Participants: Dale Barnhurst
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000373
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00:31 Greeting, welcome to Faith Chapel.
00:33 I am Pastor Dale Barnhurst, 00:35 here to share with you another scene 00:39 from the gospels. We want to take a look at 00:42 what I have entailed to call Roof Invaders. 00:45 I found in Mark chapter 2, 00:48 but before we open up God's word and read, 00:50 we wanna ask that you would bow your heads 00:52 with us for a word of prayer. 00:54 Our Heavenly Father, 00:55 we again want to thank you for who you are. 00:57 I want to thank you for being our God. 00:59 We ask for your Holy Spirit 01:01 to fill us inside and out. 01:02 Give us the wisdom, 01:04 understanding that we need 01:06 and we ask that you would apply the principles 01:08 to our lives. We thank you in Jesus name, amen. 01:14 Through our life we are given all kinds of tests 01:17 sometimes they are tests 01:19 that you have on a piece of paper, 01:21 as you did when you were in grade school, 01:23 or high school, or college. 01:25 And I'm not going to give a test today, 01:28 but I wanted us to take a look at some issues 01:31 regarding the taking of tests because sometimes 01:34 when you take a test, 01:35 you're so into remembering everything 01:38 you need to make a perfect grade 01:42 on the test. 01:43 And so you're trying to remember, 01:45 what you studied, 01:46 and what the teacher said? 01:48 What was in your notes and all the rest? 01:50 But if that process gets interrupted, 01:53 sometimes you can't recall the things you need. 01:57 And they have it in school, 02:00 they've done some studies 02:01 what's called an interrupt quotient. 02:04 Some people have a high interrupt quotient, 02:07 means they could be interrupted 02:08 but they can comeback 02:09 to the same train of thoughts 02:11 and pick it right up where they left off. 02:13 Other ones you interrupt them 02:15 and then they have take sometime 02:16 to get back together, 02:18 or get their train of thought 02:19 and get back on track. 02:21 And, so we need to find out 02:24 what our interpretability is, 02:26 or sometimes if we are interrupted too many time, 02:32 we have interpretability. 02:33 In other words we just blow, 02:35 we just can't handle it. 02:36 I want to talk a little bit about that today, 02:39 and how Jesus dealt with that in His time. 02:42 Thinking about time, 02:45 so many times we see time just disappear, 02:49 and that increases our stress level, 02:52 and increases our interpretability. 02:54 Sometimes we think about time 02:58 and it seems like it's just yesterday 02:59 that I was holding my sons in my arms 03:02 after they were born. 03:03 It seem like it was just yesterday when they, 03:05 they graduated from high school. 03:07 But time just seems to disappear and of course in 03:11 Daniel chapter 12 and verse 4. 03:13 It shows in the end that many will run to and fro. 03:18 And I think all of us have found that out, 03:20 it seems like we're going here 03:22 and we're going there. 03:23 We almost catch ourselves coming as we are living. 03:26 But time just seems to disappear 03:30 and I think we need to slowdown our time 03:33 and schedule. So, that we allow Jesus 03:36 to do what He wants to in our life, 03:38 because in reality, our hard occupations, 03:42 they are not as important as our children. 03:44 We need to make sure we spend time 03:47 with our family, especially our 03:49 young children when they're, 03:50 when they're the youngest. 03:52 We need time just to notice people. 03:54 I'm not sure if you've ever recall yourself 03:57 going across a parking lot, 03:59 or going into a store and later on someone says, 04:02 hey I saw you there, 04:04 but and I waved and I called out your name, 04:06 but you never responded. 04:08 What were you thinking? 04:10 Where were you at? 04:11 Oh I am must have been thinking about my list, 04:12 or I'm must have been thinking about 04:14 what I needed to do that day. 04:15 Well, we need to slowdown and notice people. 04:20 We needed to slowdown for relationship. 04:22 because I believe that we need to take time 04:26 for encouragement. We need to encourage 04:28 each other, and accomplishing what 04:31 God wants us to do that day or with that person. 