A Time to Live & a Time to Die: Reflections on Time & Eternity

For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.
    A time to be born and a time to die...
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2a,4a (NLT)

Time, that fleeting commodity that holds us while on this earth! Yet we can't hold onto it! And for all of us, time is ticking away. We are closer to the end of our earthly journey every second that we live.

Having walked in recent years with loved ones in their last earthly days, I can't help but reflect on the value of my own days as they unfold. I want to live while I'm alive....the life I have, not the one I wish I had; not by my own self-determination and self-indulgence, but by the Spirit of my indwelling God who lives, loves, and serves through me, as me, as I let him. Then when I come to the end of my allotted days, I will have "served God's purpose in my generation." (Acts 13:36)

I love how Bible teacher Jill Briscoe puts it:

"When you know Jesus, you let Him wind your watch. When it stops, He gives you a new one with everlasting springs!"

What a blessed Hope is ours who belong to Jesus for time and eternity! And so I am grateful for the gift of each day and the hope I have of a new "watch" with those "everlasting springs" when my "earthly time piece" wears out. 

How about you, my friend? Do you have that blessed hope for time and eternity in Christ? Do you value the days of the life you have? Do you live them, or rather let HIM live them through you, with all your might ... for His pleasure and purpose while you have life and breath?

Lord, may this ever be so for each of us! In Jesus most glorious name. Amen.

When ... the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?”

...But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:54-58 ESV

Friends, I love the following song and play it often as I drive along running errands, going to appointments, or wherever my day carries me. It is not overtly "Christian" in message, but it helps me value the day the Lord has given me. May it do the same for you. Enjoy and be blessed!