Psalm
39:7 But now, Lord, what do I look
for? My hope is in you.
There
is no better place than being together with God’s people to start the New Year
and anticipate the new thing that He is doing among us. To live with
renewed hope means that we allow ourselves to dream again, to believe that God
wants to do amazing things. He has truly been faithful in the past to us
and we will reflect on His goodness today, but what about tomorrow. My
desire is to paint a picture of what could be, of what could happen if we truly
become more aware of the time God has given us. There are two Greek words
for time, chronos which literally denotes a space or time or succession of
times and ‘kairos’ which is primarily due proportion, a signified or fixed
period, an opportunity that presents itself for a specific moment or
season. In order for us to be passionate about following Jesus, we need
to discover the ‘kairos’ events that He gives us and enter the learning
circle. Chronos is linear thinking but kairos is circular thinking.
My prayer is that we can discover the kairos moment God has placed before us!
Most
learning in Jesus’ day was based on oral tradition. Literacy rates were low as written material
was restricted to the elite. People
learned through storytelling and verbal teaching rather than reading
texts. Their minds were trained to store
information and knowledge with accuracy.
When he commanded them to “teach everything I have commanded you,” it
was expected that they could repeat it.
Mark
1
14After
John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of
God. 15"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God
The
time has come!
The
word for time here is kairos. Kairos
happens when the circumstances of your life are brought together in the
bottleneck of time. Often there is a
definite sense of pressure being created to experience something of this
significance.
Kairos
events can be positive or negative – Think about the birth of your first child,
a special vacation, the death of a parent, a sickness, the loss of a job!
Kairos
moments can also be recognized by the impact they leave on you. A performance review can produce positive
emotions or negative ones depending on the way it goes for you. It is often the negative events and emotions
that produce the greatest opportunity for growth in our lives.
Kairos
events signal opportunities to grow. A
new job opportunity arises and you are forced to move...take the opportunity to
start afresh. Heller Kellar said it
best, life is a daring adventure or nothing at all.
God
has placed Sharon and I and our family for that matter into a ‘kairos’ moment
in our lives. It really started when
Sharon felt strongly that we needed to start an extended worship gathering in
our home prior to leaving for Africa last fall.
Many people had shared with her that we needed to do this. So, key people gathered together and took the
fivefold gift test. It turned all the
giftings were represented from apostle, prophet, teacher, evangelist,
pastor! So, Sharon was really impressed
by the Spirit that it needed to do something with food and it was about being
hungry for more! So it was appropriately
named ‘Friday Feast’! At a meeting with
the leadership team, Wendy S. had a vision.
I had to leave early for another meeting so I didn’t hear the following…
She shared how she saw us all in pioneer clothes and we were in one of those
covered wagons, but it wasn’t covered!
We were heading out on a paved road that was full of turns but on each
side of the road were large green trees.
She also shared with the group that the pastors from my church were
waving goodbye at us!
So,
fast forward to a week after we return from Lesotho and I am released from
Grace, the church I was serving at.
However, I was at peace with it and had a real sense from God earlier in
the day that this was going to happen.
In my exit meeting, among other things the leaders shared with me that
they thought of ways how they could enable me to lead a church plant, but it
wasn’t possible. They spoke of my
ability to be able to make something out of nothing as the one leader testified
to during our time in Lesotho with our ministry there. He then said how he saw a ‘pioneering spirit’
in me! I came home and shared this with
Sharon which triggered her memory back to Wendy’s vision which she had not shared
with me until that point. It was a real
confirmation to us that God was in control of all these events.
We
began Friday Feast in November and had as many as 25 people out on one night
and when we put the list together we realized that if everyone came on the same
night we could have as many as 40+ people out.
I then started looking at places to rent and then Sharon said one day as
we were driving the Hanlon, ‘what about renting the Manor?’ I laughed, but then it caught the attention
of some of the ladies in our group and they looked at its history. One thing that was noteable to all of them
were the stained glass songbirds that were in some of the windows and it
prompted Sharon’s spirit to be reminded that all creation will sing His
praises.
So,
a few days later Sharon and I were getting her a new cell phone which came with
4 $25- grocery gift cards. It would be a
few days later that she sensed that God was telling her to take those gift
cards to Sue’s Inn which is attached to the Manor. Sue’s Inn is a halfway house for those
struggling with addiction etc..We went with the purpose to give the cards away,
but when we arrived, the manager said they would just sell them and use it for
beer money. Sharon then asked them about
renting the bar. They asked for
what? Sharon replied ‘a church’. They asked what kind of church? Sharon
shared, ‘a radical one!’ The manager
then said, ‘like one with snakes?’
