BRADES, Montserrat – We often speak about rainy season, droughts and hurricane seasons. There is sweet “mango season.” At the end of the school year, it is time for exams. There are “good” and “hard” economic times. Then, there are seasons of life from babyhood to the golden years, which bring us so many opportunities and challenges. In spiritual terms, we commonly speak of our times as being the biblical last days. And, as there are also seasons within seasons, we may ask: what season within the last days is Montserrat in today?
Or, we may use a Biblical, Greek word: what kairos are we in?
In the English language there is only one main word for time – “time.” But, in New Testament Greek Montserrat, what time is it?
there are several words that are translated into the English word “time.” So, on April 19th 2016, in order to help us understand our times, during his apostolic mission – “God’s Game Plan for the Redemption, Transformation and Healing of the Land” – Rev Dr Nicholson explained two principal Greek words for time: “kairos” and “chronos.”
While chronos speaks to a specific, precise time as recorded by a time measuring device, kairos speaks to a season, a period or to a fixed or special occasion or an opportunity. For instance in Matt. 16:2 Jesus answered the Pharisees and Sadducees: “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ 3 and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times (kairon).”
Today, signs proving that we are in the biblical last days are openly manifest throughout Montserrat and our whole civilization. For example, 2 Tim 3:1 –
“ . . . There will be terrible times (kairoi) in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”
The written Word of God also bears much hope. Acts 2:17 – “ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy . . .’ ”
Here in Montserrat, we are now in 2016 and have completed 21 economically challenging years since the onset of escalated volcanic activity on July 18th 1995. But, what are the spiritual signs that tell us the season we are living in as a nation?
God has given us ample warnings, and 2 Tim 3:1 – 5 sounds all too familiar. Too often, we have been poor stewards of the land in our care. So, our land itself groans, shakes and even roars.
The scriptures are plain; there will be a time when God no longer bears our rebellion and disobedience against Him, if we persist. Gen 6:3 – Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” Again, Isa 45:9 – “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!”
Many times while people are waiting on God for material prosperity (or are playing at “advantage” and other wrongs to try to get rich quickly never mind who gets hurt . . . ), God is actually waiting on these same people to turn to Him in repentance with a humble and contrite heart and spirit. It is only then the embrace and rich blessings of God our Father can be fully experienced. For, as Jesus said in John 10:10 – “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Also, Psalm 34:18 – “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” As well, John 6:37 – “All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”
God has opened yet another window during this kairos for Repentance, Renewal, Revival, Reformation and Transformation of the land. This gives an opportunity for all of us to be living witnesses and participants in God’s Game Plan. Apostle Nicholson was therefore very careful to give the biblical perspective of the word “land.” For, Biblically, land is not just the physical dirt or soil but everything that resides on and occupies the earth. We are taught, Psalm 24:1 – “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;2 for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.”
Today, the land – in Montserrat, in the wider Caribbean, in other regions, in the whole of planet earth – is in tremendous trouble: spiritual, moral, ethical, environmental, physical, medical, economic trouble. And, the reason why the land groans out in such dire straits is solely as a result of our bad stewardship; bad stewardship due to our willful sin. Worse, our stubborn sinfulness means that the grave situation is getting worse.
However, the wonderful news is that our land does not have to continue to deteriorate, our situations and circumstances do not have to remain in dire straights or get worse. For, God has a wonderful Game Plan for the Redemption, Transformation and Healing of the Land and He wants all of us to be a part of it. Humankind was lied to from the beginning in Eden, but today this lie is being exposed so that “in these last days” – through the gospel, discipleship and godly stewardship of the land in our care – we may be blessed by God’s truth and love. END
