Many thanks again to Kelleigh Nelson for sending me this thought provoking article by Wylie Marshall. Wylie’s interesting biography appears at the end. We are privileged to have him join the team, and note with pleasure that he loves Australia!

Gibber! Gibber!

Chugley

TIME

By Wylie Marshall

One of the most beautiful songs ever written about time and love was written and sung in 1973 by Jim Croce. ‘Time in a Bottle”. He was wishing he could save time to spend with his wife and two year old son A. J., he would spend all of his time with them for all eternity. Sadly Time and chance happened to this singer song writer not too long after he recorded this song, and he died in September of 1973 in a plane crash. Solomon warned us about time and chance in

Ecclesiastes 9:11 I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all. 

We all wish we could save or stop time. There is just not enough time in the day it seems. I read an article this week with these clichés, aphorisms, and idioms. “Time marches on.” “Time waits for no man.” “Time is what we save so we might waste it.” We have “time on our hands” and “time to kill.” Others try to “make time.” All of us try to “find time.” The young wish time would go faster, while the old wish to slow it down. Some try to turn back time and others seem suspended in it. Article titled “Simplify Your Life”, by John W. Ritenbaugh, in The Forerunner, January 1996.

Time has been the subject of many songs and discussion topics at high level corporate meetings to families telling their children that it is time to get your homework done, or time to go to bed or time to get up. Time is a precious commodity. We have clocks, watches and calendars staring us in the face all the time. We are so very aware of the passage of time, but we use it so unwisely.

The Bible has a lot to say about time. Two of the most profound scriptures I found in God’s word is in

Jas 4: 14 You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little while, and then disappears. 

Psalm 39:4-5. Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, you have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You: certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah.

And it is written in Psalms,

Psalm 78:39 For He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind (a breath)that passes away and does not come again. 

I used to think that time was everywhere. But that is just not the case. We are the only beings that live in “time.” All spirit beings live outside of time. God lives outside of time and controls time. God created time for us to live in for our very short time! We are but a vapor, a breath.

Moses understood this. He asked God in

Psalm 90: So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. 

We need to use our time wisely because the end of one’s life is fast approaching. Moses wanted us to remember that our remaining days grow smaller daily. We have but a short time to accomplish what God has put us on this earth, this time bubble, to accomplish.

Of course man has always gone off course, gotten distracted with one thing or another, and forgotten what his true purpose is supposed to be. He went off course so much at one point that God had to clean everything up with a flood and start over with Noah and his family. And later, God had to confuse the language and scatter man to try and wake him up again to his true purpose. But of course, Satan lives outside of time and is always there to muddle the mind of man and keep the blinders on. Revelation 12:9. 

So, what are we supposed to be doing with this very precious commodity called “time”? Since God gave us free moral agency, we can use time as we choose. It is ours to do with as we please. Time is life and if we use it well, we are going to probably have a good shot at mastering our lives. But if we use time poorly, our lives can be a disaster.

We have a lot of pulls on our time. Taking care of business! We run to and fro trying to make ends meet, trying to get an education, trying to “get ahead,” Taking care of this, or taking care of that and behold, we start to notice that there appears a wrinkle here and a bald spot there. A gray hair appears and we all of a sudden have aching muscles that use to be strong and vigorous. Where has the time gone?

I once heard a statement that a dying man made on his death bed. He was a very wealthy man and had spent all of his time accumulating that wealth. His statement went something like this, He would trade all of his wealth if he could spent more time with his family. Too late, he realized what was important.

Time robbers can be all sorts of things, not just accumulation of wealth. It can be hobbies, golf, tennis, football, and not just the playing of, but the watching of the sports on TV. How many hours are spent watching sports or movies on TV instead of doing something with your family? How many poor choices do we make every day about how we allot our time? I know we cannot do everything correctly, but we could probably do a much better job than what we do.

And what about that day of judgment? It is inevitable that it will come. God says so.

Proverbs 2:9: Then you shall understand righteousness and judgment and equity, every good path.

But the wisest man to ever live said in

Ecclesiastes 8:5-9: Whoever keeps the commandment shall feel no evil thing; and a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment. Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great. For he does not know what shall be; for who can tell him when it shall be: There is no man who has power over the wind to restrain the wind; nor power over the day of death; and there is no discharge from war; nor shall wickedness deliver those who are given to it. All this I have seen, and I gave my heart to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man rules over another to his own hurt.

Another demonstration of time in that article by Mr. Ritenbaugh was the way he pictured an hourglass, and how we can see our life as the bottom half of the hourglass but cannot see the top half. Scary thought isn’t it. Not knowing how much sand is left in the top of the time instrument. It could be a lot, or it could be just a few grains of sand, but no matter how much, we must set our lives in order and make the most of what time we have left. How do you want to live your life?

God demonstrated the precise use of time when he instructed Joshua on how the children of Israel were to take the walled city of Jericho. God instructions were precise and extended several days.

