“Time to move into a new season…”
I hear so many people say how glad they are that autumn is here. Each have their own reason; the turning of the leaves to stunning hues of red, yellow and gold; the morning air that grows cooler and crisper with each passing day; and the smell of pig-skin flying through the air to an awaiting U of O Duck receiver. It’s wonderful to live in a part of the country where we witness the changes of 4 distinct seasons (though some might argue that there are really only 2 seasons, the rainy one and the when it doesn’t rain quite as much). These affect our moods, when we’re active or at rest, and what we wear or don’t wear. They also signal that it’s time redecorate our homes and yards or time to plant, root up, etc. Gen 1:14 we see that this was all part of God’s grand design to bring rhythm to our lives and break up the monotony. Indeed they add “seasoning” (or flavor) to our lives. It states that “God said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years…’” It’s as if he placed the solar system in place just so that we’d wear watches and turn pages on the calendar. He reestablishes this continuum after Noah comes out of the ark in Gen 8:22 when He promises, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
The words, “times” and “seasons” are referenced many, many times throughout the Bible. In Dan 2:21 we are told that “[God] changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings…” God is in control of these changes. Eccl 3:1 tell us that, “to everything there is a season, [and] a time for every purpose under heaven…” and then he adds in vs. 11 that “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts.” What a contrast! His purposes are lived out and fulfilled within the scope of time which He appoints yet He put a piece of what exists outside the realm of time within our hearts so that we feel like sojourners through something we were initially created not to live within—time; for we were designed and created for eternity. The passing of days, months and years are a continual reminder of our mortality and that we only have a few more spins on the planet; few more rotations around the sun, and none of us knows how many we’ll get. We find ourselves in a battle against time in our attempts to fulfill our dreams and achieve our goals. Given enough time and chance we will finally get our lucky break (our moment in time, our season of spring), yet we get frustrated when it remains beyond our reach most of the time. Acts 17:25-26 explains why God set it up this way. “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” or in order that mortals should seek after the Immortal so that they may understand their eternal purpose which we can discover and accomplish within our lifetime. So we can discover our need of Him and dependency on Him. Ps 145:15 says, “The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season.”
All of us may be living in different times and seasons. For some this is time or season of great blessing and expectation. For many it’s a season of great trials, testing, want, sorrow, and uncertainty. If we are in the first group we’re hoping this season never changes and if your part of the second group you’re hoping your winter will blossom into the fresh hope and promise of spring. Our nation is experience season of great trial and uncertainty and it appears that only God is able to fix our problems or change the season. We, as believers, are commanded to discern the times and seasons we are in and act appropriately. 1 Thes 5:1-3 Tells us, “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you” and 1 Chron 12:32 tells us that the “[men] from Issachar, [were] men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do…” In Acts 3:19-21 Peter told the religious establishment in Jerusalem how to affect their times and seasons when he told them to “repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” Refreshing and restoration come when we turn our attention to God and are changed through the process and God will then usher in times of refreshing. This is like the promise given in Ez 34:26. “I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing.” The New Testament calls this Kairos . It means a “God time” or “momen”t when His purposes invade our time and changes our season.
God also wants us to speak into lives of people a word for their season that will bring hope and promise. Prov 15:23 tells us that “a word spoken in due season, how good it is!” and Is 50:4 says, that “ the Lord GOD has given Me The tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary..” And again Paul told Timothy in 2 Tim 4:2 to “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season..” The NIRV puts it this way, “Preach the word. Be ready to serve God in good times and bad. Correct people’s mistakes. Warn them. Cheer them up with words of hope…teach them carefully..”
Whatever season you are in it’s time to seek the Lord, turn to Him and be changed and then watch Him invade our time and change our season. It’s never time to give up, but time to continue to pushing forward in faith as we are exhorted in Gal 6:9 “let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season (kairos) we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” Due time is seldom our time—it’s God’s time! Our job is to keep speaking the Word, keep believing, and continue to move forward and to act in faith until God’s (kairos) time intercepts ours.
If you have been going through a season of winter storms, isolation, or great anguish and sorrow, be assured that it will not last forever but is just a season. The Lord will cycle through another change of season. To you He is saying, “…Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is past, the (winter) rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove (Holy Spirit) is heard in our land.” Flowers are such delicate and frivolous things yet God poured the greatest detail and the most exquisite, brightest colors into them, though they are here today and gone tomorrow. (It’s interesting that we adorn rooms with them for both weddings and funerals.) They speak to us of the beauty and the brevity of life. They also speak to us of the promise of fruitfulness or better things that are yet to come. Jesus pointed to them to assure us that our Father, who pours His finest work of creation into the frivolity of flowers, is also able to take care of us in our time of need.
It’s a new season for City of Destiny Church. As it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual. Fall is a time for harvest, so it’s time to reap a spiritual harvest, time to continue reaching out to the lost. It’s time to continue serving our community with acts of love and compassion, and time to take our faith to whole new level. It’s time to anticipate refreshing and restoration in our lives, our congregation and our community.