Spending Time

     I have discussed the concept of time in two previous "Thoughts". Today, I wrap up the concept of time. Before I related that time is the currency of love because we spend time with those we love. Likewise, because of self-love, people spend time on themselves, doing what they want to do.
     My oldest son has spent almost no time with me in the last thirty years. I have come to the conclusion that our relationship for him is not worth spending the time to cultivate. Why the alienation? People do what they want to do! Why would anyone fail to spend time with the ones who love them most? Because their priorities are different. The wall between my son and me is marijuana. He does what he wants to do, and that is spend time with "Mary Jane" who has convinced him that pleasure is more important than love.
     One of my former "best" friends, when I ask him to do some activity together, shrugs and says, "I don't have the time." That is essentially declaring that our friendship is not worth him spending that valuable asset. He as well declare, I would rather do about anything else rather than waste my time with you! Does that type of person truly not have time? Yes, they have the time, but would rather do what they want to do. People always do what they want to do!
     My daughter questioned that. She retorted: "I don't want to work but I do!" To that I replied, "You want to work or you would not work. Some people don't work." She looked confused. I finished, "You could not work but you value things money can buy. Work is what you want in order to have things."
     In my own children's informative years, I worked often seven/twelves. I claimed that I didn't want to do that, but for the love of money I still did it! What was another option? I could have found another job where I wasn't required to work so much. I placed money over time with my children. I wasted and lost all that time which I could have taken loving them! If I could rewind, I would certainly spend more time with my family. First off, I would cease spending luxury time on what I want to do, and spend more quality time with my children. My daughter asked me one time at about the age of twenty-three, "Dad, what did you do at General Motors?" My own daughter didn't even know my profession. That was bad on my part; it showed how little time we took conversing.
     Christians are to tithe their money to God. God doesn't need our money. He is the Author of prosperity! Why does God want it then? As a sacrifice to him. God considers ten percent of our income a small sacrifice to demonstrate love for Him. Indirectly, tithing is His way of getting ten percent of our time, knowing that our priority is not spending time communing with Him. I feel badly for not spending time with my daughter. Perhaps she feels the same way. Well, God feels badly when his children don't spend time with Him. He knows that we can make the time, but is quite aware that we are doing what we want to do! We owe God time-tithing.
     Tithing time can be spent wisely. God is not selfish! We are expected to spend our time loving Him and one another. Loving others is how Christians vicariously love God. If Christians truly want to please God, we are to love our enemies, and even them as much as ourselves! Love is extremely hard work but God respects the time and effort it takes to love.
     In this age, Christians expect to be entertained at church. It is God's house; not ours. Our job as Christians is to "dress and keep" God. We are to magnify and love Him! That takes precious time. But many go to church for personal gain and spend God's hour lifting ourselves up doing what we want to do! The what's in it for me attitude is how Christians look at the church. That one hour is God's time but we can't even give Him an hour! How much time does God expect? Not just an hour but all our time! We belong to Him if we're Christians, and all our time is His!
     God knows that He will not get all our time. He is no fool! Therefore, I suggest time-tithing is the minimum acceptable. It is what we owe God. Anything beyond 10% of our time is sacrificial. He knows that we all can make time for ten percent. Since God expects what people owe Him (ten percent of our profits), the sacrfice is any giving beyond that we owe Him. We are to be generous and give God our monetary tithe and sacrificial giving in addition to that. The same goes for our time!

Mark 12:41 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. 42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. 43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury.

