TIME, YOU CAN'T CONTROL IT, BUT YOU CAN LEARN FROM IT

 

MANKIND’S LONGING TO CONTROL TIME

He has made everything beautiful in its time.
Also, He has put eternity into man’s heart,
yet so that he cannot find out what
God has done from the beginning to the end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11

Mankind has longed to be able to control time. Books have been written about it. Movies have been made about it. Super-heroes have been created with power to do it. Several TV series have been produced exploring it. And most of us at one time or another have wished that we could go back in time and undo something we did, said, or do or say something we should have done or said. We can measure it, but we can not control it. Time relentlessly marches on – and along with it, we grow, we age, and we die. If, however, you believe some cosmetic companies, we can “slow the ageing the process” (if we would just use their brand of face-cream). Yet, we cannot stop time, reverse time, speed up time, or slow it down. Philosophers postulate about it. Theologians marvel at it. Historians revel in it. Impatient young children complain about it taking so long. The elderly complain that it went so quick. We are all subjected to it, but why? Why would the Creator have created it, and then subjected each of us to it? Is it a result of the Fall? Is it a curse? Since God created it, is He Himself now subject to it? If you have ever wondered about time and how cruel it can at times appear to be, then read on friend.

The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
Psalm 90:10

 

WHY WE CAN NOT CONTROL TIME

Before clocks were invented, people did not view time like we do today. At sun rise it was time to rise. When the sun was as high as it was going to get, it was midday. When the sun began to set, it was time to stop working. When the sun set, it was dinner time. And shortly after it was dark it time for bed. Even in ancient times sun-dials were used as a way to see where the sun was in the sky without having to stare directly at it (one is mentioned in Isaiah 38:8). 

The original indoor clocks were pendulum and springs. They were not particularly reliable or accurate. Then, in the sixteenth century, smaller versions were invented without the need for a pendulum and could fit comfortably in a gentleman’s pocket. This then paved the way for the invention of the wrist watch around the time that the industrial age was in full swing (around 1868). In 1960 the first quartz watch was invented doing away with the need for winding and springs. These quartz watches are still the most accurate time-pieces available to ordinary people. From then, wrist watches (and electronic quartz clocks) became increasingly more sophisticated and able to measure time in smaller and smaller increments. In 2019, the Swiss watch maker, Patek Philippe, created a two-sided gentleman’s wrist watch that sold for $US31,000,000! It is fair to say that the buyer was a little obsessive about the quality and precision of his time-keeping.

The most expensive wrist watch ever sold.

Despite our increasingly precise ability to measure time, we are still unable to control it. In a culture that demands god-like control over every aspect our lives, our complete inability to control time is one of mankind’s greatest enigmas and frustrations. Our ability to measure it in such finely small increments and to always be aware of it by looking at our wrists – or the devices in our pockets – only adds to frustration that it is slipping by without paying any intention to our desire to let us control it!

Time is a sequence of unchanging events. This means that time is ordained and therefore what has happened has actually and really and finally happened. This is why the notion of being able to travel back in time is fanciful.

WHY WE ALL FIND TIME FRUSTRATING

“I just wish I had more time!” “I just wish we had more time together.” Our inability to control or even tame time reminds us that we are not all-powerful. In that sense, time almost mocks us all and certainly causes us to realise that any frustration we feel about its consistent and unchanging nature is a reminder that we are subjects to it — or more precisely — to the One who created it for us to inhabit for a very very good reason. The unchangeable nature of time deprives us from going back in time to the moment of our greatest (and perhaps most secret) sins or mistakes and preventing them, thus denying us the power of removing our unbearable burden of guilt and shame. 

Remember how short my time is!
For what vanity you have created all the children of man!
What man can live and never see death?
Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah
Psalm 89:47-48

 

GOD’S RELATIONSHIP TO TIME

We sometimes refer to God as being outside time. Philosophical theologians refer to two theories about God’s relationship to time: the ‘A’ Theory of Time and the ‘B’ Theory of Time. In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis described God’s relationship with time like the reader to a book. He referred to God as being outside of the book who is able to turn to any page of that book at any time. This, in Lewis’s mind, is how one might explain God’s intimate knowledge of the future and His ability to reveal it to those who are yet to witness or experience it. This is known as the B-Theory of Time. But most theologians take issue with Lewis and argue that it is not because the future has already happened that God knows what it holds, it is rather because the future has not yet happened and yet God can still declare it through His prophets – that we know that God is omniscient (He knows all things –  even those things that will be). This is known as the A-Theory of Time.

