Lucien-Jones

Listening to Jesus and listening to the news

2012-01-29T19:10:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how the Holy Spirit works! Almost every day this week, I've been led to send an early morning-during-my-devotions-message to three men who wield considerable power in my country. And one of them featured a discussion on the forces of evil in this world. Then, this morning, during a very challenging sermon delivered to a mass worship service, of all the Anglican churches in the parish of St. Andrew by Bishop Howard Gregory, who is currently the head of the Anglican church in Jamaica, mention was made of the fact that as Christians, " we fight not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities". And so as a nation we are now confronted by the reality of gambling on horse racing on a Sunday. A child being murdered and his body hidden in a suitcase, with the parents very strong suspects in this horror story. And the gruesome case of an alleged rapist being chopped to death and then having his body burnt. Absolutely barbaric behaviour on the one hand and a further erosion of the time honored and proven values, on the other hand, which once served our nation well but now being discarded in a vulgar and shameless pursuit of " fast money". All because of evil.

The lesson from the Lord began with a strong word of warning from the book of Deuteronomy, the OT reading for my church this week:

" The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord has not permitted you to do so. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you. You must listen to him". Deut 18:14-15 NIV

This is a famous passage which is also quoted in the New Testament as a prophetic word about the coming of Jesus Christ many hundreds of years later. The key thing here is that from then God is warning His people to listen to Jesus. From way back then! And of equal importance...do not listen to the children of the devil.

So what was Jesus saying this week that should cause us to listen carefully. It started in the gospel appointed for this Sunday in which Jesus is engaged in a conversation with evil spirits which had invaded a man in the synagogue, and whom our Blessed Redeemer cast out from the tormented man. Mark 1:21-28

Next up was a " conversation" that Paul had with an evil man and which word I sent off that morning with the following comments:

The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul, because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer ( for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, " You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of trickery and deceit . Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you." Acts 13:7-11 NIV

Comment: Oh yes, he has a name. The Spirit of this child of the devil lives on. And every time you are discouraged from accepting the word of God, every time you decide not to go to church, every time you disobey the word which was spoken to you by your mother or father of friend ( as directed by the Holy Spirit) the spirit of Elymas is " perverting the right ways of the Lord". But thank God for Jesus, every time we pray for you, in love and with faith, as directed by the Holy Spirit, " the hand of the Lord is against the discouraging spirit". So we continue in faith and wait on you to turn back, or turn to, the Lord, and then " there will be rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who has repented". Alleluiah. In Christ Jesus. LWJ

The next message and reminder was quite frightening even now, and much more when I first read it. As the reality of the root of evil which is present in all of us was very disturbing:

" The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on earth had become, and that every thought of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said , " i will wipe mankind, whom I had created, from the face of the earth......". Genesis 6: 5-8 NIV

This of course led to the flood and the building of the Ark, and the profound comment that: " But Noah found favor with God"". But if one read further, right after the flood, wickedness entered the heart of the younger of Noah son's, Ham, who " exposed" his father's nakedness, but the other two, Shem from whom the Blessed father Abraham came, and Japheth " protected" the dignity of their father. Interestingly Ham became the father of the Canaanites - about whom the OT is filled with stories of evil.

All of this probably culminated in the next message to these three men whom the Lord had directed me to engage:

Just finished walking. And during the walking the Lord reminded me that the message I sent you this morning is a prime example of why the Bible declares that:" we fight not against flesh or blood".So our personal disobedience and discouragements and so too the entire nation's will have to be prayed against, not just rallied against, by the church filled with the Holy Spirit and using the word of God, and indeed the full armour of God. And as I write I recall the prayer that undergirds all of my ministry:Lord renew thy church beginning with me,Lord renew thy church that the church may renew the nation(s).

And this of course takes us back to the Bishop's sermon this morning. But before I left for church, the following message was sent:

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. Ephesians 3:10-12 NIV

THE NICENE CREED

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father........

We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord , the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified......

