Time enough at last!
Yep! I swiped this blog title from Rod Serling in his creation of the milquetoast banker named Henry Bemis. {Rocky’s manager, Burgess Meredith}
Living in the Corona Zone is certainly the last place any person in 2020 that possesses a sane mind would want to be. One of the points of commonality that we all share is a re-orientation of our lives as it relates to time. Time management and being a good steward of our time has become the new black.
It seems that, all of a sudden, the human race has walked into a type of Twilight Zone, where things that seemed real as we knew it a month or so ago have now been utterly transformed into the new now. Think back a little to the days of the oil crisis of the 1970s, which radically restricted our daily lives and movements and caused us havoc when we needed to fill up our gas tank. If the last number on your license plate was odd, you filled up on an odd day of the month, and the same with even numbers on even days. Although times were different then, times are now incalculably different.
My question today is this, within the parameters of today's epidemic maelstrom, what should we be doing with our time? I'm convinced that we have been given a tremendous opportunity to think about the question from a strong biblical perspective. For some, like Mr. Bemis, this unique privilege of time is to be laser-focused on one primary joy that was heretofore not available to be indulged.
For me, answering the rock group Chicago's rhetorical question of “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” is a resounding, “Yes!” There is time enough for the main thing to be on the minds’ forefront of all believers, that is a renewed interest and renewed action about the salvation of others!
In the past few years I have been haunted over the deaths of two of my lifetime friends, along with the more recent passing of a young schoolmate of mine who was two grades below me and a very precious person.
In all three instances, especially in spite of the fact that I spent an inordinate amount of time with those first two friends, I did not have certainty about all three of them and their relationships with Christ—if they had entered a faith relationship with Him to receive eternal life. For me, the Tyrone Davis song “If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time” is a great song but has no bearing on the reality of what never can be actually done in real life. The Rolling Stones song “Time Is on My Side” also rings hallow when all the time that I had to inquire about such a life and death issue is no longer on anybody’s side.
Scripture says, in Hebrews 9:27, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after there is the judgment.” This reality backs up the truth that when one dies, The Guess Who’s song title, “Got No Time” is a quite horrific reality for those who have waited too late to surrender their lives to the Creator, Savior, and Lord, King Jesus. The truth, however, is that anyone at any time can give their lives to the Lord without anyone else knowing it at all. I’m not saying that can’t happen because it surely can!
For the group The Cars, the sentiment of their hit “Let the Good Times Roll” implies that eventually those times must stop rolling and a decision must be made for something more transcendent than just pleasures for a season. The Scriptures also make it clear that when people make this type of life-changing decision, as they begin to live their Christian lives, you will know them by their fruit.
My hope is that during this extremely unique and unprecedented time in our human history, we who know Christ personally might reinterpret Dylan’s hit “The Times They Are A-Changin’”and enter the world of evangelism in a new, authentic and personal manner. Ask the Lord for holy boldness to embark on a brand new course of trying to determine the spiritual condition of our family and friends in a manner we have never even thought about before.
My point here, friends, is more in line with Neil Young’s thought-provoking tune “There Comes a Time”. To put it plainly and succinctly, Esther 4:14 expresses my thought perfectly.
“And who knows whether you have come to the Kingdom for such a time as this?”
Maybe, we in the body of Christ, might rethink our available time and redirect it toward the direction of the Great Commission found in all four gospels with emphasis in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20.
Could we now consider this time that we have been graced with as missionary time and begin to seek the Lord's face on how we can authentically connect or reconnect with those friends, classmates, for dear friends with whom we have lost contact?
Could we try to begin to re-establish a connection with them that one day might lead to a life-changing discussion about eternal concerns?
I think that most of us are familiar with that classic hymn, “When the Roll is called up Yonder” by James Black. “When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more…”
Right now, we have time: We have today.
We are not promised tomorrow. Remember, II Corinthians 6:2, “In the time of favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.”
I will remember David, Ronnie and Cybil to the day that I die. I will cherish and celebrate our times together. I will, however, regret not knowing where they are currently spending eternity. My hope is that all three of these loved ones are resting in the Kingdom of God in Heaven!
This blog is written first to myself and then to others who might also share my pain of the past but who also might want to embrace the joy of the future in knowing the certainty of our loved ones’ eternal destiny. We may even be blessed with being a part of sharing the Gospel that one day they might feel so led to act upon His Good News and have the certainty that their name has been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
His authority, through His salvific work on the cross, presents to us the guarantee of eternal life when we repent of our own self-directed lives, confess our sinfulness in front of a holy God, and by faith accept His pardon, receive His Spirit and join the family of God forever!
Thank you for your prayers, thank you for your love.
In Christ,
Dallas