TIME MACHINE

(Further reflection on “Tomorrow”—Sunday 13-Nov-2022)

Every once in a while, every generation has fantasized about inventing a time machine, so that people can go back to the past to change certain things, which will result in altering the present or fast forward to the future to see what’s ahead, so that people can adjust their present to make a desirable future.

A time machine is a human desire to control. A desire to be (not like) a god. Through the ages and in most cultures, there is always a degree of fortune-telling practice. People either seek all kinds of gods or spirits, including evil ones or look at stars or celestial beings to predict the future. Everyone by nature dreams to have a desirable future. To some, it will be now. To these type of people, their future is now. They want it now. YOLO (You Only Live Once) is their motto. To others, their future is to try to save their present for future use. Their present is not being lived out but saved for the future. Thus, life is always about tomorrow. And both groups have no way of controlling tomorrow. For if tomorrow is up to humans to control, they are but God. This is the primal sin since the Fall (cf. Genesis 3) and after thousands of years later, people in the first as well as twenty first century are still somewhat saying the same thing, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit."

People who live their life by “their tomorrow” will have the tendency to boast about tomorrow according to their definition and expectation. They ask, "What is my life according to me? And perhaps how I’m going to have it?” They hope that "life according to me" will be blessed by my God, who is somewhat viewed as the One who is standing by their side and just have to bless whatever they are going to ask for.

People who live their life by “His tomorrow” will live their life according to His will. Since it is not their will, but His, they will learn to submit to the One who gives them life, saves them from their sin, lives in those who believe and walk in trust and obedience with His Son, Jesus Christ—who is the head of the church and calls every believer to be added to His Body to be taught, rebuked, corrected, and trained in righteousness by His living Word (cf. 2 Timothy 3:16-17), so that they can become His and be ready for every good work according to His will and plan (cf. 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Romans 12:2b). And every believer who knows and follows the Lord as his/her Master, they will live and do things according to God’s will. They ask, “What is my life according to Him? And how am I going to live my life to please the One who is the Savior and Lord of every aspect of my life—Jesus Christ?”

Now you know the difference between two groups of people. And “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin (James 4:17).” The choice is always yours. And my prayer and hope is that may each of us know difference between the guarantee of the “life-killing” nature by living according to our own will and the assurance of “life-giving” nature by living our life according to His will and plan.

Amen.

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Pastor Lap