Wednesday, November 04, 2009

I am fascinated with time and eternity...as purely scientific concepts these things grab my attention. I have come to identify eternity as a region of space/geography/dimension that is NOT subject to time. Time itself as I understand it is a created thing, much like a tree, it is something God created, therefore by definition He is not subject to it, it is subject to Him.

If you think of time in the western model then you probably imagine a line that starts with a beginning and has an ending...so it is a definite length, this is usually how we think of time and we are very good at creating time lines and schedules based on this understanding, which at best is very simplistic.

So what if time (whatever it is) functions like we imagine and there is a beginning and there is an end and it has definite length and can be measured...it has a dimension and perimeters and it might even be possible to see it, as long as you are outside of it...

What if time from the beginning to the end is completely visible before Gods throne, which is outside of time and not restrained by it? If this were possible, then God could look at your life from any point on the line (using a western example here) and could base His posture towards you from any vantage point in the past, the present or the future...

Now here's where it gets a little different, God can quite possibly see your life as it occurs all at once from the first breath to the last...and because Jesus offered himself up as a sacrifice by the "Eternal" Spirit (Hebrew 9:14) he creates an "Eternal Salvation" (Hebrews 5:9) and for you that salvation gets superimposed upon the time-line of your life no matter where you are in "time"...your salvation, your redemption, and Gods attitude towards you all are not subject to time or any actions occurring there, other than the one act of placing yourself into eternity by accepting the sacrifice that is now outside of time.

Eccl.3:11 says this "He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end."...

So if I get this right, man which is a temporary being based upon a time-line, has eternity inside him...are you freaked out yet?

I dunno...its kind of cool to think about this stuff, the bottom line is that God has done something for us that goes beyond our limited scope of time, and not only that He has placed "anti-time" or eternity into our hearts...maybe thats why we are so clock conscious and aware we are aging, because in our hearts we know that time is temporary, it is simply the scaffolding of Grace around the building of our lives...