Esther went to the king, which could have cost her own life. She went because she knew the time was right, and "if I perish, I perish." Because she went to the king, it was not Mordecai who hung upon the scaffolds but Haman himself who hung.

Just as Mordecai said to Esther, "Who knows but that your place, your job, your assignment is right now -- on time just like God planned," so who knows but what you are here right now in the fullness of time because this is where God wants you? This is what God wants you to be about. It may be that you have been placed in the Kingdom of God for just such a time as right now.

The longer I live the more I'm convinced that everything that happens in the will of God happens in a fullness of time. God has a way of molding and shaping our lives to bring about His purpose within our lives. It just may be as specific as this -- that you are here this day in a fullness of time so that God can bring about His purpose and reveal His will and redeem your time for the days ahead.

We come before the Father sometimes and say, "Lord, I understand what you want me to do. I understand what you are saying. Sometime I'll do that. Sometime, Lord, I want to be faithful to a church. Sometime, Lord, I'm going to get around to placing my faith in you and joining a church. Sometime, Lord, I want to teach a Sunday School class. Sometime, Lord, I want to be a part of the music ministry of the church. Sometime, Lord, I want to be the father or mother my children need me to be. Sometime, Lord, I want to respond to your will. One of these days, when the time is right, when I get around to it, sometime I'll do what I'm called to do."

A few years ago there was a very popular musician by the name of Jim Croce. He wrote a song entitled "Time In A Bottle," in which he said he was going to put time in a bottle. He was going to put a cork in the bottle and bottle up some time.

When he needed some time for his family, he could uncork the bottle and take some time out. When he needed some time for his friends, he could uncork the bottle and take out some time. He was going to bottle up some extra time so he would have time when he needed it and when he wanted it.

Less than twelve months from the day he recorded that song he was killed in a plane crash. Had he been able to bottle up time, that bottle would have been smashed to pieces in the crash of that plane.

Sometime may not arrive. This is the time that God has given. Today is the day that God has given.

It's time now for us to be done with lesser things and give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of Kings.

It's time now to tell the old, old story.

It's time now to pray the Lord of the Harvest and get involved in the harvest.

It's time now to weep o'er the erring one and lift up the fallen.

It's time now to rescue the perishing and care for the dying.

It's time now to break the bread of life and quit fighting over it.

It's time now to send the Light instead of just building more expensive lighthouses.

It's time now to stop designing new bait and get back to fishing for men.

It's time now to stop analyzing the soil and get back to sowing seed.

It's time now to help the loving Father call the prodigal home.

It's time now to make home the kind of place that the prodigal wouldn't want to leave in the first place.

It's time now to turn our eyes on Jesus, to look full in His wonderful face so that the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

It's time. If not now, when? If not you, who? If not here, where? With time on our minds, it's time to respond.