04:34 Taking time, taking time to be interrupted 04:39 from our to-do less, 04:40 taking time to be interrupted from 04:43 what we need to accomplish that day. 04:45 I believe that we need to make sure that 04:50 we take time to do what God wants us to do. 04:52 Of course along with that, 04:55 along with everything we've been talking about, 04:58 are you willing, am I willing to allow God 05:02 to interrupt us, to interrupt us to do His will? 05:06 Are you into making a list and making sure 05:11 you go through it that you check off each thing 05:13 as you accomplish it? 05:15 So much so that you have no time to do 05:18 what God wants to do that day. 05:20 I remember one time I was had my schedule 05:25 all made out for the afternoon, 05:26 I had all the people that 05:28 I wanted to see written down, 05:30 their addresses, I thought it had 05:33 everything written down. 05:34 And so I took off and got to the town, 05:37 and I look down and I had the person's name. 05:40 Now God have blessed me a lot of times 05:42 with being able to go to a person's house 05:45 and I could get right back there again 05:47 and not have a problem. 05:48 And I had been to this person's house before 05:51 and they're wanting some more literature, 05:53 and I was suppose to pick up some Bible studies 05:56 and drop off some Bible studies. 05:57 And it was very small town, 06:00 less than a thousand people town, 06:02 and I tried to find the house 06:06 and I could not find the house. 06:08 I went down what I thought was the right street, 06:11 but I had unfortunately not written down 06:13 the address for that person. 06:15 And so I circled and did another circle, 06:19 and went down another street, 06:20 that house looked like it was familiar 06:23 but I wasn't sure, and I didn't want to knock 06:25 at the wrong house. 06:26 But finally I got to a parking lot 06:29 and I went through everything in my car 06:31 trying to find that address 06:32 but I couldn't find it. 06:34 To tell you the truth I was getting a little, 06:37 little irritated because I thought here 06:40 I'm doing God's work, 06:41 I want to do His will and I know 06:44 I needed to get this literature to this person. 06:47 I prayed about it, yeah, 06:49 but he didn't answer that prayer that time, 06:52 and I just couldn't figure out why? 06:54 I was on a time schedule, 06:55 I wanted to get things done, 06:56 I wanted to get my, 06:58 all my visits made that day. 07:01 And so yes, I sat there and grumbled to God 07:05 for a little while, and I finally just threw up 07:08 my hands I said okay Lord, 07:10 what do You want me to do? 07:11 Who do You want me to see in this town 07:14 or wherever, whatever town. 07:17 And as soon as I asked that question, 07:20 He gave me the answer, 07:22 a name popped into my head, 07:24 and there was on the piece of paper, 07:27 I had been to this person's house, 07:28 numerous times, never found them home, 07:31 I tried in the morning, 07:33 I tried in the afternoon, 07:34 I tried early evening, 07:36 I tried late evening, 07:38 but never made a contact. 07:41 And I had I guess somewhat given up because 07:45 I just couldn't figure out when to reach them. 07:47 I left messages on the phone, 07:49 I had tried various things 07:51 but here was a time, okay. 07:54 Lord I will go to their house 07:55 and try to find them. 07:57 So I went to their house and of course 08:00 there was a person there that was their grandma, 08:03 and there was a daughter, 08:05 and the granddaughter, 08:07 all of those I tried to see, 08:08 and I hadn't found any of them before. 08:11 When I got to their house this time 08:14 all of them were there, 08:16 every single one of them were there, 08:18 and so when went in and had good visit 08:20 and encouraged them, 08:22 and spend some time with God's word with them, 08:25 and was able to encourage them 08:28 to come to church service. 08:29 And they were there this next, 08:31 at next Sabbath, 08:32 and I've to praise the Lord. 08:33 The Lord interrupted my study, 08:35 my timetable, my schedule, 08:38 my to do list, 08:39 and brought me to their house, 08:42 at the right time in the right way. 08:44 The question I have for all of us 08:49 is what about our ability to let God interrupt us? 08:55 What would have happened 08:57 if the funeral at Maine 08:59 would not have been interrupted? 09:01 What if they had said sorry, 09:03 Jesus just stand back, 09:05 we're going on to the cemetery. 