Redeeming the Time

Redeeming the Time

Goshen/10/2/12/Pastor Lee Choo

This Friday, we were privileged to have Pastor Lee Choo share her wisdom. The subject was time, and to start off, we were reminded of common things we say about time:- not enough time, no time, out of time, time and tide waits for no man. With the group being mainly in their 30s, Pastor Lee Choo wanted to particularly emphasize the importance of making the most of our time in the crucial years from 30-45, where we can grow the most in our spiritual development and maturity.

In the Greek, there are two words for time, Chronos and Kairos. Chronos refers to the chronological, sequential time that all of us have. Rich or poor, educated or not, all of us have the same 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Once passed, time can never go back. Kairos time, however, refers to a time in between when something special happens. It is a right or opportune time. While Chronos is quantitative, Kairos is qualititative. Spiritually, we think of Kairos as special, anointed seasons when God’s power and anointing are especially present in drawing men to himself. Throughout history, there have been these kairos times when great revival has been seen at different places on the earth –(E.g. the Methodist revival under John Wesley in the 18^th century, the Welsh Revival in 1904-1905, in Argentina and South Korea in recent years, even the Bario revival in Sarawak from 1971-74.)

This year, in SIB, there has been a tremendous change in the spiritual atmosphere. It started with the leadership being led to call for a series of early morning prayer meetings for the new year. Since then, every prayer meeting has seen a very strong presence of God, and in one particular Sunday meeting in January 2012, the presence of the Lord was so strong that even those at the back could feel it. When the call for prayer was made, most of the church went to the front. One lady, an unbeliever who had come from Hong Kong was at the meeting did not go up. A sister went to speak to her and got a word that she was suffering from severe back pain. When she mentioned this, the lady wept and asked how she could know. She too went forward for prayer for healing, and was delivered.

The leadership has seen this time in SIB as a divine, kairos time for the church, and Pastor Lee Choo encouraged us to attend the prayer meetings where hundreds have been coming. Attendance there has never been so high.

We can be in the church yet miss this season, if we do not participate and seek God now. A key emphasis is on Isaiah 61 regarding the anointing of the Lord and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor this year!

In one of the prayer meetings, an Iranian girl spoke to Pastor Lee Choo the urgent need to pray for believers in Iran who were being put in jail simply for reading the Bible. They read the Bible or go to prayer meetings with the threat of imprisonment but do so anyway, in a land where almost all churches have been closed down.

We take for granted our access to the Word of God, but a time may well be coming when the Word will be forcibly taken away. In Amos, there is a prophecy regarding a famine of God’s Word. In the time we have now, when we have easy access to the Word, we must take the effort to study it, to know it well, to even memorize Scripture and songs based on Scripture. If we don’t, what will we do when we no longer have the Bible with us?

In Ephesians 5:17, Paul exhorts us to “make the most of every opportunity” (NIV), or “redeem the time”(KJV), because the days are evil. We can use our time in a right manner or a wrong manner. In the same chapter, Paul describes such right actions as imitating God, walking in love (v.1), being thankful (v.4), walking in light, by the Spirit, producing goodness, righteousness and truth (v.8-9), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord (v.10). In contrast, the wrong way to live includes “fornication, uncleanness, covetousness (idolatry), foolish talking, coarse jesting (v.3-4), disobedience (v.6).

What is acceptable to the Lord? For one, the hearts of the Lord are always for the poor, for their justice. In Sabah, just as in Africa, there are children starving and malnourished with bloated stomachs. If we have no concern for such as these, are our hearts acceptable to the Lord? Pastor Lee Choo encouraged us to join a mission trip to Sabah to see for ourselves the conditions there. Also, the hearts of the Lord are always for the lost, who do no know him. This does not mean we should go around shoving the gospel down people’s throats, instead we should position ourselves in such a way that our colleagues and neighbors know we care and are able to reach out to them to help when they have any needs.