What Kind of Time?

I just had a little piece of revelation today. I was pondering two kinds of time mentioned in the scriptures (there are at least three). With my Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words in hand, I did some digging. The more familiar usage to us is Chronos time, or the time that we refer to most often measured in seconds, minutes and hours. What we commonly call "a watch" that we wear on our wrist, used to be called "a chronometer". Read the fine print on the face of a Rolex watch and you will see the words, "superlative chronometer". But I digress. The second kind of time is Kairos time or what we refer to as seasons, ages or eras. Both are time, but counted differently.

God who is ageless and eternal is not subject to Chronos time. He isn't concerned with seconds, minutes and hours as we are. These things are very important to us as we only have a limited supply of them. God on the other hand has a limitless amount, so in reality they really don't apply to Him. We are very conscience of our Chronos time, less conscience of our Kairos time.

So, with this thought in mind, think of this verse of scripture:

2 Peter 3:8 (NKJV)
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

It's all the same to Him. Being eternal, one in terms of Chronos time is as good as another. However, it doesn't work that way with Kairos time. Consider this verse of scripture:

1 Thes. 5:1 (KJV)
But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.

Interesting that both "times" and "seasons" are the same word, Kairos. It is times and seasons that are most important to God. We might think of it as "at the right time."

This factors in a lot to us. While we are so wrapped up in Chronos time, we tend to think that God is late so often, that God delays unnecessarily. We want answers to prayer now, within minutes, hours or days. God moves in seasons. I know that seems terribly inconvenient to us who are dominated by the clock most of our lives, but God is who He is, I AM.

So if it seems God is constantly showing up late for your need, remember, it is times and seasons, not minutes and hours. Hard to accept, but I am thinking that is the way it is.

As a secondary side note to all of this, a further revelation occurred to me. Wives are a lot like God in this way, much more than husbands. Husbands are very bound to Chronos time. Wives are much more oriented to Kairos time, times and seasons, "when the time is right". So, when a husband asks his wife, "when will you be ready?" or when they drive up to the mall, "when will you be back?" she intuitively understands that we husbands do not relate to Kairos time and gives us Chronos time so we can have something we can understand. The wife will say, "I'll be ready in five minutes." Now she is not telling us an untruth, but since we wouldn't understand it if she said, "when the time is right", or "in season", the answer of 5 minutes conveys the message that she is not ready yet. Remember the day versus a thousand years?, yep, wives also think one is as good as another. Five minutes is as good as half an hour or more. 5 o'clock is as good as 7 o'clock. It is all within the same era or season.

Honestly, I dont' know how theologically sound all of this is, but it sure helps me understand some things better. I hope it helps you, dear reader as well.

What if....God

I have been pondering quite a bit lately about how some people can truly believe there is no God. I cannot conceive how any person who thinks (ah...maybe I've hit on something here) can embrace the idea that everything is a cosmic accident. Aside from theological arguement, which are valid and necessary, but just playing the "what if..." game leads one to see the utter impossibility of life being possible without God.

For instance, what if we just eliminate one thng from the world as we know it? What if there were no gravity? Now I know men and women live in space capsules without it, but think here and now, life would just not be possible. We coudn't drive, things would be a mess to say the least, and there would be no way we could raise children, make dinner or a million other things we take quite for granted that makes life possible. It sounds pretty silly, but really, rivers would cease to be rivers and rain would no longer fall and what would keep the oceans in their place? The more you ponder the problem, the less silly it becomes.

When one thinks of the perfect balance of everything that works together to support life, the complexity of it all leads one quickly to the conclusion, there has to be a God who put this all together so perfectly. An accident? Now that's silly.

Rev. 4:11 (NKJV)
"You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created."

A Bear-ably Nice Day

It was getting on toward the end of summer and the "bite" was on for rainbow trout on the Kenai River. This is positively my favorite time of year on the Kenai Peninsula. I "had" to use my birthday present from the church of a guided fishing trip with Jimmie Jack Guide Service. David Drake was the guide on this spectacular day.

Guide - David Drake, We watched a brown bear eating some salmon early in the day (see the attached video link for a YouTube clip) and we caught a lot of fish, silver salmon, Dolly Varden, Whitefish, and my favorite, rainbow trout. There is something very special about Kenai River rainbow trout. They are (sometimes) huge, they are spectacularly colored and speckled and they leap and fight in and out of the water with a wild frenzy that is addictive to a fisherman. We had such a day. I was blessed to have caught a beautiful specimen near the end of the day, a perfect way to cap off a great experience.

The other aspect of this day that was exciting to watch was being in the boat while Dave, the guide, witnessed to the other client in the boat, a older gentleman named, Jerry. Jerry was pretty resistant to talk much about faith the whole day, but that did not stop or intimidate Dave! Every little bit, Dave would mention Jesus or thank the Lord when we caught a nice fish.

Jerry would not respond most of the time, but through the day, he was softening up. He talked about his religious upbringing and about all of the difficult things he experienced being a soldier in the Viet Nam war. Each time Dave would say something positive about what Jesus meant to him and gave assurance of God's love for Jerry. It was a marvelous thing to watch Dave mix his professional skills as a guide with his personal witness of Jesus. You could tell this was not a special put-on because the pastor was in the boat, but a lifestyle of witnessing about Jesus to everyone he meets.

At the end of the day, Dave was telling Jerry he hoped he could come back again next year to fish with him again. Jerry said that he would need God's help to do it as he is currently battling cancer and has been advised that he may not have that much time. Dave, pulled the boat up to a convenient bank and laid hands on Jerry and prayed for his healing and for Jesus to make Himself known to Jerry.

Wow, what a great day! the personal enjoyment of my favorite fishing and being on the front row of watching someone give a persistent and passionate witness of Jesus to someone who was obviously not used to talking about his faith. Way to go, Dave! Not only for a great day of fishing, but for touching someone with a witness of Jesus!

What Really Matters

I don't kow about you, but I like to think a lot when I am working with my hands. I think about a lot of different things, What will heaven be like? Why does life have to be so hard sometimes? and recently I was thnking about, What really matters?

Maybe it was the fact that I was helping a friend clean out their garage. It was like reliving history as things stored away came out to the light for the first time in a long time. It reminded me of how life changes and things we were once passionate about are now forgotten or ignored. We put so much time and effort into things that we eventually lose interest in. We expend our resources toward things that only matter for a while and then we are off on to other things.

What really matters? My relationship to God. My relationship to my family. My relationship to those I love. When it comes right down to it, it has to be relationships. As I ponder this, I think relationships are on the high priority list wth God as well. He sent His only Son to die on the cross so that I could have relationship with Him. To send your only Son to die in my place tells me that must really matter to God.

I want to streamline my life a little more. Be less cluttered with stuff and more focued on what really matters. I know stuff can make life interesting and I have no problem with that, but neither do I want it to get in the way of the thngs that are most important. I want to love God, my wife, my children, my family, my friends. I want the expenditure of my resources to reflect those priorities. My time, my money, my attention I want to make the greatest impact in those priorities than anywhere else. Hopefully when I go to be wth Jesus there won't be much to haul away to the dump as the things I chose to put my resources into are eternal. I pray that for you too.