THE PROGRESSION OF TIME

THE PROGRESSION OF TIME

                As we get older we tend to become more humble. We see our increasing limitations and we learn that not all of our opinions are right. AS we slow down, the world around us seems to speed up until it becomes a blur. Our dreams don’t die, but our delusions do. And so we turn more fully to god with the hope that at least our dreams will come true and we will finish strong.

                When we are young we are full of spit and vinegar and big agendas and our reliance on God is more of a nod of respect even as we charge through life with our presumptions and illusions of grandeur.

                I have discovered with time, not to trust too much in my own opinions.  It take a closer look at what God’s Word the Bible actually says and it has made me into a watchman of sorts simply because what the Bible actually says seems to be increasingly irrelevant to the world at large. There is a departure taking place that is scary once we catch sight of it.

                For some it means becoming more deeply entrenched in our traditions, while for others it means abandoning traditions in order to roll with the world’s flow. Either way it may signal that we have lost our vital connection with God, but when we grow older, if there is any wisdom left in us, we become more interested in vital connections with heaven, since it is one of only two destinations at the end of the line. Will we hear God say at the end of the line “Well done” or will we hear Him say, “I never knew you?”

                And so, in our old age, having become wise in such perspectives, we learn to live before God… and more than that, to live as a temple in which God dwells and guides and corrects. We learn to rely on Him more completely, not only as Someone way out there that is looking down on us, but as One who is near us even in our mouths as we speak.

                True prophets of God rarely ever say things that make us sit back in satisfaction with our presumptions, or our delusions. Even as the world may think that they are finally getting their act together and that society as a whole is evolving into something more glorious, especially because of our technologies, God is shouting through His prophets saying: “Everything is not right. You are falling away. You are grieving My Holy Spirit. You are turning from the covenant that I made with you, signed in My own blood. You no longer bow and weep before the throne of mercy. You have made your religion into a system that no longer requires your passion and your heart. Without faith it is impossible to please Me and you have forgotten that I am the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Me. Heb. 11:6

                This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

                As I get older and more determined to really know the Lord and to be known by Him, I find myself wanting to know and understand His role as our High Priest, as Melchizedek. It this is the role that He has taken on, which HE paid for with His own life and blood, then should I not probe His heart to understand it

                Upon His resurrection, Jesus went directly to the Most Holy Place in heaven, there to apply His blood to the Mercy seat and there to become our eternal High Priest, as opposed to the temporary High Priests on earth. But this text in Hebrews says that He went into the Most Holy Place as a forerunner for us, which means that we can follow Him there.

                But as I understand it now, there is a personal sense of entering in as well as a historically prophetic sense in which we will finally be able to enter into that priesthood when our bodies are glorified at the resurrection, or coming of the Lord. So in a historically prophetic sense, we have this glorious event to look forward to when we will be transfigured to be like Him in every respect, and yet there is a present reality in which we can, by faith enter into that most Holy Place and find there an anchor for our soul .

                Today I am meandering, because, well, I am old and old people like to meander from time to time. Have I become wise in my old Age? Only God knows… and so I am placing more of my trust in Him and less in myself. My opinions are far less important than what His Word says and right now I am finding a desire to understand more fully this Priesthood after the order of Melchizedek upon which the New Covenant is formed.

                We have often treated the New Covenant like an appendage of the Old Covenant and yet it is presented in the Bible as a full and complete covenant that is not like the Old Covenant. It is the real thing that the Old Covenant pointed forward to. It is the covenant that God Himself came and died to bring us. It has a new priesthood, a new communion table, new laws and a Holy Spirit that because of what Jesus did, He can now inter into us and empower our lives. So I have to ask why we continue to fall back to the temporary covenant that had no ability to save us when we can come boldly into the new… into intimacy with Jesus through His Holy Spirit.

                Did Jesus come here and die to bring us an inferior covenant? Did He come here to add a few things to the Old Covenant or did He actually fulfill the Old Covenant completely and then offer us passage through His cross and resurrection into His kingdom and the powers of the age to come?

                These are the things I want to know, because it affects my relationship with Him as well as my eternal destiny. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

                And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Luke 24:27 and then Jesus said to them: “And behold, I am sending for the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:49.

                These were the last words Jesus spoke on earth before He went to heaven as our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek to minister in the Most Holy Place for us. Should we not seek to know Him as He is?

                So I will l leave you with this text to ponder today found in 1 Cor. 15:16-28. God’s plans are much bigger than we often allow… and yet even us old guys can be in on the progression of time… especially if we become more humble… as God becomes the source of our dreams and helps us to drop our delusions.