with games. I challenged him to get rid of them and to spend that time on Bible study and other profitable things. I told him that until he was willing to put aside wasteful things, he wouldn’t make much progress in his spiritual life. One young Christian lady we know became concerned about how much time she was spending on video games, and she decided to figure it up. She concluded that she was spending three months out of a year playing games! She deleted the games from her iPad and is spending that time memorizing Scripture and other profitable things.

Vain talk (Prov. 14:23)
Day dreaming
Romance novels
Science fiction
Sports (1 Tim. 4:8). In the 1990s I became devoted to following professional baseball, and I regret the many hours that I wasted on that empty pursuit before I woke up to what was happening.

To redeem the time we must learn how to set priorities.

A major priority is Bible study and prayer. The young person must not allow anything to interfere with his devotional life. Not only must he give time to it, but he must give also his attention to it. If something is crowding out the Word of God and making it impossible to meditate, that thing should be put out of one’s life (Mk. 4:19).

Another priority is to be faithful to the assemblies (Heb. 10:25). As a new believer at age 23, I determined that I would never take a job that would keep me out of church, and the Lord always provided jobs that didn’t interfere with the Lord’s service.

Nothing must be allowed to hinder my Christian life and the will of God. Multitudes of young people have backslidden and gotten out of God’s will because of secular education and jobs, as we have already noted.

To redeem the time we must learn to fill our lives with wholesome and eternally profitable things. God has filled even this fallen world with such things for those who are wise enough to chose excellent things above empty things. We have already dealt with this. A few examples of profitable things are Bible study, evangelism, music, church ministries, good literature, wholesome documentaries, photography, creation science, geology, history, and physical exercise.



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