1997-02-04 - Time

Hosea 10:12, "For it is time to seek the Lord"

David Miller used to teach 5th grade math in my township. He is married and has 3 young children. Yesterday he was sentenced to prison for 4-10 years and his wife was sentenced to 4 1/2-10 years in prison. Sadly they provided drugs, beer and sex to numerous teens that were 12-17 years old. When he was pleading with the judge to be soft in the sentencing David said, "I feel sick, I'm embarrassed to be here". He went further and said to the judge, "I just wish I could turn back time".

Wouldn't we all? Who would not wish to turn back the clock and have a second chance? Everyone would wish to turn back time, but the point is that you can't. Time is very precious and once lost it is gone. Once time is ill improved there is no way to go back and make it better. We can only pick up the pieces and try to recover and sometimes this is very difficult.

Not only can we not turn back time, we are also unsure how much time that we or anyone we know have left. Every day in Philadelphia someone is murdered. Today it was a young couple shot execution style in the head at their home. I am sure they were not expecting this turn of events in their lives. Time is a very uncertain commodity and because of this it is very precious.

Without delay we should make the most of the time we have left. There is no doubt that like David Miller we will all say that we wish we could turn back time. But knowing that we can not turn back time should greatly influence how we spend our time. The present moment counts. The present moment counts for all eternity.

In a sense there actually is a way to turn back time. While we can't undo what has been done, we can have forgiveness. This is a manner of turning back time. Christ is able to redeem those who come to Him in faith and ask forgiveness for things done in the past. The great word in the gospel is "whosoever". Whosoever will come to Christ in faith and repentance will, in a manner of speaking, turn back time.

"There is no way of obtaining favour from God but through the intercession of Christ." John Calvin

Soli Deo Gloria,
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