I didn't get far into Galations this morning. I got snagged on a verse. Not even a whole verse - a verselette? Just a phrase squirrelled away in the first few verses.
Galatians 1
3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Something about that phrase "...that He might deliver us from this present evil age" grabbed me. How did Paul think about the day he lived in? What were his thoughts about his time frame - his window on the timeline?
Our human hearts have a funny relationship with our time. We're apprehensive about time forward. We're nostalgic about time past. Time now? We call it precious. Short. To be treasured.
It's all true, of course, but Paul's tapping into something here - it's also inherently evil. They age we live in is flawed at the core. Something is wrong with the now. The universe, at it's present angle, speed and trajectory, is operating incorectly. The creator and creation are estranged. Our times are evil.
On the other side of the globe, in a country where they're too poor to keep the lights on, Kim Jong-il claims he has discovered how to split the atom. Global leaders worry and entire people groups cower in fear: What kind of a world will we have when a madman has the power to tear apart the basic building block of the physical world?
I wonder what kind of a world we will have when the God of all things exercises His own power to tear apart the basic meauring stick of our lives...time.
Kim Jong-il's atomic maybe was nothing compared to the reaction to come, when the Creator breaks in on the one variable that man has not even dreamed of deconstructing. We have gone to great lengths to affect our environment - earth, sea and sky. We have built stations in the sky and torn atoms to bits in underground bunkers, yet God is coming to split time...to tear the now from the then.
Hold very loosely to the now. Some time better is coming. You don't want to a death grip on the day that falls to the left of the axe when He chooses to deliver us from this present evil age.
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3 comments:
Randy! I feel the impact of this post very strongly this morning. The Lord is on this word and the Truth reverberates through powerfully. Keep it coming!
whoa. that's heavy.
I visited a church on Sunday that had a similar message. Not on that verse, but similar thoughts. He was talking about reading of Genesis 1 & 2 as a FIRST impression of how God imagined this world to be and He hasn't changed. This is the GOOD world that we are meant to have. This is what it will be restored to. I literally wept all the way through his sermon; it impacted me so much. That was something I haven't done since I first heard the intimacy message. You are on to something, Randy. Keep developing it.
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