Time Not on Our Side

[Sue J Love]

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:13-17 ESV)

Time is not on our side. We cannot presume that we have tomorrow or even today. Life could be snatched from us in an instant without us even having the time to make things right with God or with any other human, if that is what is needed. Should we plan for the future? Yes, to a certain extent we need to. But we should never count on us having tomorrow or today. We should look at every day as a blessing from God and every tomorrow the same. And we should plan according to the will of God, not our own will.

But what is the greater risk here with assuming that we always have tomorrow? Largely it depends on where we are in relationship with Jesus Christ. The multitudes are not followers of Jesus Christ. They deny his name, for He is not Lord and Master of their lives. They are still the ones running their own lives and following after the gods of this world. And among them are many who give lip service to Jesus Christ but who deny him by their actions, for they are still giving homage to their flesh and not to God.

And many of them have been fed a false gospel of salvation which is tickling itching ears and which is appeasing human flesh, and which is making room for the ungodly to continue in their ungodliness. And so they have become convinced that once they make that profession of faith in Jesus Christ that now all their sins are forgiven, and heaven is guaranteed them when they die, but regardless of how they live, and regardless of how they treat the Savior of the world while they are still living on this earth.

But what did James teach here in his book?

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” (James 1:22-25 ESV)

“But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?” “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” (James 2:18-20,26 ESV)

And then compare that to the words of Paul:

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works,” “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:10)

And then we have the words of John:

“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.” “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil.” (1 John 1:6-7; 1 John 2:3-5; 1 John 3:8 ESV)

So, please don’t count on you having your next breath, and please do not think that a mere profession of faith in Jesus Christ will secure you heaven for eternity. If sin is what we practice, and not walks of obedience to our Lord and to his New Covenant commands, then we do not have salvation from sin nor eternal life guaranteed us. So repent and obey God today.

A Missionary Cry

By Albert B. Simpson
Melody by J.H. Burke

A hundred thousand souls a day
Are passing one by one away
In Christless guilt and gloom;
Without one ray of hope or light,
With future dark as endless night,
They’re passing to their doom,
They’re passing to their doom.

O Holy Ghost, Thy people move,
Baptize their hearts with faith and love
And consecrate their gold.
At Jesus’ feet their millions pour,
And all their ranks unite once more,
As in the days of old,
As in the days of old.

The Master’s coming draweth near;
The Son of Man will soon appear;
His kingdom is at hand.
But ere that glorious day can be,
This gospel of the kingdom we
Must preach in every land,
Must preach in every land.

Oh, let us then His coming haste,
Oh, let us end this awful waste
Of souls that never die.
A thousand millions still are lost;
A Savior’s blood has paid the cost,
Oh, hear their dying cry,
Oh, hear their dying cry.

They’re passing, passing, fast away,
A hundred thousand souls a day
In Christless guilt and gloom.
O Church of Christ, what wilt thou say
When, in the awful judgment day,
They charge thee with their doom,
They charge thee with their doom?

They’re passing, passing fast away
In thousands day by day;
They’re passing to their doom,
They’re passing to their doom.

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Time Not on Our Side
An Original Work / January 26, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love