     We don't know if the poor widow cast in all her money but we do know that she sacrificed much! Jesus implied that. Her love for God was more than her love of money! I would expect that this woman lived for God. I suggest that her time belonged to Jesus as well as her farthing! She was there wasn't she? She could have been elsewhere but she chose to love God. She was doing what she wanted to do but it was in line with what God wanted her to do. That is what love of God is! I would bet that since Jesus lifted her up as an example, that this poor woman was loving to all those around her. She surely spent her time befriending others.
     In modern times, shallow people have a way of measuring friendship. It is how many "likes" they get on Facebook. It is validation for how many people "love" them but where is the validation that they love others. I have had even some church friends "unfriend" me on Facebook. That is devastating; they can't even fake-love me! Some may have 500 friends on Facebook and act as if I'm their friend. I'm not even in the top 500 of their fake friends! So much for loving others; so much for loving God!
     I quit going to my last church because I didn't feel loved. I had acquaintances but not true friends. That is not love. I even had one man who hated me and made it obvious. He "murdered" me even in God's house! When my friends came, he seemed to despise them as well because they commented on his grumpiness. He was doing what he wanted to do with his time; he was alienating those with whom he expects to spend eternity. That is foolish-time poorly spent.
     How many hours in the day? Twenty-four. "Time-tithing" then is two-hours and twenty-four minutes. If you study the word for thirty minutes in the morning, you will reflect on it all day long even as you work. What's more, you will practice it all day long; that is your living sacrifice: you give yourself entirely to God. How you sacrifice yourself is making time for loving others. My chosen sacrifice is not money of which I have ample, but my time of which I have little. Sure, I'm retired but my remaining time is limited. Ironically, the less time I have in life, the more I want to spend it for God.
     Loving others is hard work and I'm hard to love. If I expect others to love me, time must be spent to love them! People take time for granted. My brother had terminal cancer, and I knew he had but a short time remaining. I spent an hour with him in his final days. He died soon after. I could have spent days with him but I did what I wanted to do. I have remorse for that now because I miss my big brother. Furthermore, I could have spent more time with my parents and other brother before they died. Time cannot be rewound, it must be spent wisely the first time. Time spent on loving others is time well-spent. I cherish my time with my wife. She is worth my time.
     However, time and love must be shared! Loving our spouses is to be a given. That is the minimum but we are to love others as well.

Double-minded

     Double-mindedness is having faith but not being faithful. Scripture calls that wavering in the faith (Jas 1:6). Faith has metrics from no faith to perfect faith which is the faith of God. It takes only a little faith to be born-again but great faith to sacrifice oneself to the Lord. Abraham had great faith for his willingness to sacrifice his "only" son. Plotted against time, faith is not a straight line, nor even a curve, from one limit to the other. It varies from time to time and from day to day. The mountains are brought to you by God and the valleys by Satan. The slopes from valleys to mountains are wavers in the faith. Double-mindedness are those slopes, particularly the downward slopes!

Jas 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

     Constant faith is "steadfast faith":

1 Cor 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

     "Steadfast faith" is one of assurance, and the people who have faith such as that are stable.  Temptations are tests of faith (1 Cor 10:13). Metastable Christians are those who when tempted "fall away" (Luke 8:13). Doubt pulls them down the slippery slopes to the valleys. Doubt is the lack of faith and is graphically the downward slopes from mountain peaks to valleys. The slope of those downward trends is "double-mindedness". Faith is still inherent but it is not practiced. Even Paul suffered double-mindedness:

Rom 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

     Paul refers to this double-minded elsewhere:

Mat 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

     Paul points out that entering into temptation makes one vulnerable for double-thought. He validates that the purpose of temptation is to test the faithful. Christians must overcome that metastable state which may lead to instability - the spiritual and mental states of chaos of those who have double-thoughts!
     What is double-mindedness? Serving two masters (Mat 6:24). Christians cannot serve God and themselves! Double-mindedness is thinking they can, and deceived into thinking it's alright. An example which comes to mind is my Christian friend who lusted after women at the same time he was worshiping God. He felt the spirit but at the same time the lust of the eyes and the flesh. That is double-mindedness.
     However, double-mindedness is not only the lusts men have but their own doctrinal errors: the pride of life, which is perhaps their view of the beginning as evolution when God says it is His creation. "God" is defined as one who creates. Some believe in a weak God who is incapable of creating! That is double-mindedness.
     Another example is believing "thou shalt not kill" (Exod 20:13) but insisting that abortion is acceptable. The ruses Satan uses to trick believers into that double-mindedness are two: (1) I can do what I want with my own body, and (2) the thing within me is not a person. Christians, you are not your own. Your bodies belong to God:

1 Cor 6:20 ...ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body...

     In response to ruse #2, that thing within you women is a person! God knew you in the womb (Jer 1:5). Furthermore John the Baptist leaped for joy upon recognizing Jesus in the womb (Luke 1:44). If a Christian believes their body belongs to themselves, and that it doesn't include life in the womb, they are double-minded and spiritually and emotionally unstable! Satan depends on unstable people doing their own will while claiming they are doing God's.  Satan is proud of his deception but God weeps at his creatures' foolishness!
     Double-minded has cures. Reading and listening to God's Word and prayer will keep potentially unstable Christians from the evil one:

Jas 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts (double-minded). 4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses (unstable Christians), know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God (serving two masters)? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God (choosing wrong master). 5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? 6 But he giveth more grace (example of double-mindedness). Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble (humbling those with the pride of life). 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (the cure for double-mindedness). 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded (Let God purify the minds). 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up (crucify the pride and God will stabilize your thinking).

