Times and seasons…vary and each has a purpose. Solomon tells us; “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Eccl. 3.1). He then proceeds to list numerous times, the first being a time to be born, and a time to die. For several years when my grandson, Will, and I have been driving together, he became very observant at the traffic lights. When the light turns green, he most times tells me, ‘it’s our time, Bumpa’. I love it!
Children primarily attend school during their early age; men and women wait to marry after they become young adults; child-bearing falls within a general set of years, usually ending before fifty. Most regions have four climate seasons. Each has a function for growing food and crops. Men and women have routine times they get their hair cut. There are thousands of these. Some are set in stone, while others vary all over the board.
The reason I started addressing this topic is the fact that in just four days, we move from Fall to Winter. And then I went even deeper in my thought process. The political scenery is changing in America in many ways. COVID 19 wreaked havoc on our nation and the nations of the world. The Church doesn’t seem to be a strong voice in the American culture today. We see many rock-solid institutions being abandoned or destroyed. Families are destructing, fathers are absent. Truth is becoming more relative than absolute. Our nation, for the most part, is divided.
In the Book of Esther, we see a woman of great faith, and her counterpart, Mordecai. They are very concerned about the destiny of the Jews living at that time. A genocide is a real possibility. Someone has to appear before the king. Uninvited, one risks death if the king does not accept them into his presence. A lot is at stake. Who will go? Mordecai sends a message to her, challenging her to be that person, to risk it all. His famous words end the message. “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (vs. 14b) She accepts, calls the Jews to gather, pray and fast. Her words to them were—“and if I perish, I perish!”
How many of you reading this would say or think, boy, we really need some Mordecais and Esthers today in the Church in our nation. What about you and me? Has God chosen you, empowered you to step up and lay it all on the line? John Maisel wrote a book; All In! Here is a man that would have taken Esther’s place in a minute. It’s time, past time, for us to start going deep into understanding our calling. Yours may not involve the risk she took, or maybe it will. Either way, you have been born, saved, positioned and empowered to be God’s man/woman for the hour in your sphere of influence.
Jesus said very clearly, “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it; lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’” (Luke 14. 27-30). Would you want that said about you? No, nor I.
But I do believe, as the old saying goes—‘It’s time to fish or cut bait!’ It’s either time for you to do the fishing, or cut the bait for someone else to do the fishing. Either way, you have a real purpose at this time. Together, we can make a strong impact on our families, society, culture and God’s Kingdom. It must start with the Church, the Body of Christ, you and me. I’m in, are you?