Sharon replied, ‘no, we just love Jesus!’ He replied, “I think we could make that
happen on Sundays…but not too early!’ He
gave me his cell number and told me to text when we were ready. I texted him last week and he said, ‘I left
it with the owner, best of luck’. I
replied, ‘Is the owner open to the idea?’
He didn’t know and the week went on and I started to doubt. I went with Addi to the end of www.ercf.ca week of prayer and there I was
surrounded by a group of people and prayed for.
In the evening Sharon and I went to Wendy S for a time of prayer and
sharing along with a showing of the documentary on the Manor. In the middle of watching it, my phone
buzzes. It is the son of the owner of
the Manor and we talk. He arranges a
meeting with his father, Roger, the owner.
Sharon
and I meet with the owner and we spend 90 minutes in his office. Keep praying for the potential of the opportunity for us to serve in this place.
The
Kingdom of God
Was
it only the fact that Jesus was in the flesh that made the kingdom closer or
was it also the revelation that we would be called to build His church.
The
kingdom of God is near is the realization that we have been given the
opportunity to see what God wants us to see, as we reach our hand in the right
direction and have as it were our hand go through the curtain of time and reappear
in the reality of His world, His time, His eternal perspective.
The
kingdom of God
Amplified
Bible
4Blessed and enviably happy with a happiness produced by the experience of God's favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!
5Blessed (happy, blithesome, joyous, spiritually prosperous--with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the meek (the mild, patient, long-suffering), for they shall inherit the earth!
6Blessed and fortunate and happy and spiritually prosperous (in that state in which the born-again child of God]enjoys His favor and salvation) are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God), for they shall be [completely satisfied!
7Blessed (happy,to be envied, and spiritually prosperous--with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy!
8Blessed (happy, enviably fortunate, and]spiritually prosperous--possessing the happiness produced by the experience of God's favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His grace, regardless of their outward conditions) are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!
9Blessed (enjoying enviable happiness, spiritually prosperous--with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the makers and [s]maintainers of peace, for they shall be called the sons of God!
10Blessed and happy and enviably fortunate and spiritually prosperous (in the state in which the born-again child of God enjoys and finds satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of his outward conditions) are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake (for being and doing right), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!
The question now remains, how bad do we want it, because based on these verses, we can see a whole lot, we can experience the most amazing revelation. How much do you want of God? How much do you want to see Him? Do you truly desire to see His kingdom come, His will be done?
Let me talk to you about the life circle – a new approach to learning, a new lifestyle of learning. It happens in recognizing the opportunities that God presents to us, both good and bad, as opportunities for growth and going through the circle will help us process the events of our lives.
For the most part, we tend to be linear thinkers,
Point A – Point B
Salvation – Heaven
Wide Road –
When we walk down life’s path with purpose in mind and a kairos moment takes place, we have some choices to make-
We can choose to stop, choose to ignore it, choose to go backward or we can determine to enter into the moment and see what God has in store for us!
The process for entering is found in the next part of the verse…. Repent and believe the good news.
Repent! Unfortunately not a popular word in sharing the gospel, but a very necessary word before belief can happen.
Repent is the greek word - metanoia – a change of mind that ultimately reveals itself in a change in lifestyle. That change of mind has to go straight to the heart, the heart is in no way removed. We have to feel differently, there has to be a change of heart for us to admit that we need to do a 180 degree turn.
Believe the Good News!
Who doesn’t need the good news? It’s good news for the poor. Good news for the broken-hearted. It’s Good news for the alcoholic. It’s Good news for the fearful, It’s Good news the depressed, It’s Good news for those who have failed. It’s Good news for the skeptic. It’s Good news for the lonely. It’s Good news for ‘sinners’!
Because of Christ, your sins and failures don’t define you. Shame off you! Yet it is so often perceived (and proclaimed) as the exact opposite: ‘Because of your sins and failures, shame on you.” Alan D. Wright
Part of the vision for the ministry that we want to lead is that we show up and we share Good news! There is hope, incredible hope in Jesus Christ and we believe that transformation can take place through the power of worship. The atmosphere in a place can change and strongholds can come down!
