Cooler but the promised rain has
not come. However, we are enjoying the
veggies from the garden, still, and we are thankful for that.
Biding my time right now, I am
not feeling well – and I am due to have a surgery where that might have some
impact on whether or not they can proceed.
Just a couple of days to get right.
Malachi
3:6 For I am the Lord, I
change not;
Hebrews
13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for
ever.
For the past few days I have
been under the weather, still am for that matter. As I was thinking on God and how He is an
unchanging being, I thought also on the text in Hebrews.
What does that mean? We know that Jesus is God who came to earth
in the form a man, therefore, He doesn’t change. He is the same as He always was and as He
will ever be.
What struck me though was
‘today.’ I think of the day as just
that, the time I am up. Yes, a day is
measured, Of course, in 24 hours segments.
But that wasn’t always how time
was measured. In the period of ‘time’
man has inhabited the earth, only a small percentage of it was measured by the
minutes or hours – before clocks it was measured by the seasons and light of the
sun.
Time seems to have more
relevance today, because we are reminded of it all the time. Most of us have several clocks in our homes –
reminds me of the old adage “If you have one clock you know what time it is, if
you have two you are not sure.”
We have watches, or cell phones
that have the time on it, we have computers that have the time on it. Time is a tangible thing for us, and it is
how we live – meeting with people and getting things done on ‘time,’ and how we
understand the measurement of history.
Before retirement I had to check
my watch, frequently, because I had meetings to attend and things that needed to
be done on time. Not to mention that
when you wrote a ticket it had to be specified as to the time of the offense –
the day, only, was insufficient.
I was living in the moment only
as to what had to be done at whatever time,
I am not referring to the common phrase of “living in the moment,” as
‘you cast aside everything outside what you are doing at the time and focus only
on yourself,’ I am talking about relating to God.
To me time was more of a clock,
a measurement, than being.
While this isn’t a pressing
thing in the scheme of God’s teachings, it just struck me as my time with Him is
now for an eternity and it began over 50 years ago – there is no end; there is
no ‘time’ as we measure it with our relationship with God.
To Him, January 1, 2015 is not
different than January 1, 1000.
God isn’t concerned about time
as we are; He has always been and the fact that we are only going to live here a
short amount of time impedes our ability to understand what time means to
Him.
Because we have a difficult time
grasping that fact, we have to use things that allow us to get some
understanding, even if it is not perfect.
While God had foreknowledge of
us, we only came into being at conception.
We had a beginning, we look at death as the end – yet, it is the end of
the body, only, not the spirit – not ‘the me’ - that was created at
conception. Our spirit will live
forever.
What I came to realize, though,
is our measurement of time is flawed. We
focus on time with the thought of doing something – not with the idea of
being. When God speaks of today, it
isn’t just a matter of ‘time’ it is a matter of who He is and how we relate to
Him.
It is an ongoing process. It isn’t by the day, hour, minute, or even
second - it is now, and now is a relationship with Him that time does not matter
– since it is ongoing, it is timeless.
When we accepted Christ we were
one with Him. He became an integral part
of who we are; there no longer is time when we measure our relationship with
Him, it began with our salvation, but it never ends.
Yes, we must live in this world
that measures time with a clock and calendar.
We still have to be on time to appointments, we still have to remember
important engagements, but that is what we do to relate to others – not to
God.
We look at the Old Testament,
the New Testament and what is happening in the world since then up to and
including ‘today.’ It is a measurement
to determine what was and is happening, physically, in the world.
The Word of God speaks of time
to allow us to understand the significance of rejecting God, and that He will
not always strive with man – but for those that accept Him, we are with Him now,
we are striving to serve Him, now. There
is no later, there is no earlier when we serve God, there is only now and now is
for eternity.
Time, with God, is not a moment
– it is an eternity without measure. We
have the privilege of existing with our God forever, time has no relevance when
we understand that the real person that we are is our spirit, not the body, and
the spirit is in constant contact with God.
Time is measured, by God’s Word,
to help us understand the importance of telling others, of spreading the love
and gospel of Christ so that others can overcome sin and live an eternity with
God. The ‘time’ we have on earth is to
do service to Him.
James 4:13-14 Go to now, ye that
say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year,
and buy and sell, and get gain:
14 Whereas ye know not what
shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that
appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth
away.
There is no measure of time in
eternity – and now that we have accepted Christ we have already started living -
for eternity.
1 John 2:24-25 Let that
therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye
have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the
Son, and in the Father.
25 And this is the promise
that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
Later, Art :-)
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