¶ “Remember this and stand firm,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
Isaiah 46:8-10

When God created our material world and its dimension of time, He entered into it. From the moment of creation, which is described in the opening chapter of Genesis, as taking God six “days” (with each day having an evening and morning) and then resting from creating on the “seventh day” (which God is still in since it is not ascribed an evening and morning, Gen. 2:4). And to put beyond any doubt that God has entered into our dimension of time, consider the first Christmas when the Creator Himself, the eternal Son of God, became a zygote who, over time, grew into the Son of Man prophesied in Daniel 7:13-14. Christ, subjected Himself to time and conquered its fatal sting.

 

GOD’S GIFT OF TIME TO EACH OF US

We live in a fast paced world. We expect things to happen quickly. None of us like to be kept waiting. Even when we order something online we expect it delivered straight away. Some of us having to work two or even three jobs just to be able to pay the bills. We describe ourselves as time-poor. Yet, we all get twenty-four-hours in a day. Sixty-minutes in an hour. And sixty-seconds in a minute. Most of us need to adjust how we see, understand, and treat our time. This will involve, what will be for some, adopting a foreign and largely unaccustomed view of time that involves worship, sabbath, and deepening relationships. From this biblical perspective we will come to see time as a gift from God, not a curse, or source of frustration. Within this gift of time God teaches us how to worship in those times when it is difficult to do so. Rather than thinking this divine gift of time is ours to do with what ever we want, God uses this gift to teach us that we should gift it back to Him beginning with (but not limited to) treating Sunday as a sabbath to come together to recommit our hearts, voices, minds, and presence with God’s people, back to God. God gives us passing time to learn to deepen relationships – especially with our kin, and our friends. Time is meant for relationship building. 

¶ So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12

 

WHEN TIME AS WE KNOW IT WILL ONE DAY END

But this gift of time will one day come to end – not just for each of us individually – but once and for all.

For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son
and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:40

The one who rejects Me and does not receive My words has a judge;
the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
John 12:48

God dwells in a dimension that I refer to as eternity. The Triune God is the only being who inhabits this dimension. But when He created the Heavenly realm, and populated it with magnificent heavenly creatures. These beings then dwelt in His presence in yet another dimension (we might refer to super- or supra-time). In this supra-time dimension these heavenly beings do not age or grow. The Triune God created this dimension for His heavenly family in a way that some of these heavenly creatures could enter into our dimension of time.

And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God,
and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.
Luke 1:19

After the “last day”, we will all be resurrected. The righteous, those who have surrendered their lives to God’s gracious offer of forgiveness and adoption, will be resurrected into eternal-life and enjoy their existence forever with the Triune God in a new dimension that God had planned from the beginning of the world. For in that coming new eternal dimension we will truly worship, truly rest, and truly love everyone of fellow redeemed. In the meantime, the gift of time that He has given to each of us in this dimension is designed by our Heavenly Father to teach and prepare us for it. See you this Sunday.

Rev. 21:1 ¶ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Rev. 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Rev. 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Rev. 21:5 ¶ And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Your Pastor,

Andrew

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CLOSING THE DEAL

 In 1871, the American evangelist, Dwight (“DL”) Moody was preaching to huge crowds each night in Chicago. At the end of each message he would give an appeal for people to either respond immediately to the gospel message he had just presented, or at least go home and consider it. But on Sunday October 8th, 1871, a huge fire broke out in Chicago. It burned through the city for days and became known as The Great Chicago Fire. Around 10,000 people were homeless as a result, and hundreds of people lost their lives. Moody was heart-broken when he realised that many of the people who had died were the people who had attended that Sunday night meeting where he had urged them to consider accepting Christ. His deep grief over this tragedy led him to make a vow that he would never again merely urge people to simply consider accepting Christ. From now on, he vowed, he would plead with all those he preached to – to immediately turn away from their sins and turn to the Saviour. DL Moody committed his life and ministry as an evangelist to be someone who would always strive to close the deal because he was now aware—more than ever—that people’s eternal destinies were in jeopardy! 

 

WHAT IS EVANGELISM?

As a young Christian I soon developed a burden for the lost. I began street-witnessing in Geelong as a teenager, going out every Friday night to hand out gospel tracts. Around 1984 I travelled around Australia street-preaching. As the call of God on my life became clearer I knew that I had to undertake formal theological training. It was during this phase when I enrolled in an evangelism course that I discovered that “What is evangelism?” was not a straight forward question. Was evangelism just preaching the gospel? Could this preaching really be considered evangelism if the gospel was not presented very clearly? Could it be considered evangelism is no-one ever came to Christ as a result? Did it necessarily involve preaching?