09:07 We don't have time to listen to you. 09:08 We don't have time for you to stay here, 09:10 we are just going on. I'm glad they stopped, 09:14 I am glad they let Jesus interrupt them. 09:16 And of course there are many people 09:18 throughout the Bible that God has used 09:21 and interrupted. And we will take a look 09:23 at few of those more, 09:24 but I believe we need to let God interrupt us. 09:28 We need to let Him interrupt our plans, 09:31 our schedules, or to do list, 09:33 and accomplish what He wants to do in our lives? 09:36 We gonna take a look at that one experience 09:39 that Jesus had. It's found in Mark chapter 2, 09:42 you will also find it in Mathew 9:2-8 09:46 and Luke 5:18-26 but if you have your Bibles 09:50 and you wanna turn, 09:51 turn with me to Mark chapter 2, 09:54 Mark chapter 2. Now take a look at 09:57 what Jesus' experienced. 10:00 Mark chapter 2, verse 1 and 2 and it says. 10:04 And again he entered Capernaum, 10:06 special town that he enjoyed, 10:08 after some days, and it was heard that 10:10 He was in the house. 10:12 Immediately many gathered together, 10:15 so that there will be no longer room 10:17 to receive them, not even near the door. 10:21 And He preached the word to them. 10:24 Capernaum, Capernaum was Christ's 10:28 headquarters for Galilee. 10:29 It was His favorite, 10:31 one of His favorite towns. 10:32 I had the opportunity of going there during 10:35 a trip to Israel one time, 10:37 of what remained of Capernaum and there was, 10:40 it was a interesting place, 10:41 there was a neat place to know that 10:43 Christ could have been in that area 10:45 when He was here on this earth. 10:47 It says that he was in the home of Peter in the home, 10:52 it was Peter's home that was his town, 10:55 that was where he lived, Capernaum. 10:58 And he was so busy that everybody wanted to see 11:02 him that there was not enough room. 11:04 You couldn't even get through the door, 11:06 it was so bad they, 11:08 they just couldn't get through the door. 11:11 And so there is one group though 11:16 that wanted to get in. There was one group 11:18 that needed to get in. 11:19 and I want to take a look of that in verse 3. 11:22 Mark chapter 2 and verse 3 says, 11:26 Then they came to Him, 11:27 they came, bringing a paralytic 11:31 who was carried by four men. 11:34 A paralytic, one who is sick of the palsy 11:38 in New King James Version says he was a paralytic, 11:41 he was one that, 11:42 that so could not get around, 11:45 he could not get around on his own, 11:47 he had have help, 11:49 but he wanted something, 11:51 he wanted it desperately. 11:52 His friends knew he wanted is, 11:55 his friends knew that he needed to take 11:57 the time to go to see Jesus. 12:00 But he couldn't get there by himself, 12:02 he needed some helpers 12:03 and he had four of them. 12:05 He had four people that were, 12:07 that loved him enough to take them. 12:10 I'm not sure if you ever help 12:12 carry somebody before, 12:13 but it's not an easy process. 12:16 It's not a process that, 12:17 that you just know just pick up a feather 12:20 and carry it, it's a hard process to carry somebody, 12:23 but these men did it, they loved him that much. 12:27 Of course the question for all of us is, 12:31 do we love someone enough to help them out 12:35 with their desire? Of course his desire was, 12:38 was to be healed, his desire was even 12:42 for an inner healing and we'll talk more about 12:45 that in just a moment. 12:46 But verse 4, Mark chapter 3, 2, 12:51 Mark chapter 2 in verse 4 he says. 12:55 And when they could not come near Him, 12:57 talking about Jesus because of the crowd, 13:00 they uncovered the roof where He was. 13:03 So when they had broken through, 13:07 they led down the bed on which 13:10 the paralytic was lying. 13:12 Here they got so desperate, 13:17 they were on a mission, 13:18 nothing was gonna hold them back, 13:20 they were on a mission to get their friend 13:22 to see Jesus. Crowd or no crowd, 13:25 they were getting him in. 13:26 So you couldn't get through the front door, 13:28 you went up the side steps to roof 13:30 and you pulled apart the roof. 13:33 Now, I am not sure how the process was, 13:36 I wish we could had TV back then because 13:39 inside must have been and starting to be a mess 13:42 because with the thatch, thatch roof, 13:45 when you start to tear apart from the top, 13:48 it starts to filter in all the dust and all the debris. 13:53 And so here those individual decided, 13:55 they wanted to get to Jesus. 