—And a Good Sense of Values! DO 209612/84

1. THE TWO CLOCKS WE HAVE ON TOP OF THE TV ARE A GOOD ILLUSTRATION OF THE WAY MAN SEES THINGS & THE WAY GOD SEES THINGS. The one which is just a quartz display digital clock is the way man sees things, what Techi calls the "talking clock". It tells you the exact time & it's the way man sees things just for the present, just a moment of present time. It's bright & gaudy & emphasises the moment. But on the hands clock you see the full circle of time, the hours in relation to each other‚ & you get a better concept of the time.

2. THE DIGITAL CLOCK IS JUST LIKE SEEING ONE TREE, THE HANDS CLOCK IS LIKE SEEING THE WHOLE FOREST! On the digital clock you can't see the forest for the tree! But on the hands clock, that they now call an analog, you really get a better concept of time.—The past, present & future. You see how long it's been since midnight & how long it will be till noon. You can easily count the hours to know the time & the relation of both the present & the past to the future.

3. ON THE DIGITAL CLOCK YOU'RE SO SHORT-SIGHTED & NEAR-SIGHTED YOU CAN ONLY SEE ONE MINUTE AT A TIME, & it's very difficult to figure the relationship of the present to the past & the future. You've got to figure it all inside your head. But on the hands clock it's all right there before your eyes plain & simple & you can see the whole thing, all 12 hours. Isn't that amazing?

4. IT'S LIKE I USED TO ILLUSTRATE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE WAY WE SEE THINGS & GOD SEES THINGS: When you're driving down a road‚ you're right on the road itself & all you see are the things immediately around you. You can only remember the past & you can't see the future at all. You only remember where you came from & you don't really see where you're going. But it's like God is way up high looking down & He can see both the beginning of the road & the end of the road & where you are on the road. He can see the whole thing! And that's like time: He can see the Beginning to the End & He knows the End from the Beginning!

5. ORDINARY MAN CAN ONLY SEE THE THINGS AROUND HIM, BUT IF THE DRIVER OF THE CAR HAS A MAP, although he is no longer where he was, he can still see it on the map & it's history‚ recorded on the map, like the Bible. He can also see where the road leads to & where & how it ends, because he can see it on the map—like we see the Future in the Bible although we're not actually there yet. So if we have a Bible & the Words of God, we can see things like God sees them—from the Beginning to the End—& we can tell the End from the Beginning!

6. ON THE HANDS CLOCK YOU CAN SEE THE HOURS EVEN BEFORE YOU GET TO THEM. You can see exactly where they end & how far you are from them & exactly how far you are from the end hour-by-hour‚ just like we can see it in the Bible day-by-day. We see the Signs of the Times just like the numbers on the face of a clock, & by those signs we know how near we are to the End. We can also see how far we've come already & we can look back at the Beginning just like we do in the Bible.

7. SO MAN'S BRAND NEW SMART QUARTZ DIGITAL DISPLAY CLOCKS ARE NOT SO SMART AFTER ALL! The hands clock or the analog is much wiser because you see the whole story of time & its relationship to each other, the End from the Beginning. You have a much better perspective & see the overall picture instead of just moment-by-moment like on the digital clocks.

8. THE FACE OF THE HANDS CLOCK IS LIKE A PICTURE OF ALL TIME FROM THE BEGINNING TILL THE END, BUT THE NUMBERS ON THE DIGITAL CLOCK ARE ONLY MINUTE-BY–MINUTE. It only tells you where you are right this minute, you can't see the whole picture. It's as near-sighted as natural carnal man who doesn't know the Word of God. But the man who knows the Bible & the Words of God can see the whole picture in proper perspective & relationship from Beginning to End & still tell exactly where he's at!

9. DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU'RE AT? CAN YOU SEE THE END FROM THE BEGINNING? Do you get the picture, the whole picture?—Or are you just looking at what's right in front of your nose & you can't see the forest for the trees? It's kind of like money & material things. If you hold the dollar bill right in front of your eyes, you can't see anything else but money. But if you hold it out at arm's length & put it where it belongs as just a small part of the picture with everything else you can see, then you get it in its proper place & proper perspective in relationship to other things in life, & then you've got a better sense of values. If all you can see is money, you can't see anything else. But if you put it way out here at arm's length‚ you can see everything around you‚ of which the money is a very very small part.

10. IT'S SO PLAIN‚ IT'S RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES!—But to the little child or the childish mind, it's like Techi said the other day. She said, "I like the talking clock better because it tells me the time & I don't have to figure it out. I can tell exactly what time it is because it tells me." She calls it the "talking clock" because it tells the exact minute with the figures on the face & the quartz display. She says, "On the hands clock I have to count & I have to figure it & it takes so long to tell what time it is."—Because she hasn't been accustomed to telling time that way.

11. IT'S THE SAME AS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PEOPLE WHO KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BIBLE PROPHECY OR BIBLE HISTORY, they have to be told the time by the talking clock of the present & that's all they know. But you really have to study the face of the hands clock & understand it to know the difference between the hands. The hour hand tells you what hour you're living in, the minute hand shows the exact minute‚ & the second hand ticks off the seconds of every moment. You can see the past, the present & the future. But it takes a little study & it takes a little familiarising yourself with how it works & how it shows the time. Not every little child can discern it very easily, they have to be taught, just like we have to teach people Bible Prophecy & like we have to study the Word to know & understand it. It's a little more complicated but it is much more comprehensive because it knows all & tells all if you understand it & can see it.—The relationship between the seconds & the minutes & the hours & the whole scope of time.

12. WHEREAS THE FANCY LIGHTED DIGITAL ELECTRIC CLOCK GAUDILY DISPLAYS ONLY THE MOMENT THAT YOU'RE NOW LIVING IN & you can only see what time it is right this minute. You can't see the past or the future, it only screens the present & its power is very unreliable. When the lights go out, it goes out too & you're left in total darkness.—Whereas the power of the hands clock, if battery-powered & with glowing radium figures‚ can tell you time for years & even glows in the dark!

13. LIKE GOD'S WORD, THEREFORE, THE BATTERY-OPERATED HANDS CLOCK HAS SELF-CONTAINED POWER THAT CAN GO ON FOR YEARS! Like we contain the Power of God, it's always reliable & always there. But if we do get a little run down spiritually, we can always get a recharge or a new battery from the Lord. We've had this little battery clock for years! It runs for a year to a year-&-a-half on one little tiny battery & it's always reliable, it always tells the right time night or day & it never goes out.

14. BUT WHEN THE LIGHTS OF THIS WORLD GO OUT, THE WORLD WON'T BE ABLE TO SEE WHAT TIME IT IS because all their digital clocks will go out if they're connected to the System. They can't see their battery-operated digital clocks in the dark because the lights have gone out, but we can still see our little battery-operated hands clock & know exactly what time it is night or day! Even when the World's power fails, God's Power never fails! And if we look into His Word‚ we'll always know what time it is & how near we are to the End. Praise the Lord! Thank You Jesus! Amen!

15. THANK YOU JESUS FOR THY WORD THAT TELLS US EXACTLY WHAT TIME IT IS! It not only tells us but shows us. We can see both the past & the Future in Thy Word. Help us learn from the Past & prepare for the Future.—In Jesus' name, amen.

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family