WHAT TIME IS IT

Every time things heat up in the old lands of the Bible, people without much previous interest in spiritual things begin to ask around at the water cooler at work, "hmm, do you think we are heading for Armageddon?" Or, "do you think it is it the end of the world?" Of course, whatever page of the newspaper you open, you will see stories about cities and places mentioned thousands of years ago in the pages of the Bible. So, I guess it is only fair that people who are "guessing" about their spiritual destiny should be concerned about timing. After all, if the end of the world is going to happen in a week or two, it sure would be good information to have available.

I have 3 watches laying around my desk. I also have a several other watches tucked away in a jewelry box. Then there is the grandfather clock in the living room, a wall clock in the kitchen, a couple of clocks on the computers, and even clocks in the cars we drive. When I was a child I don't remember being so obsessed with the passing of time. In fact, time just seemed to last longer when I was 8 years old. 
 
I don't think Albert Einstein really finished the job. He got the General Theory of Relativity figured out, as well as the Special Theory of Relativity. That was good. We needed to know those things so we could figure out some other things. But, I think he should have focused more on this business of why time passes so much faster when a person is 70 years old than it does when they are 7 years old. There is no use pretending that it doesn't happen. I can vouch that my birthday comes around much more quickly now than it did 60 years ago. Superman is not the only thing that moves faster then a speeding bullet. So do my birthdays, it seems.

Time is really a funny concept anyway. If you lived on the planet Saturn, your days would be much longer than on Earth, and you might be an old man or woman by your 10th birthday. Or, If you lived on Mercury you would spin around the sun at a much faster clip, and perhaps reach your 1000th birthday before you died.

Of course, if you lived in a different galaxy in a different part of the universe, the way we compute time here on Earth just would not make much sense at all. Living on this planet we call Earth means that we are pretty much locked into our 60 minutes per hour, 24 hours per day, 365 days in a year formula.

With all of our clocks and watches, we still can't tell God's time very well though. Although we have our tick tock time down to some pretty unbelievable measurements based on pulses emanating from crystals and such, we still don't know much about how God keeps time.


If you are God, and you don't happen to live on Earth, how do you measure time? The apostle Paul wrote a phrase that has always stuck in my mind. He said in his letter to the people of Galatia (4:2) that when "the time had fully come" or "in the fullness of time," God sent His Son to the earth to redeem us. Well, how in the world did God compute that. I mean, if He created the universe and it all hangs together by His command, He just doesn't have a calendar based on 365 days that He has to pay attention to, does He? I suspect He does not wear a wrist watch, or check a celestial, either. sundial.
I think that I have a partial answer. I don't think God deals in time the way we do. Our lives are completely absorbed by the 70 or 80 revolutions around the sun most of us will mark as birthdays. But, there are multiplied millions of other suns out there in addition to ours, and God seems to deal in the "now" of our lives instead of the yesterdays or the tomorrows. For instance, Paul said this to the people in Corinth, "I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation."


Because we look at our watches and calendars, we begin to think we know what time is all about. Some procrastinators, like me, put things off until later because we think that there will always be plenty of time to fix the car, the house, the bank account, the "whatever" that is broken. Every now and then we are wrong about how much time we have. Sometimes, the little lump that should have been looked at last year by the doctor when it could have been removed, instead of being checked last week when it could not.

So, back to this business about the "end of the world." Don't you think you ought to be ready for that event no matter what time it is on your watch or your wall calendar. I mean, the end of your world could come today, irrespective of what happens in Tyre or Sidon or Jerusalem. God's time is always "now" for you.


You may want to put Him off to a more "convenient" time, perhaps when you can fit him into your schedule. But, He keeps saying, "Now, Now, Now, Now." And you keep saying, "Later, Later, Later." Guess who is better at keeping eternal time. God, or you? Quit dilly dallying around with spiritual matters that have eternal consequences. Here is the simple formula. Believe it, and confess it. Not complicated at all. Make God's time your time!"


Romans 10:8-14 (KJV)
But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; [9] That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. [10] For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. [11] For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. [12] For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. [13] For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. [14] How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?