Time! Time!

May 29 reprint from May 29, 2008

In the popular book "The Hobbit" by JRR Tolkien, Bilbo Baggins tells Gollum, Time, time! Meaning Bilbo needed more 'time' to think of the answer to the riddle. Time, however WAS the answer to the riddle, therefore Bilbo had inadvertently stumbled upon the correct answer.

We also call 'time, time' in our lives. Meaning often, "If I just had more time!" If I just had more time I could..., but wait...is time really the problem?

Deuteronomy 30:19 "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:"

This scripture is talking to Israel of old, yet some principles still apply to New Israel. God sets before us life and death, blessing and cursing. We also must choose.

Deadlines, deadlines, they always seem to come faster than expected. Did I really commit to making mints for my niece? Was it really almost a year and a half ago? How is it I need them done--now? Good intentions? Hmmm, who was it that said, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions?"

To look at the religious world and the manifold answers to Biblical questions leaves a seeking person scratching their head in confusion. Is there any way to know what is right--to know what is wrong?

John 18:38 "Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all."

Perhaps Pilate himself was weary--"What is truth". It sounds that way. One can see him turn and walk out to the waiting mob; "I find no fault in him". What is truth echoes through Pilate's hall. What is truth echoes down the ages.

Psalms 119:160 "Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever." God's Word is true, its precepts, its judgments, all of it is true. It has never been proven false, not even in one place.

We don't always understand it, for instance some people believed the earth to be flat, but God, through the prophet Isaiah, said it was round, (circle of the earth) in Isaiah 40:22 "It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:".

And of course there are the 'paths of the sea': Psalms 8:8 "The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." That were found--after the sea captain, as he lay recuperating from sickness--when he had his son read to him from the Bible. The son read Psalms 8:8, and the captain thought about it awhile, then decided, "If God says there are paths in the sea then the paths are there". He set out to find them--and he did.
Psalm 8:9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

What is truth? God's Word is true. John 1:14 "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." John 18:37 "Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."

John 8:32 "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 14:6 "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Time! Time! Too many ask the questions, but, like Pilate, they don't wait for the answer. Time is short, or they aren't as interested as they think they are.

2Corinthians 6:2 "For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

God still sets before us life and death, blessing and cursing. And still we must choose.

Acts 17:27 "That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:" Religious confusion is here from Satan. He plants it in order to confuse folks so they won't find the true door. So they won't find the way, the truth, and the life.

"...I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: Therefore choose life."

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!