Καιρός

Dear Evergreen Church,

Thankful to be welcoming the month of September with you! It is a time when we can begin to look for the possibility of cooler weather on the horizon, even if it only happens early morning or nighttime. It is a time when students are getting into the rhythm of their new school year and people are looking at what they might plan for the next season of autumn around the corner. In September there is a very important Jewish High Holy Day called Rosh Hashanah as well which marks the Jewish New Year (starts sundown September 25th this year) and calls for a time of introspection for those marking it. Even though our American and Western calendars in general mark the new year on January 1st, I have always felt that there is something special and reorienting about the month of September as it ushers in a new physical season of time.

But what I want to share with you more specifically is about the idea of “kairos” and how this Greek word marks out time differently than its other time word neighbor “chronos”. Chronos is the time word denoting the normal march of time from one minute to the next, and one day to the next. I see it as the defacto understanding of time that we hold as a society; however, there is this other Greek word for time referenced above as “kairos” and it refers to an opportune time, a right moment, and as some definitions point out, it is the qualitative rather than quantitative experience of time. What I want to share with you comes out of my own devotional time with the LORD and relates to kairos, but as I received this sense from the LORD that we were entering a kairos time, it was as something for Evergreen and not only myself or my family.

The LORD spoke to me at the end of last week that we had entered a kairos moment and that this kairos moment started around Saturday, August 13th through a prophetic dream that I had that morning (this is a dream that I plan to share with you during this Sunday’s message 9/4/22). I believe God used the dream and a couple of other experiences to signal to me that this had happened. And as I prayed for the understanding of what I was sensing from Him and searched the word meaning for kairos, what stood out to me is that it denotes a new moment, a different moment, something new unfolding at just the right moment. As the prayer and searching continued, the LORD summed it up for me I believe by putting these words in my heart… kairos, a divine alignment of time, you have entered a divine alignment of time with God.

Will you sit in that moment with me, rather with the LORD and ask Him what that might mean for you personally and as a part of Evergreen? Because as I mentioned earlier, it was not only for me but for the group that I sensed this word from God.

This past Sunday our message was on the “Power of the Call” and the fact that we are called to live this life on a prophetic journey with Jesus and live our lives listening and obeying God in a similar way as the prophets of old, specifically Elijah/Elisha as an example (1Kings 19:19-21). Understanding that our call into salvation and living a victorious life in Christ is not unlike the moment that Elijah cast his mantle onto Elisha’s shoulders and called him to be his assistant and eventual replacement as a prophet in Israel. One of two quotable moments from the message I want to highlight is how we live in prophetic power: “What makes us living in prophetic power is that we behave and live like the prophets did, we have a relationship with God like they did: let the Word of God capture us, coordinate us, catapult us; it's a way of living where we are eager and waiting to hear what the Lord may speak to us on any given day.”

Entering a kairos moment that God has sent our way as a group will require us to walk in faith each day looking for what special opportunities of ministry and compassion are being presented to us. To look for all the ways the LORD is speaking to us on any given day. Can you see how the message from Sunday plus this other kairos word are being woven together? Will you say yes to these words and receive these words for your life even before you see the full manifestation of what they mean to you personally and to us corporately?

Another key moment during Sunday’s message was found in these words: “We need to burn some yokes every day, crucify the flesh, rise up with Christ, and walk in His power. Practice it! We have to practice it and put into practice what God has put in us. If we don’t, we will go on autopilot and live in Babylon, and do what we want, when we want all day and night. As Christians where we live in this Western context, we will comfort ourselves, we will embrace ourselves, we will look at ourselves into oblivion while a lost and dying world is being ignored on the side.” When you look in the mirror, you need to begin seeing who God sees, who He has crafted you to be and to see in your reflection that Jesus lives in you by His Holy Spirit and wants to flow His love and His power and freedom through your hands to others. The others who have been cast aside, those who have been ignored for too long, and those who have felt unloved regardless of all they have achieved. Jesus is the God of any and all who will call on His Name in faith. I am praying now that God’s Spirit will fill us and transform us during this kairos moment and that we will perceive it!!!

Will you join me, will you join Evergreen in faith? Choose to move into this kairos moment with God and if you do not know how to do that, open your hands now and say LORD Jesus baptize me in fire and move through me and show me what it means for me to live out this kairos moment with you now and do not let me miss a thing! Precious Lord do not let us miss a thing!!!

Love you and praying for you,

Pastor Danielle

(*Please note: Nursery always available Sundays/Tuesdays & Men’s Bible Study adjusted to 9:45 AM; as always any ad-hoc events will be communicated via text and updated in master calendar)

September’s Calendar:

September 4th - September 10th

• 4th, Sunday, Men’s Bible Study – 9:45 AM

• (No Children’s Church this Sunday)

• 6th, Tuesday, Prayer - 7 PM

September 11th - September 17th

• 11th, Sunday, Men's Bible Study - 9:45 AM

• 11th, Sunday, Children’s Church Offered!

• 13th, Tuesday, Discovery Group “End Times Study” with Meal – 6 PM

September 18th - September 24th

• 18th, Sunday, Men’s Bible Study - 9:45 AM

• (No Children’s Church Offered)

• 20th, Tuesday, Prayer – 7 PM

September 25th - October 1st

• 25th, Sunday, Men’s Bible Study - 9:45 AM

• 25th, Sunday, Children’s Church Offered!

• 27th, Tuesday, Discovery Group with Snacks – 6 PM