     The underlining and parentheses are mine but the message is God's. If the Christian reader doesn't understand his or her mental instability, then perhaps unknown to either is their spiritual condition. The slope to Hell is slippery and even Christians can slide, and perhaps fall. Christians need to quit playing mental games with God and let His Spirit be the guide.

God Not As We Understand Him

     Narcotics Anonymous has developed a twelve-step program for sobriety. This commentary is not about NA nor its twelve steps so read on! It is about God.
     Step 3 is "We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him." This seems to be right doctrine and a good thing to do. If  "as we understand Him" was not there, it would be perfect! The problem lies in us: most people don't understand God. People create a fantasy "God" to suit their understanding. God is the same whether people understand Him or not. First off, God has a Name. He is called Jesus. If "your God" doesn't include the person of Jesus, he is not God at all. You need to understand that!
     God created people. He understands us. People aren't capable of creating gods, but they do anyhow. Most people have fabricated a God who they prefer to the True God. Below is a composite of man's created "God":

• He didn't create.
• He can't save. Only man can help himself.
• His personhood of Jesus was merely a good man.
• Man understands better than God.
• God is not vengeful.
• God can help us, but we can't help Him.
• God is responsible for bad things but good things are by fate.
• He's there when we need Him, but when He's not needed He is non-existent.
• He doesn't care how wicked we are as long as we believe.
• God is blind to sin and sees only the good in people.
• God's Laws are of no significance.
• Doing what makes us happy must be okay with God.
• Sins are not behaviors with my God... they are diseases we can't help!
• Some of us are just born that way. My God understands that and accepts us as we are.
• God is a personal God. We can manipulate Him to validate our will.
• Many wrongs can be justified with a few good things.
• Guilt is from the Devil. God would never place guilt on anyone.
• God would never allow anyone to go to Hell.
• God is tolerant of his children (everyone).
• We are all God's children. 

     There are many other features of this "designed God". He is "our God" and only "our God" is the True God. The God of the Bible has impossible rules and is unjust. I like my "God" better than that God! Here we have him: God as people designed Him! What do you suppose the real God thinks of the picture sinners paint of Him? I suggest that indeed, God is angry and those with designer gods will be punished. Do you understand who that God is?

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!

Time

     Time is infinite but there is never enough of it. Time is both limited and unlimited without beginning nor end. Everyone has time but it is not understood by anyone.

Ecc 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

     Life is a season (v.1). Some call it's beginning "spring". Spring has its purpose: to grow forth from that which was not alive but with potential to live. The seed of life for everything is what it can be - it's purpose. God has purpose! His is to Exist. Existence is forever and hence time cannot be bound. God must be! To Exist and have purpose requires something else. God desired to have companionship so that He does not Exist alone. Man's purpose is to love God. God gave mankind a vocation:

Gen 2:15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

      Examine that verse closely. Yhovah (the Eternal One) 'Elohiym (God; plural in His three aspects)laqach (brought forth)  'adam (mankind) and yanach (allowed him to stay) in the gan (fenced-in area) to 'abad (to serve) shamar (to hedge or protect it and to regard it). The context is "dressing and keeping" the Garden, but within Adam's purpose was everyone's! Our purpose is pointed out in 'adam - mankind. The purpose has no time limit set, hence is for perpetuity! Mankind is to "dress and keep" the Garden forever.
     But the Garden no longer seems to exist! How can mankind dress and keep what cannot be seen? Because this specific Garden is still extant:

Gen 2:9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Prov 3:18 She (wisdom) is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