 I even came across scholars who argued that evangelism could be done without preaching or even inviting people to turn to Christ. These scholars would cite Francis of Assisi whom they claim had said, “Everywhere you go, preach the gospel—and if you have to—use words!” (I have since discovered that Francis said nothing of the sort!) While there is merit to letting our light shine by doing good deeds that help others (Mat. 5:16) as a means to reach out to them, it was not what Christ taught was the means for sharing the gospel. God has ordained that the gospel necessarily involves the use of words. In fact, we might consider our charitable works as pre-evangelism.

 

WHAT IS PRE-EVANGELISM?

In Christ’s parable of the sower (Mark 4:3-9) He described four types of people: those whose hearts were either – hardened like a well-worn path, full of rocks, riddled with thorns, or well-cultivated good soil. How do we turn a hardened-hearted person into a well-cultivated-hearted person? While there’s no magic formula, it at least involves being courteous, kind, and generous (note 1Peter 2:12; 2Cor. 8:21; 9:13; Phil. 2:15; Titus 2:8; Mat. 5:16). It often also involves patiently answering objections and questions (1Peter 3:15) which is referred to as apologetics (which means giving answers). And perhaps the most challenging of all, undoing the hurt caused by hypocritical Christians by re-building trust so that a person can distinguish the message of Christ from the person who claimed to follow Christ but did not do it sincerely. Unless we cultivate a person’s heart by a clear demonstration of our love for and commitment to Christ, we will never be able to close the deal in persuading a person to turn from sin and turn to the Saviour.

WHY EVANGELISM?

 Based on the Parable of the Sower, evangelism can result in someone accepting or rejecting Christ’s offer to bear their sin, guilt and shame and mediate for them to adopted by God the Father as child of God with full inheritance rights. For a long time I wondered why God would bother using His redeemed people as His messengers of this infinitely valuable offer. After all, I had reasoned, wouldn’t people be more inclined to accept this offer if God Himself appeared to them to make this offer? Sadly, I have since discovered, God Himself did appear and make this offer to people—but He was still rejected by them (Jn. 1:10-11)! I eventually came to realise that God in His wisdom has ordained that this offer of salvation must be accepted with humility which requires that it is delivered by another frail but redeemed human being.

God created mankind as His image bearers who enjoy certain divine prerogatives including the ability to choose whether we will be loyal to Him or not. This unfortunately was why mankind originally fell from innocence into the bondage and deception of sin. But the wages of serving sin as your master is eternal condemnation and irrevocable separation from God (Rom. 6:23; Rev. 20:12-15). Yet God has ordained that it is in the proclamation of the gospel (the good news which announces the means by which a person can be redeemed from their slavery to sin) that a person can be saved from their sins and set free from a life of bondage to Satan. God implores all people to turn to Him to satisfy the deep thirst of their soul—but He necessarily uses His humble people to summon people to turn to Him and to call them to repentance and to close the deal by accepting His offer now.

WE WORK AS AN EVANGELISM TEAM AS A CHURCH

We can all contribute to the evangelism of our friends, neighbours, family or work colleagues. Our consistent, authentic, sincere following of Christ is foundational to this. Our acts of selfless kindness, the hallmark of a true follower of Christ, can begin the work of softening a hard heart which may lead them to Christ as their Saviour. Our contribution might also be our invitation to our friend or family member to come and hear the gospel in a church service or special evangelistic meeting. The person who accepts this offer may experience a warm welcome from the members of the church’s congregation that their heart is deeply touched. Our combined prayers for those who do not yet know Christ can result in extraordinary miracles of conversions is another way we can support each other in evangelism. But our evangelism ultimately must be proclaimed with an appeal for people to turn from their devotion to their sin, to being fully devoted to Christ. Only then, will they have accepted God’s gracious offer of mercy can we say that we have now closed the deal and successfully evangelised.  In the closing verses of the Bible

What’s holding you back from turning to the Saviour to receive His offer of forgiveness for your sins? Will you receive Christ as your Lord and Saviour? If you were to die now, would you have the assurance that you would enjoy peace with God for eternity? Will you now ask God to forgive you and have His way in your life? These are all questions to be asked to close the deal in evangelism. What’s the “deal”? The deal is what has often been described as The Great Exchange. We exchange our brokenness and shame for God’s forgiveness and a new life as His son or daughter. It’s that simple. It starts by accepting the truth. It then causes us to ask God for His gift of salvation. It results in us accepting His offer and living a life of gratitude toward God for what He has done by sending His Son to die in our place, rise from the dead for our redemption, and ascend back to the Father to secure our inheritance with Him. C.S. Lewis concluded Mere Christianity with these deal closing words:

But there must be a real giving up of the self…The very first step is to try to forget about the self altogether. Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him…Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life…But look to Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
MERE CHRISTIANITY, pages 226-227

Amen.