13:58 They weren't concerned about 13:59 what dust was gonna fall on who, inside. 14:02 They wanted to get this their friend to see Jesus. 14:05 They wanted to make sure that he got in there, 14:08 they had persistence, they wanted to make sure 14:11 that he got in there. 14:12 Do we have persistence? 14:14 Do we have that much persistence 14:15 when we have a friend that needs help? 14:17 Do we have persistence 14:18 in order to take someone to Jesus? 14:21 Of course the Bible is full of illustrations 14:25 of people who had persistence. 14:26 Of course there was the widow 14:29 and the judge that Jesus talks about. 14:32 She was so into making sure that the judge 14:36 heard her case, she persistent until 14:40 he got tired on it. 14:41 And of course in the Old Testament, 14:43 you have Elijah getting old, 14:46 going to see the King and telling him to shoot 14:49 the arrows into the ground. 14:51 And the king wasn't too persistent at that time, 14:55 he was so unpersistent that Elijah told him 14:59 that his war against the enemies of God 15:03 was not going to be accomplished 15:05 because he didn't have enough persistence. 15:07 Do you and I have enough persistence? 15:10 Would we go to whatever lanes 15:13 to accomplish what God wanted us to do? 15:15 I hope none of us ever get to the point 15:18 where we are so worried about, 15:20 well I'm getting little tired or I'm not sure 15:24 what somebody will think about that or man, 15:27 I don't wanna over do it my stay 15:30 I don't wanna over do what, 15:31 what is happening so, 15:32 but I believe, I believe these four men, 15:36 these four of friends of this man wanted to make 15:40 sure that they got what he wanted done. 15:43 And so we all need persistence, 15:46 we all need persistence. 15:48 Of course the other part of this 15:50 is what about Jesus? 15:51 Here Jesus was in the home, 15:55 and he was speaking to the people, 15:57 he was sharing great truths 15:59 that would change their lives. 16:01 He was getting things across to them. 16:03 He could tell that the Holy Spirit was working 16:06 on their lives. And all of sudden, 16:08 as he is presenting, as he is sharing, 16:10 as he is talking about his heavenly Father, 16:13 all of a sudden, the roof starts to move, 16:17 the roof starts to break up, 16:19 the roof starts to shore sunshine 16:21 right down into the house. 16:22 Wow! That must have been something, 16:25 I wish I can't wait until I get to heaven 16:27 is to talk to Jesus and say you remember 16:30 that time when you in Peter's home, 16:31 and you were talking to the people, 16:33 and those four friends let that man down, 16:36 what was going through your mind? 16:39 Well I like to share this experience 16:43 that I had when I was taking my master's degree. 16:47 We had to take turns speaking to our colleagues 16:53 that were in the classroom. 16:54 And so of course we only had 10 minutes 16:57 to share the thought and we had to make sure 17:01 we had everything lined up, 17:02 had everything queued up, 17:04 had everything so it was 17:06 arrange in the right way. 17:07 And so my turn came, 17:11 my turn to take God's word, 17:14 take the notes and share with my colleagues, 17:19 my passion. And of course my text 17:22 for the day was Isaiah 65, 17:25 Isaiah 65 and I started my time 17:30 and of course they were doing at that time 17:33 what they were doing now and that is having 17:35 a camera on you. And of course it makes 17:37 you a little nervous and speaking before 17:39 your colleagues, your friends, 17:40 your classmates make even little more nervous, 17:43 and so I started the process, 17:47 and it was going great. 17:48 And one of the rules I needed to share 17:51 with you was, professor says during 17:54 that time you had to be on time, 17:56 if not ahead of time. 17:58 And so he said if you come late 18:01 and the door is shut, 18:03 stay in the hallway. 18:04 You are too late, 18:05 don't ever come through the door 18:08 when someone is preaching. 18:09 And so as I was going away on my message, 18:14 all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye off 18:16 on my right hand side, 18:18 I see this door starting to creek open. 18:21 And I say to myself just stay out there, 18:25 I'm already quarter way through my message, 18:27 just stay out there shut the door 18:29 and don't distract me. 18:31 Well they started to go back, 18:33 and I thought good now I'm continuing 18:35 on with my message and then of course 18:38 as we were going through, 18:39 all of sudden the door opened more, 18:42 and all of a sudden it opened full wide 18:46 and guess who walked in. 18:48 No, no one of my classmates, 18:49 it was a clown, 18:51 a clown came in to the classroom, 18:54 and he watched, she walked right pass me 18:57 and went to Dr. Holmes, 19:00 he was the instructor. 