Ever notice how, if you’re absorbed in a two-hour movie that time seems to whiz past very quickly? But if you’re standing at your kitchen stove waiting for the “pot to boil” … well, you know the answer to that!

Time is illusory … in that it is almost a state of mind. We fall asleep and wake up 7 or 8 hours later totally oblivious to the passage of those hours. But when we are forced to wait at a red traffic light for just a few seconds more, it can seem interminable.

Weird, huh? That’s the nature of time.

Another aspect of time is … it is “finite”. It’s like a story … it has a beginning, a middle and an end.

“In the beginning, God…”

Then we have the “middle” where everything else concerning human history and the universe is manifested moment by moment and prophetically fulfilled.

And then cometh the “end” as the angel…

“…sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer” (Revelation 10:6)

Whether one holds the position of “pre-trib”, “mid-trib”, “post-trib” or “no-trib” … it all culminates at one significant point in time (maybe not quite for the world itself, but definitely for us). And that precise moment of time is:

The return of our Lord Jesus Christ and our “gathering together unto Him”!

All of our questions and theological queries will get answered at that precise moment (if those questions and queries are even still significant to us by then … which is doubtful)!

The return of our Lord in glory and our “transfiguration” into our heavenly bodies becomes the great “equalizer” of all human thoughts and events up until that time. The concepts of “past”, “present” and “future” dissolve into the presence of eternity.

As the scriptures declare:

“As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” (1 Corinthians 15:48-49)

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” (1 Corinthians 15:50) 

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

Have you ever stopped to consider that we might just need a brand new, glorified body in order to function fully in the Kingdom of God right here on Earth?

“And (Jesus) spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.” (Luke 5:36)

“And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.” (Luke 5:37-38)

So, what does this have to do with time?

Someone once said that:

“Time consists completely of ‘memory’ … with the exception of a lightning quick passing moment that we call the ‘present’!”

Think about it … even my last 3 words in this sentence will have already been in the “past” as soon as you read them!

But, for the “moment” anyway, welcome to the “present”! Hope y’all caught that one! 🙂

“Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 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.” (James 4:13-14)

“For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever.” (1 Peter 1:24-25)

Sounds like time (particularly OUR time on this Earth) goes by fast, huh?

Well, if you want to know what time is really all about:

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Our lives are made up of trillions upon trillions of itsey-bitsey “NOWS” … going by so quickly that our mortal minds can’t comprehend it all!

We may not be able to “stop” this process of time, but there is one thing we CAN do with it … and that is to:

REDEEM IT!!

“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.  See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:14-16)

“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.” (Romans 13:11-12)

“Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:17)

With each passing moment, as we focus our devotion upon Christ alone, the Spirit of God and His Word is changing us from glory to glory! It may seem to be taking a long time, but God is thorough in His work and ONLY creates PERFECTION!

We will WITNESS that perfection. And, when we do, all that has happened around us will have seemed to have transpired only within a dream … a dream that passed quickly in the night! The Apostle Paul said:

“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12)

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

Do you know what that PRIZE is????

Moses did!

“By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter … he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” (Hebrews 11:24, 27)

“Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.” (Hebrews 11:25-26)

Now by “affliction”, Hebrews is simply referring here to that which comes spontaneously and naturally to a Saint on a day-to-day basis! It comes to us continuously … JUST for being the children of God in this life!

Jesus said:

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (John 15:18-19)

“Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.” (John 15:20-21)

So, until those trillions and trillions of “NOWS” get absorbed into eternity at the coming of our Lord in glory:

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

Regardless of the consequences!

 

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