Thought for the Month

It’s about 30 years since George Michael recorded and released the song ‘Praying for time’. One would not pretend to know all that was on his mind but it appears to be a suggestion he was making to himself and his listeners.

Time plays such a prominent place in our lives from "What time do I have to leave?", "not enough time" and "its time I…". Checking the time and making deadlines is part of the structure of everyday life from the moment we awake to the time we go to sleep.

For Zacharias and Elizabeth they thought the time was past to have their first child after many years of marriage. Yet John came at exactly the right time to be the forerunner to the Messiah.

In eschatological terms students of the Bible have always looked to gauge whether we are in the "last days" or when the time of the end finishes. It has often been said "the time is short" although not so short as when one tries to recall when one first used that expression.

One concept that has been important to grasp all through the Gospel age, otherwise called the Christian era, are the times of restitution of all things and the times of refreshing that Peter exclaimed in his second sermon in Acts 3. The import is that there are times of refreshing and times of restitution and we look forward to that work of restitution while there is yet suffering.

Waiting is common in everyday life. Politicians have been debating the waiting times for a doctor’s appointment, or time waiting to be seen at the local hospital’s accident and emergency department. The world is waiting for Christ’s kingdom to be established on earth if only they all knew it and that is the type of waiting that is really important.

While Christians wait they also watch, watch for the signs of the consummation of this age. Several of the Old Testament prophets, like Zechariah, wrote as they were inspired, of events that were yet to occur. To the Bible student it details the signs, where to look and in what order they should be expected.

The Day of the Lord is a time that has concerned readers of the Bible. The events are not happy, beautiful or bright. But they do precede what is the world’s ‘Golden Future’ and for the Christian life in the heavenly home or abode.