Everyone's Place In Time

         It is an amazing feeling to be able to hold a Bible that belonged to 2 of my great grandparents. I was given this Bible about 20 years ago, and I look on it with fondness. It is an old Bible, being over 70 years old, however it is still in good condition. Although my great grandparents have been gone from this Earth over 20 years,  they were faithful members of the church of Christ, and it is amazing to see that the same Book that guided their lives can still apply to mine today.
          The Bible is the Living Word of God, and it has been given to us as an instruction manual on how to live the faithful Chrisitan life that God wants us to live.  “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (II Timothy 3:16). The Word of God never changes, and it is applicable to our every day lives. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.(Matthew 24:35).
          My great grandparents’ Bible is a wonderful reminder to me that right now while I am living upon the earth, it is my time to serve God, just as they had done,  and their ancestors before them. Think about it.  We who are alive on the earth right now go through each and every day of our daily lives working, thinking, feeling, talking, sleeping, eating, and so on just as our ancestors had done during their times here on the earth. Our experiences in life are no different than those of our ancestors, because everything that can happen to a human being has been done before at some point in time. “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Therefore, the Bible applies to our lives today in the same way that it did for our ancestors, and for their ancestors before them for the duration of the time that the Bible has been on the Earth.
          That helps to bring some things into perspective, at least for me. For example, I am constantly amazed at how much I learn about life and how to live the best life here on the earth through studying the Bible. Even when I reread a passage, I still find things that I did not notice in my last reading that helps to encourage and teach me. When I read the Bible, it is easy for me to think  how that  the Word of God is only applicable to this day and time, and how those who follow it today will be set apart from the rest of the world and go to Heaven. I often do not think of how the Bible was just as applicable to the lives of my ancestors who lived over 100 years ago as it is to my life today. I especially think about this when I see the notes that my great grandparents wrote in their Bible, which shows that they too, were working to apply the Bible to what was going on in their lives in that moment. It shows just a little glimpse in time where those who lived during that time were trying to go through their daily routines as best they could, just as we do today.  I wonder if my ancestors who lived over 100 years ago thought about how their Bible that I now possess was just as applicable to their ancestors who lived 100 years before they did?
        Thinking on these things has made me realize that now is my time to follow God. My great grandparents had their time until they passed from this Earth over 20 years ago. While they walked, talked, and breathed upon this Earth, it was their time to teach others and to do God’s Will in their journeys here. They now have their reward for doing these things. Now, today, it is my time, and the time of others who are alive today to do our part to carry the Cross of Jesus and teach and help to save the lost. When my time is over, the Cross will then remained to be carried by my children and to those who are living then, because it will be their time here and not mine. This will continue until the Judgment Day. This, to me, is an amazing thing to think about!
           These facts make me even more humbled and appreciative of how God took the time to give us a Book that is so perfect that it can apply to everyone, no matter what time period they lived in or from where they came. No other book written by man can do this. It will be amazing to be in Heaven and to see and hear from everyone who ever lived upon the earth. We can then hear what it was like to live during their time, and we will see that their time was not so very different from our own. That is because we all had the same purpose in life, which was to put all of our focus on the Unchanging Christ rather than the every-changing world! “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8). 

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