Redeeming the Time: How to Make the Most of Adversity

By Danny Ray Christian

This is a book for every person who has ever gone through trying times and wondered why they had to suffer the harshest trials of life. The lesson I have learned in the course of writing it is that nothing happens to us, but everything happens for us. This is in accordance with Romans 8:28, which says, All things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are the called according to His purpose. I hope that your reading it will help you see that even when life is the darkest, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. It wasnt until after losing all hope that I learned that there is indeed hope for all who are joined to the living. So I pray that whatever you do that you wont make the mistake of seeing the clouds overhead as a sign that the sun will no longer shine on you and your life again, because believe me, it will. Both it and God are always just waiting to brighten your tomorrows and dreams. Let this small book be an inspiration to you as you prove yourself more than a conqueror through the one who strengthens youChrist.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543414240

Danny Ray Christian

Danny has been certified by Toastmasters International as a Competent Public Speaker (1991 East Moline). He received his GED from the Chicago City Colleges (1981) and obtained a certificate in Graphic Arts from Southeastern Illinois College (1987). He is a former member of the Pan-African Revolutionary Socialist Party. He spent twenty years in prison and ten in Elgin Mental Health Center. While in the hospital he wrote over eight-hundred poems, three books of daily meditations, and numerous speeches and Afro-centric anecdotes. He also acted as a mentor for younger consumers while there, leading his own peer-support groups and chairing GROW for four years (2003-07). You can contact him about appearing at your venue at [e-mail]

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Copyright © 2017 by Danny Ray Christian.

ISBN:         Softcover                 978-1-5434-1425-7

                eBook                       978-1-5434-1424-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 04/10/2017

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Contents

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Chapter One Purpose

Chapter Two People of Faith

Chapter Three The Unemployed

Chapter Four The Poor

Chapter Five Give Thanks

Chapter Six What the Apostles Did to Redeem the Time

Appendix A Message to Prisoners: The Most Isolated and Abandoned

Appendix B Breaking the Ghetto Mentality

Appendix C 20 Life Lessons from a Life of Imprisonment

Ephesians 5:15-17

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my mother, Dorthea Powell, who was my first spiritual teacher, and my Pastor, Reuben E. Coleman, Good Temple MBC, as well as Dr. Sam, HRDI, Pastors, Little Chuck and Big Chuck and all the men of Turning Point, Rev. Calloway of T.R.E.A.D., and my brother in Christ, Pastor Steve Perkins of TARGET, all who have mentored me in my walk with Christ.

Preface

It has taken me nearly thirty years to bring this book to publication due to me long distraction with a life of addiction and crime, which prevented me from ever settling down long enough to publish it. Yet I am of the belief that everything happens in God’s divine order. What I can say for the experiences it took to bring me to the point where I am able to finally see this book in print is the fact that there probably was never a more appropriate time for its publication than now. I say this because there are so many people in the world today who are failing to Redeem the Time, as the Scriptures instruct us to do in these last and evil days. So what you essentially have to know as you read it is that as sure as trials and troubles are going to come in life, there is always a way to grow from them and make the most of them.

I can only tell you as a man who had to beat his head up against prison walls for thirty years that we each only get so many chances to get life right before the curtains closes on us. My hope for those who read this book is that they will not have to take the long route I took to get to the point of understanding that it is best to look for the small light that burns in the dark than it is to curse the darkness, meaning, that more can be made of being a Pollyanna than a Doubting Thomas.

Therefore, I ask that you do me a favor and let not another day go by without you doing all in your power to redeem the time through the exercise of some faith and hope. It has been my experience that life only challenges us with obstacles for the sake of building our character and sense of trust in God. Be wise and use every day and situation as an asset and do not allow them to become liabilities through misuse.

Introduction

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians 5:15-17.

When I first read the above scripture I was in a very adverse situation. I was in the Cook County Jail, 1994, facing thirty years for armed robbery and attempted bank robbery. I had abandoned my wife and son and I was addicted to crack cocaine. Needless to say, I faced a very bleak future in prison. At that time, I did not know what I would do with thirty years in prison. So not knowing what to do I began to pray and read a Bible I had found on the tier, after all that is what I had been taught by my mother to do in times of trouble.

That is when I discovered Ephesians 5:15-17. I had to look up the words redeem and circumspectly because I didn’t know what they meant. But once 1 understood them I knew that God was letting me know what to do in my present situation, redeem the time. He meant for me to use whatever time I was going to get in prison to get my life together and come back to Him.

That is the beginning of my story and how I came to focus on the apostolic edict to redeem the time. Now let me say this, today there are a lot of people running around loose in the world who don’t know what to do with their time. This is a shame because the state of the world makes it obvious what we need to do. We need to turn back to God and to helping each other reach our full potential. It is time we take back creation from the forces of hate, violence and greed as well as ungodliness.

There was a time going all the way back to the foundation of this country when it was decreed that every man should be free to pursue life, liberty and happiness that people genuinely wished the best for their neighbors. Or at least that was the idea. I simply think that we need to get back to that idea and start helping our fellowman when and where we can.

Just like there are people who are lost in the world today, there are those who are searching for meaning and direction for their life. This book is written for them and you, to help you find ways to turn any and every negative in your life to a positive, and to do so by showing you in scripture how several Bible heroes redeemed the time during their lives. Included will be my personal testimony from thirty years of being lost in a world of addiction and crime, before I found my purpose and got treatment for my mental illness and faulty criminal thinking patterns.

From my born again experience and study of the Bible I can tell you with total confidence that there is purpose to all life and that there is hope in the worst of situations if you have faith and belief in God. It is my belief that God doesn’t want us to waste our time crying over how screwed up our lives and world are, but wants us to redeem the time by doing all we can to let Him straighten us out and to contribute something positive to our families and communities.

So if you have been looking for a way to give meaning to your life and/or suffering I hope this book will help you in your search. I believe that the suggestions made in it on how to redeem the time will serve you well if you try them. They are simple things which just about any person can do with promising results regardless of their challenges.

The Word calls for us to walk circumspectly, (that is live cautiously) not as fools but as wise. In other words, it is time we stop living as though there is no tomorrow or price to pay for the things we do today. It is time we start living as though we will have to give account for how we have lived our lives.

Chapter One

Purpose

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned: neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory I have formed him; yea, I have made him. Isaiah 43:3,7.

Try to imagine the worst possible adversity that could befall you. You may picture yourself as the parent of a child who has been sentenced to death row for a horrendous crime they did or did not commit, (note: when I first wrote this manuscript I wrote the above statement as a hypothetical situation that could happen to anyone. At that time, I never thought I would put my own mother in a similar position when I fail to take care of my mental health and made some psychotic decisions about my son’s wellbeing, and tried to kill him as well as myself in 2001.) Or you might see yourself suffering some terminal illness in some impoverished country where there is little medical care. You may not have to imagine adversity because you are enduring it in some form or another right now.

Like many people who encounter sudden calamity, you may have found yourself asking God, Why me? Sometimes it seems that we don’t believe in God until we are faced with trying to figure out why some disaster has befallen us, our loved ones or our country. Our cry for understanding and explanation of why something bad has happened to us is not necessarily an expression of our unbelief, but simply an expression of our pain.

God understands that pain because His son, Jesus, was made in the likeness of man so that he could personally identify with the suffering of humanity. The Bible says, Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had power of death, that is the devil, Hebrews 2:14. He does