Rev 2:7 To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

     Time is defined for wise men in these three verses: from beginning and for eternity - time without end.! To obtain life without end, or endless time, the proverb is to lay hold of the Tree of Life and retain her! Anyone should recognize that, that proverb is to "dress and keep" the Tree of Life just as God said in the beginning about the Garden! The Tree of Life is in the midst of the Garden so that the Garden is dressed and kept by laying hold on the Tree and retaining the Tree.
     As can be seen from Scripture, the Tree of Life is representative of God ('Elohiym). God is usually El (singular) because there is only one Supreme God! Why the plural of El? John 1:1-2,14 explains that: Jesus was in the beginning and was God then and now. Where was He? He was the visible and audible aspect of the Tree of Life. (Yes, that "Tree" spoke and walked because He was more than a Tree. Mankind lived in the presence of God in Paradise. The same Paradise where the Tree still stands, and often sits at the right hand of God.) 'Elohiym is used because of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!
     We think of  "sitting" as a physical place where Jesus rests. We think of Trees as stationary physical objects. However, Jesus sitting on the right hand of God is a spiritual position. "Right" means truth and is a characteristic of God. Likewise, the visible "Tree" is God manifested. The root is the Father (Creator) from whose presence the "seen" emanates. The River of God underground is the Holy Spirit which empowers growth and makes the Tree thrive, and causing an abundance of truth on the Tree - the twelve fruits of the Spirit: charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity (kindness), goodness, longanimity (generosity), mildness (gentleness), faith, modesty, continency (self-control), and chastity (Gal 5:22--23 Vulgate Version; mentioned in Rev 22:2).
     Now back to "dressing and keeping" the Garden. Hedging is protecting the Tree and its fruits. The Garden (gan) was existence within a hedge. Satan acknowledged that God had put a "hedge" around Job (Job 1:10). Job, because he ate of the twelve fruits (faith), was spiritually in God's Garden enclosed by God's hedge of safety just like Adam. Adam was allowed to eat of the fruits of the Tree of Life. He didn't; Job did! Adam was displaced from the hedge and Job was kept safely inside. Job could have eaten of the forbidden fruit but didn't; he was wiser than Adam! Note that like Adam, Job could have left the safety of the "Garden" but didn't because he protected God and regarded him highly. (Living righteously is preserving the Law of God.)
     Job took time to dress and keep God. Adam didn't. His time was spent on pleasure! A time to pluck up what has been planted, to laugh, and to dance. Because of disobedience and the penalty for sin, the hedge was removed by God in that man was displaced from the Hedge providing times to plant, to morn, to hate, and to war. Man makes time for what he wants to do (Deut 12:8)!
     Protecting and regarding God is mankind's purpose. Our time should be doing our job assignment. Life should be about lifting up God and trusting him (John 3:7; "you must be born again"). Adam was "born" when he was created but like us, he "must be born again". Recognizing that "dressing and keeping" the Tree of Life was the only way to live forever, Adam would have been reborn. He didn't recognize the importance of his lifetime job assignment and transgressed. However, by grace, God covered their sins (Gen 3:21) by providing life to kill that they not die!
     They suffered the consequence of sin even though God forgave them because they were contrite. Outside the protective hedge (God's Garden) the adversary can kill! Inside God's spiritual Garden Satan cannot! Because mankind tasted sin with the eating of the forbidden fruit, we are all prone to sin and death. All the time in everyone's life is spent battling sin! Solomon knew that as written above. Mankind spends all our available time struggling with sin! What a shame... we should be serving God by "dressing and keeping" the Tree of Life!
    Not doing so is a waste of time. Solomon's words indicate that he knew all about time. Everything seemed futile to him if time is taken to read all his words in Ecclesiastes. That is true: unless time is used wisely for the Tree of Life, time is vanity! The things we do may keep us, but they do little toward keeping the Way of the Lord unless time is spent for Him -our very purpose in living!

Zealots

     Zealots are fanatically one-sided. Conservative Christians are called "right wing fanatics". Christians should take that as a compliment because that accusation is "orthodoxy", or "right doctrine". Right doctrine is living righteously: living one's life as Jesus lived his! Indeed, righteous Christians are fans (short for fanatics) of God.
     Although zealotry is a compliment, most Christians are far from being Christ's zealots. Most are zealots but for themselves. They strongly do what is right in their own eyes! They are partisans of their own selves. Look at the world: the zealots are truly the evil people. The mob quickly gathers to get their way, but few Christians congregate to propagate the will of God! I hate to admit it but those against God are more zealots than most Christians. It does seem that Christians are the "one-percenters" but not in wealth; the few who will gather in His Name and overcome the world.
     The Great Commission is what? The vocation of new Christians to whom Jesus had said,, "You must be born again." (John 3:7). With rebirth, Christians are of the royal  priesthood (1 Pet 2:9) who are commanded:

Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

     John the Baptist did that. He was a zealot! Imagine a recluse in camel hair clothing going into the world preaching to the nations. John did that! His was a baptism of repentance, and he was beheaded for his zealotry as he accused King Herod of adultery! Zealots risk that:

Rev 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus...

     I don't see many "John's" out there bringing people to repentance. Not only would Christians not risk beheading but fear being shamed:

Luke 9:26 For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.

