NOW IS THE TIME...

“Show up an hour late in Brazil, and no one bats an eyelash.  But keep someone in Switzerland waiting for five or 10 minutes, and you have some explaining to do”

(“Clocking Cultures”, by the Editors of Scientific American. Volume 23, No. 4 Autumn 2014, p. 48). 

How do you view time?  Do you rule time or does time rule you?  The world does not view time the same way that you or I might.  You might not think that time is all that important and are late to most events.  I on the other hand hate to be late to any event.  I would rather arrive an hour before anyone else than be just a few minutes late. 

In a book entitled, “A Geography of Time,” Robert V. Levine writes that based on the variables of “walking speed on urban sidewalks, how quickly postal clerks could fulfill a request for a common stamp, and the accuracy of public clocks” not every country views time the same.   Levine’s conclusion was that the five fastest-paced countries in the world are, “Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Japan and Italy; the five slowest are Syria, El Salvador, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico.  The U.S., at 16^th, ranks near the middle” (ibid. p. 49). 

Does God view time the same as we do?  As time is relative to the world, God is not bound by time.   God’s not being bound by time, in its broad meaning, is best summed up in 2 Peter 3:8, “but, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  Peter means that God does not hold to time like we do.  Time will cease to exist at the Judgment Day.  There is a “longsuffering toward us” at the present but it will end in God's time.

The apostle Paul wrote, “For He says; ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.’  Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).  Paul is telling us that God has not guaranteed us a lot of time to do whatever we want.  Time as we know it could end at any moment in time.  “We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain” (2 Cor. 6:1). 

You must think about your salvation at this time.  Not tomorrow!!!  God is in control of time and has promised us that it will cease at the end of His longsuffering.  Now how will you minister this message?