Second Time

     Time can be squeezed! Of course time is constant but for us, but it can be compressed and expanded. The conscience is real time while the sub-conscience is whatever time the human mind makes it! Sleep stops time but dreaming defies it. Memories recall time and dementia loses it.
     Thought ignores time as does apathy. Drugs blur time, and depression kills time. Motivation races time, and lack of it wastes time. Anxiety is the worm hole in time which jumps from one world to another in an instant. Many have experienced that when catastrophes recall thousands of past events in seconds! That is life flashing by.
     In youth, hot summer days crawl through time. Those in the autumn of life live months in mere minutes. The speed of conscience is when time accelerates. Young people don't understand, but life crawls from the womb but rushes to the tomb. As I type these words, "g's" pull me to the grave as if I'm in a jet crashing uncontrolled and ready to hit the ground. I dread the crash and hope there is more beyond the sudden deceleration of time. Does time quit when the crash occurs or does the spirit continue floating comfortably in endless time?
     Life is all about that: experiencing time after the clock has stopped. The sting of death gives a sudden shock to individual conscience time, and it ceases, or does it? Does it become more pleasant time or unbearable? That depends on what people do with their time in life. Shall time be used foolishly or wisely?
     Many day-dream; I do often. People who day-dream can do things one place as their minds experience other places. The mind's fantasy is so much better than reality that conscience time is blotted out. I experience that often, as many do, while driving. Suddenly the mind comes out of its wormhole and the body has traveled hundreds of miles. "Wormholes" are thought to be places in space on the tangents of black holes where matter is accelerated from one universe to another instantaneously. That is theory, but our thoughts can be projected to different worlds as we allow our sub-consciences to take over.
     Many wish they could repeat time, and do over what they once did. It would be fantastic to rewind time but once time is spent, it is gone! Time is the currency of life. Time is cheap when one is young but precious as gold in the golden years. I saw the movie In Time (2011). The plot was that everyone was given twenty-five years of time but could spend, sell, buy, and even steal other people's time. There was even a time bank where time was hoarded and could be borrowed. How one spent their time was a measure of what was important to them. Some wasted time on frivolous matters while others were generous and shared their time with others. Greedy people used their prowess to hoard time, and were selfish with every second! TIME HAS VALUE BUT PEOPLE STILL WASTE AND MISUSE TIME!
     Because men have souls to fill, time filling the soul is time spent wisely. Spending valuable time otherwise is folly!

Prov 15:21 Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom... Prov 14:29 ...he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. Jas 15 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally... 1 King 2:6 Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar (aged) head  go down to the grave in peace.

     "Folly" is living foolishly. That's what people without wisdom do! (Prov 15:21). Those who do things hurriedly, so as not to waste time, are foolish (Prov 14:29). God gives wisdom generously (Jas 15), and those who are wise do not die in "peace" (foolishness) (1 King 2:6). Wisdom comes from God and the wise person will be expedient in his use of time. The purpose of time is to work out one's salvation:

Phil 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

     This passage does not imply that salvation is something to be obtained by paying for it. It means to work out your own salvation by considering time. Ultimately everyone's eternal destination boils down to how much value time has for them! Each person must ask, "Do I want to live forever and have never-ending time?" Fools will not care, or believe it to be impossible. Those who buy into endless time have hope. Those who do not either live in despair or fantasy. Life truly begins when one is born-again. Those who have not spent the time to consider rebirth, have no hope for more time. "Born-again" is when the person's time-clock is filled just as those in the movie could buy more time! They depended on stealing time or having it given to them by others. Time could be borrowed but they all had to repay it. God gives mankind more time because he gifts it without charge. His gift is called "grace": giving to those who do not deserve it!
     People can "work" so as to gain time from God. They, however, must work out their salvation. Jesus said, "You must be born again." (John 3:7). "Born-again", for those desiring eternal time, requires rebirth to start the clock all over again. God adjusts the time, resetting it to from limited to unlimited time! The "work" is considering God and elevating Him. What can God do that man can't? Control time. He is the Giver of Life - more and endless time. You can't do that, and neither can anyone else. God sets the timeclock, and man can never change time. Most tamper with time and waste it, but no one can gain time on their own!
     Rebirth is when endless time is promised.  That instills hope but it is contingent on faith. Faith must be maintained to keep the eternal clock ticking. If faith decays until it stops, the clock stops as well. Man can't regain expired faith, and the clock can never be restarted:

Heb 6:6 If they (who have tasted the word of God: born-again) shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

     Those who are born-again must persevere until the end. Faith is not for a cross-section in time but the continuous power behind the mainspring of the spiritual clock:

1 John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

     Faith, weak at first, is enough to reset the spiritual clock, but to overcome the pleasures of the world requires continuous faithfulness. That is gained through time spent with the Word, and applying spiritual knowledge unto wisdom. That is wise use of time because it maintains the hope of eternal life. As each moment passes what happens to those reborn?

Rom 13:11 ...knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

     Light and darkness were created for the telling of time (Gen 1:3-5). The passing of time is from darkness to daylight and is measured by the sun. The seasons are measured by the moon. Before time was created, there was no time. God just created the heaven and the earth without the passing of any time for it had yet to be created. God gave life with time while working in six days. Thereafter, God rested but time was for mankind to consider God: to work out their own salvation with God. Man "dresses and keeps" the Garden by their confidence in the Tree of Life which stands in the midst of it. One implied fruit of that Tree is time! Those who will stand under the Tree of Life (Eternity) during life buy time. All they need do to buy time is to stand under that Tree and go where "it" goes:

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

     Buying endless time or eternal life is nothing more than walking the way of Jesus. When he died for mankind, in our place, that bought time for mankind. His own lifeblood was spilled, dripping down from that pendulum of life - the cross. To reset our clock, takes only faith in that blood.
     While on his own cross, one thief whose time had run out, reset his clock from zero to infinity by looking toward Jesus for life. The other thief had his clock stop by looking away from Jesus. In his foolishness, he didn't realize that he stood under the Tree of Life and never ate of its fruit. His clock stopped shortly thereafter, and eternity became despair when it could have been glorious.
     Now is the time to consider time. Right now, I have put on the armor of Light and have the hope of salvation (1 Thes 5:8). My "hope" is that I will live forever; that my time will never expire. That thief on the cross felt the sting of death just as Jesus and the other thief. However, two will live forever, but because of his foolishness (not considering time), the unrepentant thief will be forever dying. His clock will never stop but he will wish that it would. He will know how valuable time is but it will be too late. Dead men can't rewind clocks!