Time & Tide
November 2020
William Shakespeare wrote, ‘There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.’ During the mid-1500’s, when Shakespeare lived, ships had to sail when the tide was at its highest and flowing out to sea. If delayed, they would simply have to wait. In the meantime, every financial opportunity which could have potentially emerged was forever lost to ‘time and tide.’
Time has marched forward in 2020 whether to our fondness or to our scorn. Spring rushed in…only to exit 93 days later. Summer, then, splashed onto the scene on June 20. However, just as spring went by the wayside, so did the days of Summer. After that, time ushered in our present season of Autumn. Nonetheless, soon three full seasons will have been swept away and our final days will be laid out before us—eighty-eight days of winter which will begin on Monday, December, 21.
After I came to know Christ as my personal Savior in July of 1985, the Lord impressed upon my heart to personalize one verse of Scripture which I hoped would have described my life by its season’s end. I chose Galatians 2:20 because of the phrase: “Christ liveth in me.”
What verse of Scripture will have described the lives of the unreached by their season’s end? It’s been estimated that 60% of the world’s lost will be born, live, and die having never witnessed the Gospel dawn on their lands. If we could personalize a ‘life verse’ to describe their lives at their season’s end, I wonder what it would be? Solomon’s words in Ecclesiastes 1:14 would certainly be fitting: “…behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Or maybe those penned in Psalm 142:4 which reads “… refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.” For me, I tend to think it would be Jeremiah 8:20: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”
However, could the coming year be different if we spent eighty-eight days of winter asking God for a different outcome? What if God changed some of their destinies from vexation and failure to victory and forgiveness because we bothered to ask? Psalm 2:8 reads: “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance.” Could we pray that the message of His begotten Son would go to the uttermost part of the earth to break their bands of sin and dash their hearts of pride so they could they could put their trust in Him and serve the Lord and rejoice? That’s what I will be praying daily come Monday, December 21 for eighty-eight days. May this tide lead to fortune in the spiritual affairs of lost men!
Winning Souls Wisely!
Rodney Myers – GFF General Director