The Tribune

By Minister Keith Evans

The clock has run out on 2019. Thank God, because 2019 has been by far the worst year in Bahamian history, and I believe almost every Bahamian would attest to that sentiment. With all that has happened with Hurricane Dorian – the loss of so many lives, businesses, homes, and the tedious work to get back to some normalcy – I do believe that we all need to seek God first, and to repent as a nation.

Isaiah 55:6-7 says: “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call the upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will have mercy upon him.”

The aftermath is indeed difficult, and in most cases, depressing. There are many who are at their wit’s end, hurting and bleeding nonstop. God is calling for the Bahamas to come back to Calvary and to park right there until a supernatural transformation has taken place. The increase in crime is the marker that we have dropped the old time religion of true biblical Christianity. Where once upon a time here in the Bahamas we feared the Lord God, now the most egregious misconducts are taking place on a regular basis. For example, the average birth these days happens outside of holy matrimony. Holiness has become a foreign word in the church, and the preaching of hell is taboo. The Bible is now a book to quote in a quest for possessions and churches are entertainment centres, with carnal praise teams and backslidden preachers performing.

Hurricane Dorian should be a lesson to the entire Bahamas that God is speaking to us as a people to change. He is speaking to the politicians and the police alike, as well as the prisoners at the Bahamas Correctional Centre, to repent! To all of us here that think that Dorian was just Mother Nature...remember, God controls Mother Nature. No storm can form unless He gives the nod, and no weapon that is formed can do you harm unless He permits.

Bahamas, O my Bahamas, we have fallen backwards. The killings and rapes must stop in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It’s time to embrace the old values of integrity and honesty at all levels of society. We need a revival of love towards of our fellow men, and a true concern for one another no matter where we are in society. What I’ve learned from those long hours cooped up in my house as the 200 plus miles per hour winds slammed into the building and the flood waters climbed on Grand Bahama, is that we are most vulnerable without God.

O Bahamas, it’s my heart’s desire to see us as a nation unanimously seek God with our whole hearts, with integrity and truthfulness. The new year, 2020, that is upon us offers some glimmer of hope that we most desperately need, to rebound, rebuild, and to move past 2019, looking forward to better. The year 2019 will forever be etched into our minds and hearts, as we pass the rubble left by the storm. The mass exodus of residents from Grand Bahama and Abaco into Canada and the US seems to be the norm as of now. Families trying to put the pieces back together again and trying to move past a horrific experience. It is time, Bahamas; it’s time to seek God! But let us with a true heart call on Jesus to save the Bahamas from her sins, and to give us a new direction.

• For questions and comments, e-mail keithevans242@gmail.com or kenazevans242@gmail.com.