Did you know that there are 1,440 minutes in each and every day? That seems like a lot of time, so why is it that we have such a difficult time finding a few minutes for God each twenty-four-hour period? You say, “Well, life is busy.” Indeed, with school, extracurricular activities, homework, church, downtime with friends, etc . . . there are so many things one can do that there is hardly enough time for sleeping and eating, let alone spending a few minutes with our Maker. So, in your busy life, you have to consciously make time.

Are you spending time with what you love the most?   Is it God?

Grab a calendar. If you don’t have one, buy one and write “Time With God ” (TWG) every day for the next month.   Begin with five or ten minutes of prayer and Bible study.   For as Paul said, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16).   You see, once you make an appointment with God, you are more likely to keep it. Soon, you will look forward to spending time with God and may even wish to increase that time.

But, something else happens when you make time for God.  It seems that He multiples your time right back to you as a reward for your faithfulness to Him.   A woman once shared that she committed herself to reading the four Gospel accounts each month.  But, on one occasion, they had to move, and pack everything up and then unpack everything after the move.  In addition, she was raising two small children at home and working on a rather large furniture project. Yet, she still managed to read the Gospel accounts in thirty days.

God will help you make the most of your time if you give Him some time each day.  Make Him first on your list of priorities.

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“You know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.”  (Col. 3:13)

“Strong people don’t put others down; they lift them up.”  (Eccl. 4:9-12)

Way back years ago, my wife was trying to kill a fat fryer so we could have fried chicken for supper. She grabbed the fryer by the neck and began spinning him around and around at arm's length, without twisting his neck at all. When she threw him on the ground, he 1ay there befuddled and groggy for a minute or so, then hopped up and ran off. Trouble was, she hadn't killed a chicken ... she had only disturbed him for a short while.

I recall another incident in which a city girl had always enjoyed fried chicken until she saw her farmer uncle lay a chicken on the chopping block and whack his head off with an ax.  Her statement subsequent to that episode was, “I’ll never eat another piece of chicken as long as I live.”

In dealing with sin, one of the great tragedies in the Lord’s body today is that of brethren (elders, deacons, preachers and members alike) who decide that it’s high time to do something about sin in their 1ives, or in the lives of others, but, like my wife's “chicken killing,” they start out wrong, continue the same way, and eventually end up wrong. They don’t crucify the old man of sin and death; they merely shake him up a bit as they pussyfoot around issues, soft-soap their way past clear-cut decisions and whitewash the blatant wrongs, so they’ll appear respectable and acceptable.

Another tragedy is that of witnessing the complete exposition of sin and reacting like the city girl by refusing to accept the simple truth -- if you want fried chicken, somebody has to kill a chicken. If we desire pure and undefiled religion, we've got to “kill” sin where we find it. If we don’t have the stomach for that kind of action, we might just as well make up our minds to the fact that we’ll be living in and with sin for the rest of our lives.

Visiting a delinquent member and telling him, in love, that hes wrong is neither unkind nor unscriptural. Labeling wrongdoing by individuals or “churches” as sin is what God requires. To do less is to do less than we should. Brethren, let’s quit slinging sin “round and round.” Let’s kill it where we find it.