Yesterday Today & Forever

Yesterday, Today, Forever

This morning, as I was reading again those beautiful words in Ecclesiastes 3, the Lord spoke to me. Let me show you what He showed me.

Ecclesiastes 3 (NIV)

A Time for Everything

“ ¹ There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:”

This is one of the great truths of God’s Word. Everything has its season – there is indeed a time to do and a time not to do. This is just the preface of what God was showing me.

“ ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

Reminded me of that old Ray Stevens song, “Everything is beautiful, in its own way” and don’t tell me you didn’t start to sing it too!! LOL . . . But the Lord pointed me to the next little bit – the bit about eternity in our hearts. That’s a whole new concept isn’t it? We have eternity in our hearts yet we still cannot understand what God has done for us since time began until the end of time. As I began to think about this, the Lord interrupted me again to point out verse 16,

“ ¹⁶And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment— wickedness was there, in the place of justice— wickedness was there.”

He let me think about this statement for a minute or two, then He said, “This is where corruption begins.” That stopped me and made me think. He went on, “The widow, the orphan, the disadvantaged, and the poor are denied proper judgement and therefore they are denied justice.”

There was a pause so I managed to ask, “How so Lord?”

He said this, “When judgement became a buyable commodity, so justice became the short change given to my people. Show me a place where corruption does not rule and I will show you My Kingdom.” With that the Lord showed me the worlds kings and princes, the rulers and politicians, the big businessmen and those who dictate the marketplace. There was not one who was not corrupted by greed, by the lust for power, or for personal advantage.

I protested that there are many good Christians in these positions but the Lord pointed out that all of them, without exception, was somehow made to “toe the party line”. This was all very gloomy and depressing but the Lord is merciful and He took me back to His Words in Ecclesiastes 3. As I read them again, He spoke to me about the time to do everything.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.”

I asked Him what message I should put out with all of this and He said this – “Every season is called at My command. There is nothing that happens that I do not know about and which I do not control. I am the Lord God Almighty and I am He who was before time; who is now; and who will be when time is no more. For those who are lost, there will soon be no more hope but for those I call My children, there is hope eternal. I have My hand on each one of you and on every situation. Do not give up on Me now for there is a season of great harvest coming and every single one who does the least little thing for My Kingdom shall be honoured. I was, I am, and I always will be the Hope of My people.”

Finally the Lord drew my attention to Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Is our God not a wonderful caring and loving God?