The Tribune

Minister Keith Evans

We're playing a very dangerous game of life and death here in the Bahamas. It's a very tenuous disposition to reside in. Believe you me, my Bahamian people, that to write on this most important subject is very poignant for me: HIV/AIDS.

Dr Duane Sands, Minister of Health, spoke to The Tribune back in May concerning this dilemma. Dr Sands stated that the Bahamas has the highest prevalence of HIV in the world outside Sub-Saharan Africa and the international goal is to eliminate the disease by 2030.

According to Dr Sands, relaying the ominous report by the Global AIDS Monitoring Report for 2017, at the end of 2015, 8,667 people were listed as living with HIV in the Bahamas. Which translates to one in 50 in the country being HIV positive. The caveat to this information is that all we know it could potentially be more. What about those who may be infected but have not yet come forward for medical help?

I always tell people that we don't break God's law, rather God's law breaks us. Play with fire you get burned. It is as simple as that! Now you may be asking, Keith, where are you going with this? I will be unambiguous with this topic.

AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The Bible calls sex outside of the confines of holy matrimony fornication, or sexual immorality. Hebrews 13:4: "Marriage is honourable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge."

The Church here in the Bahamas has not delve into this most important subject for the most part. This is on my opinion counter-intuitive and not good at all, especially for our young people. The Church needs to become more proactive, and not so reactive! It's much more about preaching than shouting about coming out of this and walking into your destiny while people sitting in our pews are living in sin. This subject has become taboo within the Church.

Hosea 4:6: "My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge." Knowledge is power, folks! I will try to be short as much as possible here on this subject concerning sexuality in the Bahamas and the HIV/AIDS crisis. It's a game of death! The numbers don't lie! Some 8,667 living with HIV/AIDS is astronomical and alarming.

God's word provides a buffer to keep us all safe. It's called abstinence - an act of love. God don't play and He in His absolute holiness won't tolerate sin. Sin is the transgression of the law and will invite God's wrath on its participants.

God's will is for you and I to abstain from all forms of sexual immorality. That's it! Sanctification is simply living holy. It is a day by day process of transformation into the very moral image of Jesus Christ.

And isn't it a coincidence that the Apostle Paul, who wrote 13 of the Epistles in the Bible and planted a lot of the churches within Asia Minor and Europe, constantly admonished the Gentile Christians to abstain from sexual promiscuity. That's God's love towards humanity. Marriage between a real man and a real woman has been God's standard from the beginning and will always be His standard. Anything other than that is unequivocally and univocally forbidden! Holiness is what God requires, seeing that it is an intrinsic, essential part of His divine nature. Holiness isn't just what God is, but it's who He is! I will continue on this topic next week, if God spares life.

• For prayer requests and information on the Wake Everybody 242 message Minister Keith Evans at keithevans242@gmail.com or kenazevans242@gmail.com, or on Facebook 'Keith Evans' or 'Wakeupeverybody242'.