Hello, this is pastor gary from first baptist church of laplata. Our Chinese exchange student, Rapunzel, texted us last night at 1:30am. She now lives in the state of California, which is 3 hours behind us in time; she was getting ready for bed, but we had already been in bed for hours! I texted her back at 7:00am this morning; I am aware of the time difference, but I didn’t want her to feel ignored. Why do we have different time zones in our country? The answer goes back to the days when railroads ruled the land. The railroads were very time conscious, but noon on one side of the country was not noon on the other side; therefore, in 1883, the railroads implemented time zones to keep everyone on the same time. Railroads did not invent time zones, they just adopted them. Canadian Sir Sanford Flemming first proposed 24 global times zones in 1878. The US Congress later mandated these time zones in 1918. How did people determine the correct time before standardization? The local clockmaker would set his or the town clock to 12 noon based on the position of the sun; everyone else would set their clocks to it. God is outside of time in eternity; one day, we will also be outside of time in eternity as well. There will be no need for timekeeping, because time will be no more. I love the chorus from “I Believe in a Hill Called Mount Calvary” which states, “When time has surrendered and earth is no more, I’ll still cling to the old rugged cross.”
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