It's About Time [ Page 2]

It?s About Time...Continued from page 1]
Jesus never would be caught in that fight and never answered that question, almost without exception. Whenever anybody would press Him about the end of time after He had announced the coming Kingdom, He would always take them back to the moment at hand. At the end of the Gospel of John, when Peter wanted to know what would happen to the disciple John, Jesus pulled Peter back to the moment: “It doesn’t matter what I’m going to do with John. You follow Me. You do what you’re supposed to d Seek the Kingdom of God, and everything else will fall into place.”

Anytime Jesus was asked to give a prediction, anytime people pressed for a sign, He would always tell them, “You be obedient in this moment. You pay attention to the opportunity in front of you and we’ll let tomorrow take care of itself.” Jesus would always remind His disciples the future is already finished. We have that handled. What you need to be aware of right now is what moment God has given you. What is before you now?

A lot of us like to live as the early disciples lived. We want to live like children whose parents have gone out of town for the weekend. So we leave Frito bags and open cans of Coke all around the house, and we can guess when our parents are going to come back. In those last few hours of Sunday afternoon we clean up the house like crazy, assuming the mess never seen is the mess never made.

A lot of us want to live our lives that way with Jesus. We watch for the signs. Jesus said that is like the man who knew what time his house was going to be broken into.

Did you hear that? You didn’t, because you didn’t laugh. If you had heard it, you would have fallen over laughing. This is the story Jesus tells them. He says, “It’s like the man who is sitting in a gathering, looks at his watch and goes, ‘Sorry, guys, I’ve got to go.’ Why? ‘There’s a guy who is going to break in my house at 9:30 and I really want to be there when he breaks in.’”

If you knew your house was going to be broken into you never would have left it. You would be prepared for the break in. Jesus said, “In the same way, you know I am coming back. Why do you live as if I never will?”

But we watch for signs, don’t we? Something happens in the Middle East and all of a sudden there will be forecasts and all the sermons will talk about The Second Coming and this proves it. This guy’s name ? when you subtract the second name and talk about his mother’s name on his dad’s side ? and you add all the numbers it is 666, so this guy is the anti-Christ and it proves Jesus is coming back by the weekend. Then all of a sudden that crisis (whatever it is) settles down and we’re back to the routine. We’re back under the illusion that time is ours to manage ? that we have this gift of time and it is ours.

In the fourth chapter of James the writer reminded the early believers no one should say, “I’m going to go to this town and I’m going to spend a year there and I’m going to do my business.” Instead, he should say, “If it’s the Lord’s will I will go there and I will do this and that.” To say anything else is to brag, is to boast, is to put yourself in the place of God, saying time is yours and you’re the one in control of it. You’re the one whom time obeys.