Seven Priest were to bear seven trumpets of ram’s horns in front of the ark, and all the men of war were to march around the city of Jericho once each day for six days. On the seventh day, you shall march around the city as before seven times, then the priest shall blow with the trumpets, and when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout. The wall of the city shall fall down flat.

Jos 6:16  And it came to pass, at the seventh time, when the priest blew with the ram’s horns, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the LORD has given you the city! 

God’s instructions were precise and had to be carried out exactly as God directed in order for them to work. The timing has to be just as God directed.

God has directed our lives and has shown us just how short our lives are. He has given us everything we need to have a relationship with Him,

Now knowing how short life is, a vapor, a breath, shouldn’t you maybe give some thought to your eternal life as well? Where do you want to spend eternity? God tells us in

Revelation 20: 15:And if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.

We will all stand in judgment, and we will all give account for the time we lived on this earth. We will be judged by what is written in the Books of the Bible.

Revelation 20:12-13: And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of the things written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and the grave gave up the dead that were in them; and they were all judged individually, according to their works.

It appears that our works, what we did while in our physical life is very important to how we get judged when we come before God. How we spent our time will have a huge impact on our judgment! Will God look in the Book of Life and find our name there? Or will it not be there? I would think this is very important to everyone and it depends on what we do with our aloted time.

So how do we stay focused on what is important, and for that matter, what is important? Well for starters, we can certainly have too many interests. Those with too many interest can be distracted from what is more important. For example look at

Luke 10:40-42: But Martha was distracted because of much serving; and she came to Jesus and said, “Lord, is it of no concern to you that my sister has left me to serve alone: Now then, speak to her, so that she will help me.” Then Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are full of care and troubled about many things; But there is one need above all else; and Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her.”

Mary was listening to Jesus our Lord. She knew where her priority should be and was taking care of it. She was putting her spiritual needs first. That is where our priority should be.

Jesus had already told everyone how to get their name written into the Book of Life. Some understood but most didn’t. They continue to let Satan lie to them and steer them away from the truth. You see, Jesus was the God of the Old Testament. Jesus was the God that led the Children of Israel out of Egypt over to Mt. Sinai, where He told around 2 million Israelites, all at the same time, from His very own mouth, how to get their names written into the Book of Life. God spoke the 10 Commandments to them, God’s Law, and then wrote it in stone so that we would not forget. Israel was to be the model nation for the rest of the world.

1Co 10:4  and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. 

Deuteronomy 14:2: For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a specially treasured people to Himself, above all the nations that are on the earth.

It could have been that the rest of the world was to learn how to get their name written into the Book of Life from God’s model nation Israel. This was not a Jewish thing, or a Christian thing or a Hebrew thing as the world wants to make it today. It was an Israelite thing!  God gave His Law to the Israelites and remember who the Israelites are today. The British Empire that spread all over the world are Israelites! They are Ephraim. The United States of America, the Greatest Nation the world has ever witnessed, is Manasseh! Israel, Joseph’s Father blessed Ephraim and Manasseh and said:

Gen 48:16  The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, Bless the lads; Let my name be named upon them, And the name of my father’s Abraham and Isaac; And let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” 

The Israelites are a multitude in the midst of the earth but few realize that fact. They can’t trace their ancestry back far enough to find the link, But I can assure you that the link is there. Time has erased the gap and the only document, the Bible, which does show the link the world has discarded and claims to be obsolete. But time does not stop for believers or unbelievers. Satan continued to have his influence. Time continued on and God’s birthright promises did come true and our two nations were born.

So, here we are today, almost two thousand years after Jesus came as God in the Flesh to save man from the death penalty that was placed on him in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve took of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and did eat. He also restored man’s relationship to the Father, by taking that death penalty on Himself and dying in our place. He was resurrected after being in the grave for three days and three nights and was restored and sits at the right hand of God the Father. He is the First Fruit of many brethren who will come up in the 1^st resurrection and will reign for a thousand years here on this earth.

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is the one who has part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power. But they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. 

Time has marched on. But I for one believe that time has marched right out the window. We are very close to the next step in God’s plan, and for some it will be a birth and for some it will be a transition.

What will you do with your time?

Wylie Marshall graduated from the Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree. He was employed for 30 years by a large Chemical Company and worked in the Engineering field as a Project Cost Estimator. After retirement in 2007, he continued to work in the Project Estimating field for several engineering companies and firms in a contracting capacity until 2015. He is a Vietnam veteran and served aboard the USS Richmond K. Turner, DLG-20 which was a “double-ended “guided missile destroyer. He is married to his wonderful wife, he loves playing music with his sons, studying history, and for the last 37 years has had a love for the study of God’s word, and has learned that God’s love is for all of mankind and is without prejudice and man must live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The Old and the New Testaments are God breathed and God created man on this earth to learn of God and His ways, so that one day we could have eternal life in the family of God as spirit beings.]

Also visited Australia, Brisbane and Sydney in 1968. Loved Australia!