Your Pastor,

Andrew

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A DECREASING VISION OF GREATNESS

“For Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.”  C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 2017:125

There is one sin that is worse than all others. It is the worst because it is insidious and imperceptibly deceptive. It is always at the root of all other sins. It was the original sin. In C. S. Lewis’s classic book, Mere Christianity, it warranted an entire chapter (“The Great Sin”) and Lewis claims that it is the greatest threat to any person – including the Christian – and their standing before God. Thus, to be truly spiritual, Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered, and spiritual, demands that the man or woman of God be on guard against what Lewis called “spiritual cancer” — pride. To have any chance of guarding against the spread of this deadly spiritual and character blighting ‘cancer’ requires that we adopt a decreasing vision of ‘greatness’.

He must increase, but I must decrease.”
John the Baptist, John 3:30

 

THE PROBLEM WITH RECOGNISING PRIDE 

C. S. Lewis tells us what we all already know about spotting pride: we loathe it when we see it in someone else, but never (except for Christians) imagine that we are guilty of it ourselves (p. 121). In fact, Lewis continues, the problem is that the more easily we can recognise pride in someone else the more likely we are guilty of the same pride. We are all quick to justify or excuse ourselves of our own pride, and just as quick to condemn it in others as inexcusable.

The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil.
  Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate.
Proverbs 8:13

THE ESSENCE OF PRIDE IS COMPETITIVE

How we think about pride and humility is very often confused and unhelpful. In John DIckson’s book, Humilitas, he defines humility as withholding your power for the good of others. He gives the illustration of a black man in the 1930s sitting at the back of a bus in Detroit (USA) when a three teenage white boys got on the bus at the next stop. The young boys soon start to call the black man names and taunt him. This taunting intensified until the black man came to his stop and stood to leave the bus. The boys were surprised that he was much taller than they had realised. As he walked up to the boys he reached into his pocket and gave one of them a business card on his way past, and then got off the bus. After he left the boys looked at the business card which simply read: Joe Louis, Boxer. These three boys had just picked a fight with the undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion. Joe Louis, in the opinion of Dr. John Dickson, displayed great humility. Did Joe Louis know that he could dispatch these young men? Certainly. Was that confidence that he had in his ability a form of pride? Yes and no. C. S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity that there is a virtuous pride that comes from working hard and achieving a desired outcome. We expect this of tradesmen. We want them to take pride in the work. This kind of pride, Lewis argues, is for the good of others. The ‘others’ in this instance could be a student’s parents as he or she strives to do their schoolwork for the pride of their family name. A teacher may encourage this in her students when she tells them, “Take some pride in your work and rewrite this essay.”

“We say in English that a man is ‘proud’ of his son, or his father, or his
school, or regiment, and it may be asked whether ‘pride’ in this sense is a sin.
I think it depends on what, exactly, we mean by ‘proud of’. Very often, in such
sentences, the phrase ‘is proud of means ‘has a warm-hearted admiration for’.
Such an admiration is, of course, very far from being a sin.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

But Lewis contrasts this desirable pride with the cancerous pride of competitiveness. 

“In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask
yourself, `How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take
any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronise me,. or show off ?’ The
point is that each person’s pride is in competition with every one else’s pride.”
C.S. Lewis

Lewis writes, “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others.” Pride is therefore the attitude of considering ourselves to be better than another. Lewis is quick to point out that this does not mean thinking less of ourselves, but rather that we should each think less about ourselves! The ultimate pride is therefore atheism. The atheist’s pride reaches to the heavens and at its core wants to be better than the Supreme Being.

“In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably
superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that – and, therefore, know
yourself as nothing in comparison -you do not know God at all.” – C. S. Lewis

 

DECREASING INTO GREATNESS

Jesus described John the Baptist as the greatest man who has ever lived (Matt. 11:11). John had been drawing huge crowds to his baptisms (Matt. 3:5). When Jesus came on the scene, the crowds dissipated and went after Jesus (Matt. 4:25). John’s response is the inspiration for the title of this week’s Pastor’s Desk – He must increase and I must decrease. And I find in John’s words the essence to true humility and the antidote to cancerous pride. To be great – truly great – requires this kind of attitude. To be a great follower of Christ we must be others focused, thinking less about ourselves, prepared to serve without praise, forgive without apology, repent without pretense, and prepared to praise and thank others even if we are not. This is, I fear, what it means to decrease and allow Christ to increase in our lives.

Your pastor,

Andrew

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