Turning the Clock Back

        How fine it would be to have a time machine with a clock on it for returning to a certain point in the past. We could go back & change decisions & mistakes that have been disastrous & troublesome. We might go back a week, a month, a year, maybe a decade or two. Then we could fix the mistakes & re-live those months & years without the horrible consequences of our past misdeeds. I could change some real regretful junk, and YOU probably could too. Of course, “Turning the Clock Back” is a fantasy. But let’s get our “money’s worth” and extend this fantasy to one who is dead.

      My nephew Steve recently was killed by the police in Glendale, AZ for a bold mistake he made – (link 176). If he was not saved and now in hell, I’m sure he would say, “Let me go back to 1 year before the gunfight. I could get my life in better order and avoid the disaster of catching a police bullet.” If my nephew was saved and presently in Heaven, he would probably say, “Keep your time machine – I’ll stay right here in this wonderful place – why go back to that crazy sin drenched planet & it’s curse.”

      Now of course we can’t go back, and one English novelist, Aldous Huxley was negative about even learning from our mistakes: “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” BUT I WOULD LIKE TO BELIEVE that we can learn from our sins & mistakes IF we look to God for forgiveness of those “dumb strokes”. If we “draw near to God, He will draw near to you (us).” James 4:8 And if we live close to J.C. as Scripture suggests, God’s Blessing will be a big part of our life. Considering that shield (Psalms 91) & package of benefits like Divine Presence 73, Divine Guidance 143, Divine Appointments 151, etc. we won’t have as much need to fantasize about changing the past. We’ll get a lot of it right the first time. Now Perfection should be a goal, but British P.M. James Callaghan offered this, “You never reach the promised land. But you can march toward it.” And “marching toward it” with God’s help is what living the Christian life is all about.

      Psalms 16:11 “Thou dost show me the path of life; in thy presence there is fullness of joy, in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.” 73:24 “Thou dost guide me with thy counsel, and afterward thou wilt receive me to glory.” Proverbs 4:18 “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Romans 8:28 “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” 2 Corinthians 6:2 “. . .Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

      A time machine is truly a fantasy, but receiving the Gospel of Jesus is Biblical truth. Why not get started on that New life & Path today? Why accumulate excess mistakes & regrets & consequences of sin when we can get in on God’s Blessing. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 Choose Jesus, He is Alive. See also “The Blessing & the Curse” link 66.

Many other Titles:  www.gospelnotes.org                                                            *  *  F. J. Stone  *  *  
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