A Time for Everything

 

Ecclesiastic 3:1-8

 

A Time for Everything

“For everything, there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what 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 seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, 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 for war, and a time for peace.”

 

A season for everything, and a time for every matter.  The first 8 verses of chapter 3 tell us God’s plan, not always man’s.  Often parents have not planned to have a child, very rare would be the young man who tells the girl in the back seat of a car that he loves her, and she allows him to talk her into having sex or have any expectation of a child coming from the encounter.  But God does and He has a plan for that child, you do not know the plan nor does anyone else but God.  God desires good for that child.

 

Now in the USA, we call it a blob or mass of cells, but not a human.  Let me ask a question, if nothing is done to remove that mass of cells, something wonderful happens in nine months, a child is born, and it has been designed by God and He has a plan for their life.  We will never know what God’s plan was for 60 million, but before you talk about Hitler or Stalin being mass murders, they were choir boys compared to the abortion industry in the United States of America.  

 

And do you understand, that before you were, God saw you, that’s right, and He numbered your days on planet earth, each day is a gift, use them wisely.

As one who enjoys gardening, one of the hardest things is to pull up those summer tomato plants so you can prepare the soil to receive new plants for the fall season.  Often, we are well established in a good job, the family is happy in the home and enjoys the neighbors, and God opens a new door, and that is not an easy time for a man, I’ve lived it and I see others do so, but after a time of prayer, one must do what they believe God is leading them to do.  I’ve also seen God giving a man more than one option, and to understand God’s will often comes down to where your heart is.

 

Now let me get really personal, all of the above are part of God’s plan for you and me, but it is this one; “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” that my flesh wrestles with.  The great news is there is no condemnation for those in Christ, but just because you or I have the right answer or opinion does not mean it is appropriate to state at that time.

 

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice