Teach Us To Number Our Days #2104

1 Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. 3 You turn man to destruction, And say, “Return, O children of men.” 4 For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night. (Psalm 90:1–4, NKJV)

Daylight Savings Time ended last night. We manipulate the clock, attempting to improve the human condition. Scripture teaches us God peers into the ebb and flow of time from His timeless, eternal throne. He is unhindered by the limitations of time; He is God “from everlasting to everlasting.” God created time for human survival (days and seasons), and with it, we measure our existence (Gen. 1:14-18; Psa. 90:10). There was a “beginning,” and there will be an “end” of earthly time (Gen. 1:1; 1 Cor. 15:24). When we are reflective, time teaches us “to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom,” because “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Psa. 90:12; Heb. 9:27). While God is not defined and detained by time, we are. Time teaches us our mortality, our fragility (Psa. 39:4-6). Our life is “a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (Jas. 4:14; Psa. 90:3). Time is a precious commodity. Use today to honor God by walking carefully and wisely because the days are evil (Eph. 5:15-16). “Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days!” (Psa. 90:14)

Shall we do evil that good may come? #875

And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just. (Romans 3:8, NKJV)

The end does not justify the means. The apostle Paul sarcastically slays the slanderous report that he was guilty of preaching such falsehood. “The end justifies the means” is worldly wisdom that rationalizes evil, cloaking it behind a veil of good intentions and good results. It is an outcome-based approach to spiritual things that uses results to justify unscriptural means of obtaining them. For example, the doctrine that there are “many ways to heaven” illustrates this futile attempt to approve what God rejects. The end (heaven) is used to prejudice against how one gets there (the means). “As long as you are sincere” replaces what God’s word says about how to get to heaven – because the end is good. But, while the end (heaven) is good, Jesus is the only Way (means) to the Father in heaven (Jno. 14:6). So, as grand and glorious as heaven is, our “means” of going there is determined by God. We cannot say “there are many ways (means) to heaven, so choose the way that suits you,” when God says there is only one Way (and that is the way that suits Him). All other ways fail. God’s word reveals the end and the means to attain what is good; both must be respected.