     Christians fear the PC Police (those who enforce Political Correctness). Their law is not to offend anyone for their lifestyle. Christians even use the PC lexicon: repeating platitudes like "gay". We fear repercussions if we say aloud what is true: abominations. Few would risk beheading to remain true to God because few will even stand up for the will of God even in small things! There are few Christian zealots out there. Few are fans enough of God to lift Him and His Laws up. What must one do to be born-again? Lift Jesus up. I don't see many out in the world taking up their crosses (Mat 16:24)! I see few in the world who even attempt to be righteous because the doctrine of some is there is no need to live rightly!

Whose God Is Stronger?

     The time is not our time. People believe that they can do as they please and change whenever they are ready. With that notion, people are in charge, and God is he genie who needs to be rubbed nicely to obtain good things. Rubbing real hard near the end of life is thought to provide eternal life - the best and most gracious gift of all!

     Let's take a look at Isaiah's prophecy about Moab:

Isa 16:1 Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion. 5 And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness. 7 Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab... 12 And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail.

     Moab was a neighboring area by Israel in the hills of what is now Jordan. In the mid-1800s the Moabite Stone (Mesha Stele) was found: Examine some of it's words:

I have built this sanctuary for Chemosh in Karchah, a sanctuary of salvation, for he saved me from all aggressors, and made me look upon all mine enemies with contempt. Omri was king of Israel, and oppressed Moab during many days, and Chemosh was angry with his aggressions.His son succeeded him, and he also said, I will oppress Moab. In my days he said, Let us go, and I will see my desire upon him and his house, and Israel said, I shall destroy it for ever.

     King Mesha the Moab had defeated "the house of David" and built a sanctuary for their god Chemosh in the hilly area of Dibon. Mesha credited the Moabite god Chemosh for victory over the Israelites, and built a "sanctuary of salvation" to Chemosh for saving the Moabites from defeat. In those days, victory of one people over another is a show that my god is greater than your god. With the Moabite victory, Chemosh seemed to be stronger than Jehovah.

     Dhibon (modern spelling) is a small city almost unheard of today. The Kingdom of David still thrives. The  evidence is in: our God is stronger than their god! The Abrahamic Covenant granted all the land from the sea to the Euphrates from Egypt to Turkey to the Hebrew people. The Promised Land is pretty much Babylonia (see the illustration below from Wikpeia: "Babylonia").

Babylonian Empire

     With the exception of the east side of the Euphrates, Babylonia is the Promised Land, and although the Kingdom of David never entirely included all this territory, it someday will! Why? Because God promised it! In the last days, perhaps, the promise will be fulfilled. Certainly, in the thousand-year reign of Jesus, Babylonia and the world will be ruled by Him!

     However, it seems that Babylonia will someday be ruled by the House of David before Jesus comes to rule the world. On the other hand, Isaiah, I believe, was speaking of the invisible empire - the Kingdom of God before Jesus comes to rule. That invisible empire is within Christians, and Isaiah was not speaking about salvation in the world, but salvation from the world - overcoming the world (John 16:33); not by war but by the blood of Jesus Christ! Indeed the God of Isaiah is stronger than whoever your god is! Selah refers to the Edomites, the descendants of Esau (http://bibleatlas.org/sela.htm). Esau's place in history has always been for revenge against Jacob (Israel). They are to this day! The Arabic race are Edomites, and their "god" is now Allah. The only change which has occurred is in who their god is! 

     My contention is that an Islamic caliphate will be the modern-day Babylonian Empire, and rather than Chemosh (Molech) ruling, their god will be Allah. I also believe that Isaiah not only envisioned the defeat of Moab but Islam as well. Jehovah is Almighty; Allah does not even exist! When Islam is defeated, if the mid-east is examined, Babylonia will become the entire Promised Land! That's why all the fighting in the Mideast. It's more than about land, it has become my god is stronger than your God just as with King Mesha. At this moment, though, Isaiah's promise has come true: the Kingdom of God is in the hearts of Christians. Chemosh isn't there and neither is Allah!      

Mat 12:28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.

     "Devils" are evil spirits. Islam refers to Christians as "devils". Look who is casting out devils:

Mat 12:27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?

     Jesus is saying, "I am not a devil!" He is accused of being one. Islam regards Christians as Beelzebubs, while ironically, it is they who are the devils! Islam is Moab and Allah is their Chemosh. I don't say these things to be mean and hateful, but the war between Chemosh and Jehovah will never end until the Lamb rules in Sela! The victorious Kingdom is already in place because "the kingdom of God is come unto you" (Mat 12:28).  And guess what? Moab still howls in the mountains, but when he comes to pray, he shall not prevail (Isa 16:7)! Isaiah knows whose God is strongest and Christians know as well. Me and my house belong to God because Jehovah wins out!