Daylight Saving Time

	Like it or not, Daylight Saving Time is upon us. Saturday evening before you go to bed, be sure to “spring forward” one hour so you’re not late for Bible Class Sunday morning! I have no idea how many times I’ve grumbled, “I wish they’d just make up their mind which the time is going to be & leave it alone!” Have you done that? We’d be better off just to accept reality, change our clocks, and make the best of it.
	Daylight Saving Time has produced some unexpected side effects. Back in September of 1999 Israel had just switched back to Standard Time, but in the West Bank they were still on Daylight Saving time. Some terrorists in the West Bank put timers on some bombs, smuggled them into Israel, and were planting them on a couple of busses. Evidently they rigged the bombs to the clocks on the busses, because the bombs detonated while they were planting them, killing the 3 terrorists.
	In 2007 the government moved the change from Daylight to Standard time from the end of October to the first weekend of November. That was to keep the extra hour of daylight for Trick-or-Treaters, because there are so many accidents where children are struck by cars. It doesn’t seem to have done much good, because most kids wait until dark to Trick-or-Treat anyway.
	Benjamin Franklin first hatched the idea of Daylight Saving Time in 1784, but nothing much came of it right then. In the U.S. & Canada, the railroads were the first to mark off time zones and standardize time in 1883. Before then, time was pretty much a local matter, and you went by the sun dial or your best guess looking at the sun.
	During World War I (1918), Daylight Saving Time was established by law, and was set to begin on March 31. The hope was to save fuel. Whether it actually saved fuel is open to debate, but the people disliked it so much that the law was repealed in 1919 after the war ended.
	President Franklin D. Roosevelt re-instituted Daylight Saving Time during World War II, but it wasn’t actually a law – states that did not wish to use it were not obligated.
	In 1966 the “Uniform Time Act” was passed and signed into law. There are still certain states and portions of states that are not required to use it.
	God’s word has a good deal to say about the way we use time, regardless of how we set our clocks. Though God is eternal, and therefore not bound by time, He deals with us in terms of time. Galatians 4:4 tells us that in the fullness of time, God sent forth His son. Paul put it this way in Romans 5:6 – “In due time Christ died for the ungodly.” 
	In Acts 17:21 Luke tells us that the philosophers in Athens spent their time either telling or hearing some new thing. Obviously that was not a wise or beneficial use of time.
	Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Now is the accepted time. Now is a day of salvation.” What better use could a person make of time than to learn, believe, and obey the gospel of Christ?
	Paul tells Christians to “redeem the time” (Ephesians 5:16; Colossians 4:5) – i.e. make the most of your time, as opposed to wasting it. Time is a commodity that each of us has in exactly the same amount. I have 1440 minutes in my day. You have exactly the same amount in yours. I cannot give you some of my time so that you will have more, nor can you do that for me. When we say, “I don’t have time,” we really mean “I don’t want to use my time in this particular way.” Using our time is a matter of priority. Paul says make the most of your time. 
	The Hebrews writer told his readers in 5:12 that by reason of time they ought to be teachers. Evidently they had been Christians for some time, but had not developed and matured to the point that they could teach others. God expects us to use our time to grow and mature in Christ; He expects us to become teachers.
	Peter said in 1 Peter 4:2 that we spend enough time living sinful lives before we became Christians – we ought to spend the rest of our time, however long or short that might be, doing the will of God.

		--Joe Slater (Justin, TX)