TIME
Romans 5:6-8; 6.You see, just at the right ’TIME’, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly die. 8. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Amazing, isn’t it, how fast we think that, “Hey, we have just had Christmas and it is here again!”
Time is a silent mover and before we know it, it has gone by. Even Paul mentions, ‘....to let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us....’ (Hebrews 12:1b)
We are all aware of how time moves so quickly, silently and unsuspectingly. We are also aware how time runs out so quickly. I know that you have experienced in some point of your life when all of a sudden your dead-line has been met and you have not finished your project or you are running 10 minutes late on getting the kids to school.
Time can be frustrating too! It can turn your mind into a knot and we can become irritable, frustrated, angry and bitter. I know that each of us has experienced that.
We only have to look at our own lives to realize that time has moved on and that our past has become ‘BUT A GLIMPSE’ in our lives, to the extent that we have not even taken notice of how quickly it has moved. At one point we are a teenager and then we are married, then we realize that our earthly bodies have become incapable of taking us from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’. Frustrating isn’t it? Oh! How time catches us unaware.
To some of us, TIME, even controls our lives. To some it controls our lives to such an extent that there is ‘NO-TIME’ for anything else in our lives. We don’t even contend to giving something else ‘TIME’. This is when we get so caught up in ‘TIME’ that we make it a sin. It is sort of like when our parents have told us to do something now and we don’t, this is when we get disciplined by them. (Hebrews 12:10---“Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His Holiness”).
Time is a natural process that all have to go through. After all, this is a 3 dimensional world we live in and we don’t perceive, to most of us, much otherwise.
God has it made, doesn’t He? If a 1000 years is only but a second to Him, what does His perspective of our world really look like to Him? Imagine it! 1000 years is only a second!
That one second has cramped in a thousand years of our existence. So, could we say that in 7 or 8 or 9 seconds, this world has been in existence? Look at our history books and think of how long it takes us to read just one story from them. A second, you think? Ecclesiastes 3:15 tells us, “Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.”
Man is trying so hard to fit in as much as he can to save ‘TIME’. We only have to look at memory devices in our phone systems, our computers etc and we see that over the past decade that the memories of these devices has become huge and are being built so much smaller, we can save a whole lifetime on a ‘USB’ stick. BUT to listen to it on replay would take forever. Amazing isn’t it? How much ‘TIME’ do we have?
This leads us to the point ‘How Precious is ‘TIME’?
In the beginning when God created the earth and all that is, invisible and visible we see that it was created in six days and the seventh day was a resting day. Can you imagine fitting all of God’s creation on a memory stick? If we think that we have memory sticks that can fit in so much information, how big would that memory stick have to be to fit God’s entire creation on? I don’t think that man will ever be able to build anything to hold as much information. The intricacies of God’s creation are way beyond our capabilities and always will be.
In short, God’s will is expressed to us through the Old Testament and man has fallen short of all God’s expectations and was given a new way to come to Him through His son, Jesus, as is shown to us in the New Testament and we have not even come close to the end of the New Testament. Yet we can preview all of this time both past, present and future in ‘The Bible’. This book was written in God’s ‘TIME’, what was before, what was then, what is now and what will be. This is wonderful ‘GRACE’ of God’s ‘TIME’ which He has given us, but God warns us that this ‘TIME’ is running out.
To preview this ‘TIME’ that is running out you could divide the Bible up into, let’s say 10 parts. Where do you think we are at, now? What part of the 10 parts are we at, right now? I give 5 parts to the Old Testament and 5 to the New Testament. Perhaps some will say that we are in the tenth part if you place Revelations as No.10.
We could say that we have been in Revelations now for awhile as is seen from the ‘Apostasy’ and the ‘Apathy that has set into Christian denominations throughout the world. In one sense the'TIME ZONE' has not- even-hardly moved, it seems repetitive, as this has already happened centuries ago and is still happening now. God gives us clear means of how the church is travelling. He tells the churches in Revelations what He is proud of and what He has against them (Revelations chapters 2 and 3).
‘TIME’ seems to unravel how we are travelling in our walk with God. This is part of the ‘GRACE’ that God has given us, His ‘GRACE’ of showing us where we are at. Therefore we have been given yet another chance to correct our ways and ‘TIME’ is running out. Jesus tells us that He will come back again and this ‘TIME’ it will be the end of human existence on earth. He tells us to be ready and not to look back and through Paul urges us to run the race with perseverance, to run the race to strive to get in front or we will be left behind. We are to do everything possible to further the Kingdom of God (Hebrews 12:14--- “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”), to go into the nations preaching and teaching and baptizing all who believe as in His words of the great commission in Matthew 28: 18-20. Even here, Jesus reminds us that time is near to a close in verse 20b, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” What a blessing of Grace is this promise He gives us, “And surely I am with you always....” He won’t abandon us, His Church, but He will leave us to our own devices if we do not follow Him, (Hebrews 12:26b-27, 26b “Once
more I will not shake only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 “The words ‘once more’ indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things---so that what cannot be shaken may remain.”
‘TIME’ is precious.
The phrase ‘in no time at all’ expresses it all in a sense, as ‘TIME’ moves very quickly. This gives us a sense of the urgency of ‘TIME’. We are told not to waste ‘TIME’. We are told to give ‘TIME’. There is a time for rest, a time for play and a time for work. It gives us at the ‘TIME’, a zone to work in, to be punctual. It gives employers knowledge of how much to pay you for the amount of hours you have worked for. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 tells gives examples of the ‘TIME’ we have.
We can go on and on about the expressions of time, but as Christians we work in God’s time. We pray in the ‘TIME’ He has given to us. We minister to people in His ‘TIME’. Sure, this sounds a bit out of place to the poor in spirit, but before we minister, we pray for the Holy Spirit to go before us to seek out the hearts of those He wants us to minister to, to prepare the way. In His ‘TIME’ He converts a non-believer and brings them to new life in Him. We are His hands and feet, His instruments, His body, His servants and slaves. Together we are the church. Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name there am I in amongst them”, for the Holy Spirit was already there, gladly, in no ‘TIME’ at all.
Psalm 75:2 says, “....I choose the appointed ‘TIME’; it is I who judge uprightly....”
God is ultimately the judge, judging fairly and in His own time. Jesus tells to those who act in a phariseetical way in Matthew 7:4-5; 4. How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the ‘TIME’ there is a plank in your own eye? 5. You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
And in John 5: 25-27, “I tell you the truth, a ‘TIME’ is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26. For as the Father has life in Himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27. And He has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.”
The Gospels tell us all the ‘TIME’ how we should live, act and do. BUT we cannot hope to obtain a seat in heaven if this is what we do---to just be good to others by doing good works. It is only by the Grace of God that you will enter the place provided by Him. Love is the ‘Timeless’ test that Jesus portrayed to His followers in leading them, teaching them and telling them, ‘Now go and do as I do.’
There is order in ‘TIME’ and when one understands this order, one will come to grips that despite of all the worldly goings on, there is no ‘TIME’ to waste and since we are human, you become aware that ‘TIME’ is more precious than one realizes.
Again you see in Romans 5:6-8; 6.You see, just at the right ’TIME’, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly die. 8. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
