Phyllis Beveridge Nissila
From a recent post on a fellow blogger’s site touching on the subject of time I am reminded of how God’s will is enacted from His time suspended in eternity to each of our times lived “in motion,” so to speak, on earth.
I think the gift of time given “in the beginning” is second only to free will in import. For it is within time–however long it takes each of us to respond to God’s “call”–that we come to that place when (and how) we are ready and able to freely choose Him.
Of all the metaphors in the visible that illustrate the invisible, I think our mortal life, designed to exist in time, from day to month to year to end is the most intimate demonstration of God’s love, His patience, and His pattern of redemption: first comes conception; next, growth and development–until finally dawns the awareness beyond self. Then sometime after comes the moment of choice when Jesus asks of each, in each our own vernacular: the Question of questions: “Who do you say I am?”
(And the angels pause, ready to rejoice for each one who answers, like Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”)
To those who acknowledge Christ as Messiah, He sends the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our hearts “To become renewed (and) transfigured … in (yet) another pattern”*: by grace through faith, just as He did for those in that Upper Room, the first meeting place at the dawn of the New Covenant Church purchased by His blood, the door standing open for a little while yet (for all things on this side of eternity must have beginnings, middles, and endings) for whosoever else may pause there, say “yes” to the invitation, and enter.
Is it you? Today?
~~~~~
*From T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, poem #1, “Burnt Norton.”
Image from Wikimedia Commons
pnissila 
I’m glad you have touched on this theme and brought out some more aspects of it. We live in God’s time even though we measure time in a chronological order. He comes to us when and where He sees the best moment. This is often at a time of crisis when we are at a low ebb and we need Him most.
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Thank you for highlighting this: “We live in God’s time even though we measure time in a chronological order.” And I would add even though there are those who have changed how time is measured, e.g., from a lunar calendar to a solar calendar, because God uses every thing, even that which is distorted by man, to reveal Himself to us. For example, prophecy reveals how God has been using the times when both calendars coincide to point to significant events. Here is an interesting discussion of that: https://pnissila.blog/2017/02/14/prophecy-patterns-part-8-of-8-the-metonic-cycle-shortness-of-time-and-jesus-peace/
Thank you also for the reminder that God comes to us “often at a time of crisis when we are at a low ebb and we need Him most.”
Although such times are the hardest to deal with and we are often alone in them, God is present there, most. I am reminded of Betsie ten Boom’s statement, “There is no pit so deep, that God’s love is not deeper still,” that her sister, Corrie immortalized in her book The Hiding Place that included an account of their internment in a Nazi concentration camp where Betsie died.
What Satan meant (or is meaning) for harm against an individual (you, me, anybody and everybody else who turns to Him for help), God can use for good. As this is recorded in Genesis 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…” His love is far greater than anything and everything our real enemy can hurl against us, whether the ordnance is physical, mental, emotional, psychological, or spiritual.
God, in His time, Who has created our time and Who dwells in all times, reigns over all, came before all, and will continue after all.
In the meantime, when we cry to Him for help in the hard times, His love shines brightest, His love is revealed strongest, and His power to deliver us from whatever evil plagues us becomes real. Betsie found that out in circumstances few of us could endure and remain hope-filled and Love-sustained.
It starts with a simple plea, like Peter found out when he was sinking in that stormy sea and cried out, “Jesus, save me!”
And Jesus did.
He still can.
No matter what.
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