#Time's Up it's Friday - The Daily Diary of a Bible Blogger

What a week this has been! 

Life is so unpredictable! 

You think you have everything planned out, but nothing goes according to the plan!

You try to make allowances for interruptions, but you still run out of time!

I won't bore you with the details, but I am sure you will know what I'm talking about. 

Why is it so impossible to control our time? For years, I attended business courses and seminars about time management. Eventually, I gave some lectures about the same subject, but I still struggled to manage my time. I can schedule tasks, arrange meetings, and draw up lists, but controlling time is ultimately impossible. 

Now, don't get me wrong; I'm quite efficient. My desk is uncluttered, and I work my way through lists. I get a lot done in a day, but time beats me. 

I think the question really is, is it possible to control time? You can manage what you do with your time, but time never stops. It marches on relentlessly. 

This is true in every aspect of life. Minutes tick away, growing into hours. Hours grow into days. Days turn into weeks. Weeks turn into months. Months turn into years, and before you know it, middle age has crept up on you. Old age is not a lifetime away, and you think, where has it all gone?

In Ecclesiastes chapter three, Solomon reminds us there is a time to be born and a time to die. 

The scriptures warn us of the end of life creeping up on us rapidly in Psalm 90:9-11 - 'For all our days have declined in Your fury; we have finished our years like a sigh. As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years,

yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; for soon it is gone and we fly away. Who understands the power of Your anger and Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?

In light of the brevity of time and the suddenness of death, it would be wise to prepare to meet God. 

Have you prepared? You can do this by repenting of your sins and turning to God for forgiveness. The Bible summarises the final stage of conversion in these words: 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved' (Acts 16:31). 

As always, please let me know if I can help you further. You can reach me at www.seekthetruth.org.uk. 

Would you die for a stranger?

On Wednesday the 19th. November 1997, the M.V. Green Lily ran aground on Bressay, near Grut Wick. After loading a cargo of approximately 3000 tonnes of frozen fish, bound for Las Palmas in the Canary Isles, the Croatian-born captain decided to set sail in foul weather, in spite of warnings from the Harbour Master not to leave the port at Lerwick, Shetland. Shortly after leaving the harbour, the ship suffered engine failure in a force 9 gale forecast to reach force 11 imminently and was left drifting in 50ft. waves, eventually running aground off Bressay.

April Fool’s Day

Have you ever fallen for an April Fool's joke or prank? I know that, as a child, some classmate was always pulling a prank on someone, with the rest of us in on it, watching that poor soul make a fool of themselves by believing the prank. There have been some rather dubious April Fool's Day pranks on a national scale. Maybe you even fell for one of these April Fool’s Day hoaxes yourself.

On 1 April 1957, the British news show Panorama broadcasted a three-minute segment about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. The crop's success was attributed to an unusually mild winter and the "virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil." The audience heard Richard Dimbleby, the show's highly respected anchor, discussing the details of the spaghetti crop as they watched video footage of a Swiss family pulling pasta off spaghetti trees and placing it into baskets. The segment concluded with the assurance that "For those who love this dish, there's nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti."

Ramadan - Fast or Furious

A number of years ago, a Danish minister sparked outrage after claiming Muslims fasting for Ramadan could pose a danger in the workplace. 

Integration Minister Inger Stoejberg, an immigration hardliner in Denmark's centre-right government, questioned in a blog post published Monday how "commanding observance to a 1,400-year-old pillar of Islam" was compatible with modern labour markets. 1

Is it fair to critique Islam and its practices like this? I do not think that because someone's faith is based on tenants and beliefs that were established long ago, that automatically makes them invalid for today. Surely, the reason for accepting or rejecting a set of beliefs or morals has to be the basis upon which they were founded—in other words, the validity of their origin and the genuineness of the statements that claim to be true. 

In this blog, I'm not seeking to undermine other people's faith but to establish the genuineness of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. I believe that the word of God, the Bible, can be verified to be a supernaturally produced document. The 40 different writers were given God's word, and within the pages of the Bible, God has left evidence on record so that we might understand the validity and genuineness of this document. 

In summary, a book written over 1500 years by 40 different authors who lived in various countries, cultures, and centuries or even millennia is quite an outstanding feat. The majority of the writers had no contact with one another. Yet, they produced a document that, from beginning to end (Genesis to Revelation), has a standard of uniformity that is impossible purely by human management and organisation. 

I will leave you with a quotation from the Holy Scriptures that will demonstrate why Christians believe that salvation comes not from religious practices such as fasting, praying, or other religious rituals but by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone. 

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by (grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. 

The Bible - Ephesians 2:4-10

1. Evening Standard 24/5/18