Seizing the Moments
News
Bishop Farr 
Mark 1:14-15 (The Message)After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.”
How long has it been since you had a kairos moment in a chronos world?
I always need to remind myself what the two different words for time mean from the New Testament. Chronos means ordinary time; time measured by the ticking of the clock. It is calendar time.
Like the calendar says, it’s the New Year. It’s hard to imagine that it is 2018! I say that every year because calendar time just keeps marching onward. We all say to ourselves, “where did the time go?” Calendar time, chronos time, just is.
Kairos time, on the other hand, represents those rich, deep, extra-special, significant moments; moments of time packed with meaning; moments that stand out and stay with you for a lifetime. Kairos time is vital time, crucial and decisive time.
Now, all of time is God’s time, whether ordinary or special. The Bible uses kairos time when referring to time when God’s reign breaks into our ordinary time. I call them “God” moments or “lightbulb” moments.
Mark’s gospel begins by referring to Kairos time “Time’s (kairos) up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.” When the kingdom breaks into our chronos time, it always creates fulfillment. It changes the moment from ordinary to extraordinary.
Jesus’ life was packed with kairos moments in people’s lives. As we start the New Year in our chronos time, let us look for our Jesus-packed moments! How long has it been since you experienced a Kairos moment with Jesus? With church? With family? With friends? Another way I might ask this is, “Tell me about a time you experienced God lately in your life?”
Right now our world looks very bleak. Lately, with all the negative and chaotic events occurring, you might look back at 2017 and think, “It was all negative; filled with hatred, racism, sexism, abuse, harassment, natural disasters, political divisiveness, fake news, division and darkness.”
But, hear the good news!
In the Bible God promises, and God holds true to all His promises that the darkness shall never put out the light!
Hear the good news!
Jesus came and is coming which brings Kingdom Fulfillment (Kairos Time)!
Hear the good news!
The death of the church is premature. The Bible promises that not even the gates of hell will prevail against Jesus’ church!
As we enter 2018, let us look for kairos time, Kairos moments, God moments! As someone once said, “seize your moment!”
I believe deeply that the best is yet to come. Yes, we the church are not what we once were. But, we don’t need to be. We are right where God needs us to be for the times we are in. Seize the moment!
We have all the resources we need for the time we are in. Seize the moment!
“Jesus came preaching the gospel of God.” I love that. And because of that, the time of fulfillment and God’s kingdom became at hand. May it be so for us!