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Archive for the ‘Time’ Category

Prayer and God’s Timelessness

Posted in C.S.Lewis, Philip Yancey, Prayer, Quotes, Time, tagged on August 27, 2011| 2 Comments »

“Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: – 2nd Thessalonians 3:1

I’m sure glad I’m not the only one who thinks this way — the logic goes like this:

  1. God lives outside of time, it is all now to him;
  2. God acts on prayer from us;
  3. So why can’t my prayer now affect events in the past as easily as the future?

Logically there is no reason why not but how can they if they have already happened? When Paul or Jesus in the Bible asks believers to pray for something is it not biblical for me to pray now?

Philip Yancey in his book on prayer thinks through the same thing, finding help from C.S.Lewis

“How does God’s timelessness affect prayer? C.S.Lewis decided it altogether reasonable to pray at noon for a medical consultation that might have been conducted at ten o’clock as long as we do not know the final result before we pray. “The event certainly has been decided — in a sense it was decided ‘before all worlds.’ But one of the things taken into account in deciding it, and therefore one of the things that really cause it to happen, may be this very prayer that we are now offering.” – Prayer, by Philip Yancey quoting C.S.Lewis, Miracles pg. 185-6

Prayer:“Father I pray for the Apostle Paul, as he requested so many years ago, that your words spoken through him will have free course to spread, glorifying God in my life and in my world! Amen!”

— fritz@langgang.com

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Time – Inside and Out

Posted in C.S.Lewis, Quotes, Robert Lanza, Time, tagged on February 20, 2011| Leave a Comment »


Self proclaimed “Scientist, Theoretician, and ‘Biocentrism’ author”, Robert Lanza, M. D. has been grappling with the concept of Time.

[S]cience has brought us countless insights … What eludes us is the big picture, which unfortunately encompasses all the bottom-line issues: What is the nature of this thing we call reality?”1

He postulates a “life-created reality” like a phonograph record (anyone remember those?) with “now” being like the needle, moving sequentially through the tracks. To him, no one ever really dies they just remain where they were after the needle has moved on.

Where’s the comfort in that?! The Bible tells us we don’t remain in a moment of time – we continue fully conscious into eternity.2

Dr. Lanza also seems unaware that the content of a “record” is determined by an author, not itself.

Take just a moment to ponder C.S.Lewis’s view on Time3(Don’t go…it will be worth the extra time spent)

Almost certainly God is not in Time. His life does not consist of moments following one another. If a million people are praying to Him at ten-thirty tonight, He need not listen to them all in that one little snippet which we call ten-thirty. Ten-thirty–and every other moment from the beginning of the world–is always the Present for Him.

If you like to put it that way, He has all eternity in which to listen to the split second of prayer put up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames. That is difficult, I know. Let me try to give something, not the same, but a bit like it.

Suppose I am writing a novel. I write “Mary laid down her work; next moment came a knock at the door! ” For Mary who has to live in the imaginary time of my story there is no interval between putting down the work and hearing the knock. But I, who am Mary’s maker, do not live in that imaginary time at all. Between writing the first half of that sentence and the second, I might sit down for three hours and think steadily about Mary. I could think about Mary as if she were the only character in the book and for as long as I pleased, and the hours I spent in doing so would not appear in Mary’s time (the time inside the story) at all.

C.S.Lewi’s conclusion? (don’t go just yet…)

God is not hurried along in the Time-stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel. He has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man in the world.

– fritz

1 – Why You Will Always Exist: Time is ‘On Demand’, Huffington Post, February 14, 2011
2 – 2nd Corinthians 5:8
3 – C.S.Lewis, Time And Beyond Time, from Mere Christianity

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>Discovering what means the most

Posted in Time, Value on July 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

>”Take a piece of paper and write what you value the most”, said the preacher. We all dutifully put things like God, family, others, prayer, bible reading, making sure we got the order just right; this was not our first rodeo, so to speak.

Then we were told to turn that paper over and write where we spent most of our time – work, TV watching, playing games, sleeping, etc.

Afterwards he said to draw a big “X” over side one; where we spend most of our time is what we, really, value the most.

– fritz

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