Before We Get To ‘Time’s Up!’, The ‘Time Is Now!’ To Do Our Part For Jesus

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<Jesus said,> “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.”’ (John 9:4)

The American attack on the Iranian nuclear sites, in my opinion, occurred at the right time for the right reasons.  Had we done it sooner, it may have appeared that the US acted as a ‘big bully’ (and some do have that mindset on the attack today).  Had we waited longer, it is possible it would have been an action taken only after Iran launched an ‘A-Bomb’ on an Israeli city or sailed one into an American port, or against an American base in the Middle East.  Then the question would have been, ‘Why didn’t the US act sooner to prevent this?’ 

Time is fickle.  We won’t know for weeks or days whether the timing was spot on, or if was too early or too late, though it seems for the moment it seems to be just right.  We often are paralyzed in thinking the timing is not right for now, and that we should wait.  Then in waiting, the window of opportunity that we had closes, never to reopen. 

I try not to live in regret for past decisions and actions. Though they have turned out to be wrong now, when those decisions were made, with the information on hand at the time, they seemed to be correct at the time.  But in truth, we all have those things in our past where we wish we only did something a bit differently back then, the problems of today may not have been as bad.  (If only I acted and invested in Microsoft in 1984, or bitcoin in the mid-1990’s, as one example.)

Of course, had we taken that course of action or made that decision, life could be a lot worse.  I’m content and joyful in the life I have today.  Investing in Microsoft or bitcoin decades ago may have made us multimillionaires, but then would I have been blessed with the presence of the Lord and my dependence in Him as I have today? 

It was not meant to be to make those decisions, as the Lord’s plans were not for me to be materially ‘uber-rich’, but for me to be rich in Spirit, which I am grateful for.  I’m certain, though, there are decisions He may have wanted me to make, perhaps witnessing to a colleague or an acquaintance, that I didn’t do and thus that person may never hear the Gospel message.  That is a decision not made, missing out on a Spiritual opportunity, that is far worse than missing out on a financial opportunity.

Time is of the essence today!  Sometimes, its 48 hours of work (a perception) to do in a 24-hour period (a fact).  Time is fluid, something we can’t bank or save, like my hairline, it was ‘hair’ yesterday, but gone today.  Of course, time replenishes each day and time marches on, but for us mortals we get one shot at each second of our lives and that’s it.  We often like to waste time, as I’ve done my share of being a ‘couch potato’ instead of trying to accomplish something.  Others, of course, seem to do the opposite, and never seem to waste a moment, always using their time to accomplish something. 

But as it says in Ecclesiastes, sometimes these pursuits are meaningless.  When I was younger, I thought in the terms of ‘accomplishing something’ as ‘making my mark on the world’.   We all have some desire for our lives to mean something, but in reality very few – only a handful – ever meet this level of accomplishment in a secular sense.  As an example, who is your great-great-grandfather?  What did they do, where did they live?  Where are they buried or laying in rest?  I cannot answer that, though thanks to one of the ancestry sites I can name him (John George Yeager, and my great-great-great-grandfather from Germany, Wolfgang Michel Jager, who obviously was illiterate as he didn’t know how to spell ‘Yeager’).

I have no idea what John G. Yeager did for a vocation, only that he left Germany after his birth in 1809 and moved to Central Pennsylvania (I’m thankful he didn’t homestead in New Jersey – if you know, you know).  Will my great-great-grandchildren know what I did, other than as a name in a family tree?  Probably not, and that’s OK.  It’s not important to my life or to theirs, other than historical curiosity.  Whether John (or Wolfgang) was a great scientist (doubtful) or a coal miner (more likely) does not have too much of a bearing on my life, with the exception of having part of his genetical makeup.

Think of time as in the movie ‘Independence Day’, where Jeff Goldblum’s character figured out the alien’s signal was a timer ticking down.  Somehow, he got onto Air Force One with the President, and on his laptop saw the timer run down to zero, and exclaimed, ‘Time’s up!’, right before the aliens obliterated New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and just about every other city around the world. 

This is definitely not a harbinger of things to come.  First, no space aliens have ever been detected (don’t start talking about UFOs), let alone aliens that want to kill us (or worse, dissect us alive). Second, the Bible does not discuss the world destroyed by some alien goon squad.  While entertaining, it’s just not going to happen.  (Neither will the Zombie Apocalypse, much to my chagrin, given the target practice opportunities that would bring.)

But Jesus does say that one day, there will be a moment when we say, ‘Time’s Up!’  There are two definite scenarios for this, one individually, one globally.  All of us, save for Enoch and Elijah, face a ‘Time’s Up!’ moment, when our last gasp is drawn out and our earthly vessels assume room temperature.  Death will occur, and studies still show that statistically, 100% of us alive today will die. 

On a global scale, ‘Time’s Up!’ is post-Tribulation, after Jesus’ 1,000-year reign, when all people are judged (believers by Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:10), non-believers by God (Revelation 20:12-15)) and the old Earth is replaced by the new Heaven & Earth as Sin and Death can no longer corrupt God’s Creation.  Then, there will be no longer Time in the sense of it being finite, but instead it will be for us as it is for God; infinite without beginning or end.  ‘Time’s Up!’ will be a beginning as well as an ending for us.

Right now, however, Jesus tells us that before we say ‘Time’s Up!’ or the Earth reaches ‘Time’s Up!’, Jesus wants us to proclaim, ‘The Time Is Now!’  In John 9:4 Jesus tells us to get to work while ‘The Time Is Now!’, to do His work, to obey the Great Commission.  Jesus wants us to go and provide His Gospel message, the Good News that His Sacrifice saves all who proclaim Him Lord from Sin and its infinite punishment. 

Our goal, whether it is to provide to the church, witness to others, teach a Bible study, help a person in need, or whatever function that Jesus has placed you in; is to fulfill the Great Commission so that another may know that when they proclaim ‘Time’s Up!’, they know their future is with the Lord and not ‘Bobbing for Brimstone’ in Hell.  So, before your ‘Time’s Up!’ (and may we all have many years before we proclaim that), remember that your ‘Time Is Now!’ to accomplish that one most important task, be the witness that Jesus wants you to be!