Time Compression; Not Reversion

     Time is the measurement of existence. Time is the currency of life; time spent cannot be unspent. Now is an instant which will be gone immediately. The future never exists because as it is approached, it zips past the present into the past. Thus, existence was only in the past.
     Existence cannot be rewound because the time is gone, never to be reclaimed. Life cannot be repeated and deja vu is a false reality. There is no past because it is gone. There is no future because it can only become the present, fading as quickly as it arrives. Now is the time for everything. Nothing happens in the past nor can it in the future.  Now is reality, the past is only memories, and the future is fantasy.
     Einstein's General Theory of Relativity gave some hope that the past could be relived. Gravity can bend time but the past can never become the present. Even if living matter could exceed the speed of light, time could only be compressed; reversion to the past cannot happen! The time of the past is time already spent. Each moment of the past was lived for the moment, and after each moment is spent it is gone. Time can be slowed but it cannot be reversed. Irreversible transactions are non-isentropic and the energy spent yesterday can never be reclaimed.
     If a person could travel the speed of light, time from instant to instant can be reduced, but cannot return to the instant before. As the future becomes the present, that event can only happen sooner. Time can only be shortened, never lengthened. Thus time is indeed  running out. 
     There is no hope in waiting. Wasting time increases its value but it only gets spent faster as the end of life comes nearer. As a child, time was taken for granted because there was plenty of it! With age, time becomes more valuable than gold because each breath measures life. Gold is always gold but physical life is extinguished. If only one day of life is left, all the gold in the world cannot buy the next as the value of gold diminishes with the extinction of remaining time. Thus, time is more valuable that anything!
    Children don't worry about time because they fail to understand its value. I have always worried about time! I always understood that each moment spent is each moment gone, never to be begotten again. From my youth, the fear of non-existence encompassed me; that time would someday run out and I would cease to be. The acknowledgement of limited time is disparaging. If limited time is dwelt upon it is depressing.
     I know the maximum number of seconds that I have remaining. That time is easily calculated form mortality schedules. The only time available to me is the present. I am not certain of the future because it is merely an assumption. Thus, the time for everything is now, yet people wait for some time later that may never come.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. (Ecles 3:1-8)

     All the those things must be done now. There is no opportunity to do them yesterday, and waiting until tomorrow just changes the now. Now is always the opportunity. Solomon, it is supposed, was in despair when this was written. He was recognizing the value of time! He had everything else but his time was limited. Kingship didn't shield Solomon from the expenditure of time. He said, a time to every purpose under the heaven. I don't understand how he planned on getting time, except for one way - by God. Any day spent losing time is wasted time, as he rightfully said.
     There is a time to heal. Perhaps that is why he wrote about time! To be healed, requires that something has been killed. Life is the death of time. Adam and Eve killed time the first time they sinned. As God promised, they would surely die (Gen 2:7).
     Death was unknown before the first sin and Adam and Eve were immortal. Sin stole time from the two! Since then, time has been limited for most people, and eternity is compressed into what's now about a maximum of one-hundred twenty-years. I just spent some of that time typing words which many will not read, and correcting typing errors that no one will ever know about. I waste time making corrections but spend my productive time wisely. I am doing my job assignment - dressing and keeping the Tree of Life and those other "trees" surrounding it (Gen 2:15)!
     My life has two purposes, one dependent on the other. I desire to have eternal life (unlimited time) but can only obtain that by denying myself. He is the Tree of Life whom I must worship and to worship any other tree is fruitless. Time spent appeasing myself is for naught because it gains no time. Indeed, time is shortened since unlimited time is available, but appeasing me may compress my time.
     I find it ironic that my god (me) wants to live forever but only God can provide that. In order to extend time, I must diminish myself and elevate God. To preserve me, I must destroy me (Rom 12:1). To gain time, I must pay for it. I am the payment - my little weak "god" for Almighty God. I did that. I must continually do that. Salvation is not in the past. It lies in the future. I was born-again when I diminished me and elevated God. That is in the past. It can be the present for those who have yet to be born-again. That event resets the time available: the clock's hand moves from temporal to eternal when we trust Jesus for our time. He bought time for us with his own blood.
     Time has value. God's own blood was the most valuable asset which He had to give. That is the redemption currency. God bought unlimited time by crucifying Himself. Most scoff at that, and attempt to appease the limited time of their god by pleasure. Examine the last instant in life: What will be your pleasure? Shall it be lusts of the eyes, flesh, or the pride of life, or will your pleasure to be for a longer life? I'm not speaking of mortal death. That is only a sting (1 Cor 15:55) and will shortly be over - an instant on the eternal clock. As anyone dies what they shall want most is eternal life. I suggest that none desires extinction unless they fear judgment! To have hope fear must be dealt with!
    Death is the instant in time when salvation is fulfilled. One moment in time defines how eternity will be spent. Satan cannot hurt those who are dead who trusted Jesus. Salvation is when the Devil can no longer harm:

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.(Rev 12:10).

    Salvation is in the future because eternal life provides the future. From the day when one first believes until that time is called "hope". Regeneration (rebirth) provides hope that the day of salvation will come (1 Thes 5:8). With each moment, those redeemed by the blood of Christ are nearer the time of their salvation than when they first believed:

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (Rom 13:11)

     The time not believing is soul sleep. That is not the waiting period after one dies until in Paradise; it is the period in which we could be doing things to elevate God but just as the apostles on the Mount of Olives, Christians use there time merely wasting it. The apostles slept while Jesus was in agony, ironically his agony was for them!
     Those who do not serve God waste the present. The past is already wasted and the future has yet to arrive. They were with Jesus but were "asleep" to the idea that he would be gone soon. They failed to understand that God would even die!
     You will die a mortal death. Even God did that! Because God was resurrected, you can be too. Now is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2) not because you will be saved today but that you can be born-again to be saved when the Devil is destroyed.  That must be done now because tomorrow may never come, at least for you or me!
     Those who have steadfast faith and serve God willingly have the assurance of salvation. Regeneration is as if time has been compressed and the day of our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.