Saturday, April 8, 2017

The Saturday Series - 9 - "No More Days"


(Friends:  Most Saturdays for the duration of this year, I plan on sharing a message that relates to the character and nature of God, and our response thereunto.  I hope you will find it helpful, and as always, thanks for allowing us to send the devotionals to you.  Glen).


The Saturday Series - 9

"No More Days"     
  
  
   The Bible declares of God that He "inhabiteth eternity" (Isaiah 57:15).  As creatures who dwell in time, this truth greatly challenges our understanding and sensibilities.  What is eternity in relationship to time?  I will leave that discussion to philosophers, physicists, and theologians who ponder such matters far more skillfully than I could ever attempt, but who themselves cannot begin to provide full and final answers.  I would rather consider the effects of God's eternal nature as they relate to His working in our  temporal realm.  How does a Being of forever operate in moments of time?

   First and foremost, He enters the realm.  "Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh" (I Timothy 3:16).  Another way of expressing this wonder is that "Forever was manifest in time."  Mystery indeed because such a glory should not be possible.  The "I AM" whose knows no passage of moments in the context of His timeless nature became one of whom it can be said, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (John 8:58; Hebrews 13:8).  Again, I will not attempt to explain the inexplicable, but rather simply suggest the marvelous act of love that led the Lord Jesus to the sacrifice not only of the cross, but of the clock.  That is, for our sakes He condescended to experience the realities of time that so greatly challenge us as human beings.  This very day involves constraints based upon the passage of moments, and the limitations that confront us because we have only a certain amount of time to fulfill responsibilities and enjoy privileges.  Our Lord knows the realities of such restriction as an act of the greatest love and sacrifice.  Great is the mystery.  But greater is the mercy.

   Our Lord's eternal nature also powerfully comforts and encourages us.  By definition, born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have entrusted our lives to the One who views reality not in the context of passing moments, but of an indivisible unity.  The I AM sees all in terms of IT IS, or as A.W. Tozer wrote, "God views the flutter of an angel's wing a thousand years hence as if it were happening in this moment."   Thus, the Lord we trust knows our past, present, and future as if they are but a single moment.  May I suggest that we not attempt to understand this blinding ray of light.  We do better to  but rather embrace the significance and implication, especially regarding our future.  He perfectly knows the next moment, day, week, and year, with all their conditions, situations, and circumstances.  Moreover, He has declared His intention to faithfully requite our trust in Him.  Let the peace of such grace fill your heart.  The One who perfectly see tomorrow as if it were today will be waiting for us there with perfect provision.  He will not be caught by surprise, He never utters "Ut Oh!" in response to events, and He is more than able to fulfill His commitment to us.  Of course, the same is true regarding our past and present.  He can weave the events of yesterday together because He sees them all as a whole.  He can also be all we need Him to be in this moment because He saw it coming, as it were, and He has already coordinated the present into His eternal purpose in Christ.  This is peace, my dear brothers and sisters, the peace of Eternity and its effects on time.

   Finally, believers are also eternal beings who presently live in time.  We began in the temporal, and will one day be ushered into the eternal.  We have little frame of reference for the impact this will have on our spiritual, psychological, emotional, and physical awareness and sensibility.  The best I can suggest is that we attempt to imagine what life will be like without the clock.  Or, what life is presently like with this cruel master.  I'll leave this to your own consideration, while rejoicing with you that one day there will be no more days as we presently know them.  There will be forever, and there will be the God of forever.  Yes, what a day that will be when there will be no more days!

"From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God."
(Psalm 90:2)
"This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son."
(I John 5:11)

Weekly Memory Verse
   As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
(I Peter 4:10)
   
   

No comments: