Echoes From the Campfire

[Don Adkisson]

       “You can learn much from observing the world about us. But, most people travel too quickly and don't take the time.”
                    --Cliff Hudgins  (Viejo and the Locoweeds)

       "For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay."
                    --Habakkuk 2:3 (ESV)
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Time!  I'm running out of time.  Out of time to get done the things I want to leave behind.  No, nothing's seriously wrong with me other than that old outlaw time is wearing down on me.  Have I done everything on my "bucket list"?  I never have made one of those.  Oh, sure there are/were things I would like to do, but too many people who make bucket lists go out of their way, spend too much money and time on doing them that they forget the more important things in life.  In fact, the time spent on fulfilling their own desires might be put to better use in the kingdom.
     Time, we cannot really understand it.  Solomon speaks of it saying that there is a time for everything.  Time, something that binds us to this earth.  Time, something we often do not use wisely enough.  Time, something that God expects us to be good stewards of--we are to "redeem the time..." (Ephesians 5:16).  The CEV translates it this way, "These are evil times, so make every minute count."  If we are to make every minute count and if the days are evil, then to counter that we should be doing good to the best of our ability.
     Even harder to comprehend that time is that of eternity.  We have a minute grasp, but our feeble brains cannot grasp for it is beyond and outside of time.  The words of Jesus come to mind, "'I tell you the truth,' Jesus answered, 'before Abraham was born, I am!'"  No wonder there was contention, who besides God is beyond time?  No one--Jesus was making an emphatic statement.
     Time, something that man cannot reverse.  Oh, they try.  There are creams and pills, and foods along with supplements.  There are all types of experiments to try to keep the body from the rages of time, the wrinkles, the crevices in the brow, the aches in the joints....  Someone said that "Human beings are apparently prisoners of the movement of time in one direction.  We are, with some limitations, able to move about in space as we wish (or as we must), but we cannot do so in time."
     Time makes us move along with it.  "There is no way to right a past wrong, recover a missed opportunity.  The future is unknown and unknowable until it becomes the present; there is no way to guarantee that it will be as we wish it to be.  The only time in which we are free to move--the only time we have--is the present." (Richard Luman)  But look again at the words of Jesus.  He is not bound by time.  Think of it, He is in time, yet He is also outside of time.  He is here, right now, in the present, but He is also back in eternity past, and is in the future (and beyond?).  Time was created by God but it does not have a hold on Him; it is not a condition of His existence.  
      Today, right now, is the day of salvation.  Today is given to each of us--not tomorrow and yesterday is gone.  What you do today is important.  Your choices today will determine your eternal destiny, that region that is beyond time.  Choose wisely--Christ is waiting to answer your cry.  We are in time, but our souls and spirits will go beyond time either into eternal glory with Christ, or to the depths of eternal damnation that is for those who reject Him.  We must face the consequences of time, but in this life and in eternity.  However, Christ is there, in one manner of speaking to "redeem us from time."  We should pray, "Lord, give us time."  Then we should also add, "Make us good stewards of the time you have given us."

D.C. Adkisson