19:01 And then she started singing 19:03 happy birthday to him. 19:04 Well, that sort of interrupted the message, 19:08 it sort of interrupted my time, 19:09 it sort of interrupted everything, 19:11 everybody was hauling and laughing 19:13 and it was just interesting and of course after 19:17 it was all done, 19:18 I had to go on with my message. 19:20 And that was not easy to do, 19:23 so I am not sure how it was with Jesus, 19:25 but I know He was ready for the interruption. 19:28 I know He was wanting that person 19:30 to be healed inside and out. 19:33 Verse five of Mark chapter 2, 19:37 verse five it says, 19:41 when Jesus saw their faith, 19:42 He said to the paralytic, 19:45 Son, your sins are forgiven you. 19:49 That's what the man really wanted. 19:55 He wanted to be forgiven, 19:57 he wanted to hear those words from Jesus, 20:01 you are forgiven. 20:03 What about you and I, 20:05 do we want the same? 20:07 Do we want to be healed by Jesus? 20:10 There are some awesome text 20:12 that talk about them, 20:14 there is some awesome things 20:16 that we need to have in our lives. 20:18 I wanna take a look now at the rest of verses, 20:21 Mark chapter 2 verses 6-12, it says. 20:27 And some of the scribes were sitting there 20:30 and reasoning in their hearts, 20:32 "Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? 20:35 Who can forgive sins but God alone?" 20:38 to say to the paralytic, 20:40 'Your sins are forgiven,' 20:42 or to say, 'Arise, take up your bed and walk?' 20:45 But that you may know that the Son of Man 20:48 has power on earth to forgive sins". 20:50 He said to the paralytic, 20:52 "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, 20:56 and go to your house." 20:57 Immediately he arose, 20:59 took up his bed, 21:00 and went out in the presence of them all, 21:03 and so that all were amazed and glorified God, 21:06 saying, "We never saw anything like this!" 21:09 Again Jesus wants to forgive us, 21:14 He has the power, He has the authority. 21:17 There are some awesome texts 21:19 that go along with that. 21:20 Isaiah chapter 43 in verse 25 says, 21:24 I, even I, am He who blots out your 21:28 transgressions for My own sake; 21:31 And I will not remember your sins. 21:34 Isn't that awesome our God blots out, 21:38 blots out our sins and He doesn't remember them, 21:41 He doesn't remember them at all, 21:43 they are totally gone. 21:45 And then of course one of my favorites 21:47 Micah chapter 7 in verse 19, 21:50 Micah 7 in verse 19. 21:53 He will again have compassion on us, 21:55 and will subdue our inequities. 21:58 You will cast all our sins 22:00 into the depths of the sea. 22:01 Isn't that awesome again? 22:03 God wants to remove our sins, 22:06 He wants to make them go down totally 22:08 and disappear 100 percent. 22:10 I had a illustration along those lines, 22:14 you may have heard before but it's worth repeating. 22:16 There was a doctor friend that's, 22:18 that's he was a Christian doctor, 22:20 he treat all his patients alike 22:24 and of course in his room, 22:27 waiting room he would have various 22:30 Christian literature all around, 22:32 so that when his patients came in 22:33 they would have something to read. 22:35 And of course one of this own church members 22:38 would come in there and his church members really, 22:41 just one church member really enjoyed 22:44 reading the literature, but the problem was, 22:46 as every time he read something he would say 22:49 praise the Lord or hallelujah. 22:52 And of course being in a doctor's waiting room 22:56 not everybody was feeling that great 22:57 and to hear him shout out that 23:00 in a waiting room just wasn't really great, 23:02 and so they would complain to the doctor. 