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DON'T WASTE A PANDEMIC

by Mike Stone

Scripture: Ephesians 5:16


Don't Waste a Pandemic
Mike Stone
Ephesians 5:16


(KJV) Ephesians 5:16 - Redeeming the time because the days are evil.
(NASB) Ephesians 5:16 - Making the most of the time because the days are evil.

There are a lot of things you can do with time. We talk about:
Making time
Taking time
Saving time (gadgets and smart devices)
Watching time
Marking Time
Killing time
A sign at my school read, ''The best way to kill time is to work it to death.''
But by far the worst thing you can do with time is to WASTE it.

People who farm say things in the morning like, ''We're burning daylight.''
That's a farmer's way of saying, ''Get busy because we're wasting time.''

In Ephesians 5, Paul addresses these 1st century believers and seems to warn about the dangers of wasting time. And the problem, he says, with wasting time is that the days are evil. Interestingly, this word ''evil'' is a derivative of a word that means ''great trouble'' or ''pain.'' That is, make the most of the time because these are challenging days that are working against you.

TIME IS NOT NEUTRAL. One old song said, ''Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into the future.'' We all know there is no way to make time stand still. Time doesn't stand still in good times or in bad times.

We have probably each seen an image of someone being rescued from a deserted island. Whether a real image or just a scene from a movie, we know that people who survive being deserted don't look very well when they are rescued. I can't help but think about Tom Hanks in the movie, ''Castaway.'' Generally, when someone is rescued after being shipwrecked they are weak, malnourished, and emaciated. Their hair is disheveled and long and they often appear to be skin and bones.

With that thought in mind, I want you to consider something. When we emerge from this current crisis, we don't want to be spiritually malnourished. In fact, when the shelter-at-home and the ''social distancing guidelines'' are lift ...

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