What Time is It?
How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? – Dr. Seuss
I keep thinking about time. Time is tricky. Time is fleeting. Time is a vapor, a mist, a puff of smoke and then…it’s gone.
Daylight Saving Time begins this year on Sunday, March 12.
One year ago, the Senate unanimously approved a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent beginning in November 2023. The bill is known as the Sunshine Protection Act. Senator Marco Rubio said, "The good news is if we can get this passed, we don't have to keep doing this stupidity anymore."
I couldn’t agree more! Stop the insanity. Rubio went on to say, "Hopefully this is the year that this gets done and, pardon the pun, but this is an idea whose time has come." (Source: cbsnews.com)
By the way, as of this writing, the measure has not yet been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, nor has it been signed into law by the President, so at 2am on Sunday, March 12th we “spring” forward one hour and then, more than likely come November, we’ll fall back again. I don’t enjoy losing an hour in the Spring, but I do so very much enjoy more light in the evenings this time of year.
Paul Harvey once said, “In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.”
Time for all humans on planet earth:
Sixty seconds in a minute. 60 minutes in an hour. 24 hours in a day. 7 days in a week. 52 weeks in a year. 10 years in a decade. 10 decades in a century. 10 centuries in a millennium...
But God lives outside our time frame.
2 Peter 3 tells us that with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and visa-versa. God’s timing and our timing are not on the same plain.
Have you ever thought of the word ‘and’ as a promise? Are you waiting on something? Have you asked our Heavenly Father for, that thing, that person, that job, that place, that something, and He seems to have not heard you? I know how that feels. I have been praying for several situations in my life and I don’t see any movement. I found myself, just for a brief moment, wondering, “does He see me?”
AND THEN, I hear myself giving advice to a friend a few years ago, “It’s just a season.” She looked at me and said, “Do you really believe that?” I answered, “Absolutely! The Bible tells us there is a time for everything.” And so I say to myself, “Trust His timing and trust Him.”
We are told that there is a season, a reason, a time for everything we experience on earth.
A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to gain, and a time to lose; A time to keep, and a time to throw away; A time to tear, and a time to sew; A time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; A time of war, and a time of peace. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NKJV
There is a time, and…
Have you ever thought of the word ‘and’ as a promise? It is. Every one of those 14 lines has the word ‘and’ in the middle of the sentence.
In addition, verse 11 says God has made everything beautiful in its time, AND, He put eternity in our hearts.
Time and eternity.
Do you remember waiting for something as a child? Perhaps even as an adult, you had a special date planned, or an extraordinary function or gathering and you could hardly wait! Time was dragging and your anticipation was growing with each passing hour. Waiting can be hard, but usually it is worth it.
Psalm 27:14 says, Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
The future is something which everyone reaches as the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is. – C.S. Lewis
From an article dated November 2018: “Once-in-a-lifetime” and “never-before-seen” disasters are piling up on top of each other – one after another. The loudest voices being heard today say that nothing significant is happening. They tell you not to worry about the non-stop, horrific events taking place today. The proud, boastful pleasure-seekers say, “All things continue as they were from the beginning.” 2 Peter 3:4. Godless men who are void of knowledge say, ‘Tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.” Isaiah 56:12.
Many people refuse to see that the signs of the end-times, which Jesus spoke of, are coming to pass before our very eyes.
There are those who laugh at any notion that prophecy is being fulfilled in relation to the following events:
(1) 2018 historic fire season (2) 2018 historic hurricane season (3) 2017 and 2018 historic flooding (4) historic liberal and moral collapse of the churches (5) historic political divide and polarization in America (6) 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges and 2017 Pavan v. Smith US Supreme Court decisions that codified immorality and normalized sin in our nation (7) historic mass shootings in CA, PA, FL and other places ( the increasing tensions and problems facing the other nations around the world. (Source: adventmessenger.org)
How can anyone imagine that nothing significant is happening?
“At the very time when the world is asking in scorn, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?’ the signs are fulfilling. While they cry, ‘Peace and safety,’ sudden destruction is coming” - Desire of Ages, p. 635
We are told that these are the “last days” when earth’s harvest is ripening for something bigger and much more solemn. We have been warned that while the sweet, restraining Spirit of God is gradually being removed from our world, calamities and disaster will become more frequent and intense:
“The Spirit of God is gradually but surely being withdrawn from the earth. Plagues and judgments are already falling upon the despisers of the grace of God. The calamities by land and sea, the unsettled state of society, the alarms of war, are portentous. They forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude” - Testimonies, Vol. 9, p. 11
Jesus is trying to tell us, “you are running out of time!” He has sent His Spirit to touch our hearts and lead us to Him, but so many have rejected this offer.
“What could have been done more to my vineyard (people), that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” Isaiah 4:4.
We are told the Spirit will not always reside with us. There is coming a time. “And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard (people): I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down” Isaiah 4:5.
“And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.” Isaiah 4:6.
Our world has become like the days of Noah and Lot, and we have been told that destructive fires similar to the ones in Sodom will be seen again:
“God is withdrawing His Spirit from the wicked cities, which have become as the cities of the antediluvian world and as Sodom and Gomorrah…Costly mansions, marvels of architectural skill, will be destroyed without a moment’s notice when the Lord sees that the owners have passed the boundaries of forgiveness. The destruction by fire of the stately buildings, supposed to be fireproof, is an illustration of how in a short time earth’s architecture will lie in ruins” -This Day With God, p. 152
It all seems so hopeless, doesn’t it? No! Not if you have Christ in your life. Our future is hope-filled. In fact, we are called blessed.
“Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.” Revelation 1:3 NKJV
Time is near but we must wait, AND, the wait will be worth it.
by Jeanette Stark – Tuesday, February 14, 2023