23:04 Now this guy is really getting on our nerves 23:07 I wish you would do something about it. 23:08 And so he got together with his nursing staff 23:11 and said okay. 23:12 The next time this guy comes in, 23:14 you make sure that he does not, 23:16 you let us know ahead of time 23:19 but he does not blurting out this glory hallelujahs 23:23 and praise the Lords, and all the rest. 23:25 So will take all the literature away 23:27 and just for when he is going to come in 23:30 and we'll put it aside and then we'll make sure 23:32 he gets in and gets out rather quickly. 23:34 And so they did that, 23:36 the next time he was there, 23:37 they made sure all the literature was away, 23:39 they got him in to see the doctor or they almost did. 23:43 They thought they had it all worked out, 23:44 but all of sudden he decided to start to say, 23:48 praise the Lord again, 23:49 and one of the things that he found 23:51 in talking to doctor later was 23:53 they had National Geographic and the man 23:56 they found where the sea was 7 miles deep. 23:59 And the text came to his mind, 24:01 but the Lord put his sins that far down. 24:04 And so he was very glad 24:07 that our God forgives our sins. 24:09 Another one my favorites 24:11 is First John chapter 1 verse 9. 24:14 Let's take a look at 24:15 that First John Chapter 1 and verse 9, 24:18 and it says. If we confess our sins, 24:21 He is faithful and just to forgive us 24:23 our sins and to cleanse us 24:25 from all unrighteousness. 24:27 Again, isn't that a beautiful promise, 24:30 we confess, He is more than willing, 24:33 more than just to forgive us of our sins. 24:36 Jesus can bring us both hope and help. 24:40 He wants to do both in our lives, 24:43 just as He did with the paralytic. 24:45 In the book Desire of Ages, page 266, 24:50 I like to read this to you, 24:51 it says when we pray for earthly blessings, 24:55 the answer to our prayer maybe delayed. 24:58 For God may give us something 25:00 other then we ask, 25:01 but not so when we ask for deliverance of sin. 25:06 Jesus always said yes, 25:10 isn't that good news, 25:11 it is awesome news to know that Jesus 25:14 wants to forgive us. 25:15 So, the lessons that we need to learn 25:18 from Mark chapter 2 it's okay to interrupt Jesus, 25:23 its' okay to interrupt Him, 25:24 He has a high interpretability scale, 25:28 we can interrupt Him. 25:29 Matter of fact He want us to, 25:31 He wants us to. He even gives us 25:34 that command in Matthew Chapter 11 in verse 28, 25:38 Matthew 11:28 says, Come unto Me, 25:41 all you who labor and are heavy laden, 25:44 and I will give you rest. 25:46 The other lesson that we learned from 25:49 Mark Chapter 2 verses 3-5 25:52 is that we must have a heart for others, 25:54 we must care about others, 25:56 so much so that we go out of our comfort zone 25:59 to accomplish what they need, 26:01 what they want, 26:02 especially in coming to Jesus. 26:04 We must take their faith 26:06 and make sure that is expressed. 26:10 We must have faith in order to even 26:12 help others. And so I want to ask you 26:15 that we make sure that we accomplish 26:18 what God wants us to do. 26:20 The other text I wanna take us 26:22 to is in Hebrew Chapter 4 and verse 16, 26:25 Hebrew 4 in verse 16 it says. 26:27 Let us therefore come boldly 26:29 to the throne of grace, 26:30 that we may obtain mercy 26:33 and find grace to help in time of need. 26:35 Jesus tells us right here to come boldly to Him, 26:40 we need to come boldly to Him, 26:41 we must come boldly to ask God forgiveness 26:45 for ourselves and for others because of Jesus. 26:48 We must come boldly to Him to accept His forgiveness. 26:52 We must come boldly, 26:54 not because of us but because of Jesus 26:56 dying on the cross. We must come boldly, 26:58 we must come boldly to give God's 27:02 forgiveness because of Jesus, 27:04 give to others that we need to 27:06 but He says to come boldly to the throne of grace, 27:10 come boldly to Him and that's my challenge to you, 27:13 is make sure that in our walk with Jesus 27:17 that we are not timid, 27:18 that we are not backward, 27:20 but that we depend upon Him 27:22 to accomplish what He wants us to do, 27:24 just like these four young men 27:27 who helped their friend, 27:28 we need to make sure, 27:30 we need to make sure that we help 27:33 someone else come to Jesus, 27:35 because their life, 27:36 their eternal life may depend upon it. 27:38 Are you willing to do that for others? 27:40 Are you willing to take the love that Jesus 27:43 gave to each one of us and make sure that 27:46 someone else comes to Jesus 27:48 and gets their need met? 27:49 I ask that you would pick time to do just that. |
Revised 2014-12-17