This is the basis of our faith and the reason why I write to you - as directed by the Holy Spirit.May the Lord's Peace be with you this day and for evermore.

I am not sure where this conversation as directed by the Holy Spirit, and and about which I was reminded this morning in church, is going to end up. But the key thing here is that it is the church which is being called on to be obedient to it's mandate to " be salt and light " in a country filled with evil, and having doubts, and being cynical of how the church has not challenged sufficiently the evil that abounds around us. This was the burden of the Bishop's message; that we who should speak with the same " authority" that Jesus spoke to the Jews in the synagogue and to the evil spirits in that tormented that man, by our life and witness, are
" failing on the job".

We who should be living a "crucified life" as taught by the supreme example of our Saviour are allowing evil to flourish. And in my view having read the story about Elymas, or Bar-Jesus, the reason why we are failing is that we are " railing" against evil, and not praying it out of our hearts and homes and communities, by the authority of the crucified, risen and ascended Christ.
Any day the church really begins to be obedient and surrender completely to Christ, and not be lukewarm in our faith, then we will no longer have to rant and rail against the evil forces that control our country through some aspects of: the media, the body politic, big business, the entertainment industry and the criminal network.
But rather, filled with the Holy Spirit like Paul, we will speak like Jesus to those who would "pervert the right ways of the Lord". And they will have to be quiet and in the words of the young people in typical Jamaican slang " tek weh themselves". Be gone.
As the whole purpose of the Bible is to each us to be " holy" as Jesus is holy, through humility and living a crucified life with Christ. And then having suffered with Him, we shall reign with Him and be able to cast out demons from our nation, and not having to argue with them on radio or on television or in the print media.
I pray that day will come soon when we will really and truly listen to Jesus.

No wonder then the song on my heart this week was:

When we walk with the Lord
in the light of His Word,
What a glory he sheds on our way!
While we do His good will,
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey

Refain

Trust and obey!
For there is no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise,
Not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt nor a fear,
Not a sigh nor a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey!

Refrain
Trust and obey.....

Not a burden we bear,
Not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth quickly repay:
Not a grief nor a loss,
Not a frown nor a cross,
But is blessed if we trust and obey!

But we never can prove
The delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay:
For the favour he shows,
And the joy He bestows,
Are for those who will trust and obey.

Then in fellowship sweet
We will sit at His feet,
Or we'll walk at His side in the way:
What He says we will do,
Where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey!
Amen

A meeting with a Prime Minister, a walk with a Pastor and instructions from the Lord

2012-01-26T11:26:00.000-08:00

On the day of national elections in my country December 29th 2011, far away in Miami and unable to vote, I posted a prayer on my facebook page; " May the one with the humble heart win the elections". Well, this week I had the privilege of meeting with the one with the humble heart, the Hon Portia Simpson- Miller, Prime Minister of Jamaica. We sat and discussed the main agenda item, " Road Safety", which was my ticket into the seat of power in my country. But there was so much more than came up and about which we spoke at length. At the end I came away with a deeper appreciation of her love for the people of my country, and more importantly, some of the reasons why the ordinary folks in particular love her so much. But as fascinating, as that meeting with the PM was, far more instructive was the message from the Lord in a book that I started reading again, having first opened the pages in Miami whilst on holidays. And again, about which I posted on my facebook page.

Timothy Keller is fast becoming a well recognized name in the USA, and is also well known in Evangelical circles around the world. He is the author of the New York best selling novel; " The reason for God: Belief in an age of Skepticism". A book in which he recounts his approach to establishing a huge Ministry in the heart of Manhattan, and which has spread out across the USA, by listening to and responding carefully to the questions of unbelievers...and as you can imagine there are many in Manhattan.... after the service where he made himself available to those who came to hear him preach. Well, Keller has a new book: " King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life if Jesus Christ"...as recorded in the book of Mark. And the message which touched my soul surfaced in chapter two...I am now at chapter 3. "When Greece was invaded by Persia and the Greeks won the great battles of Marathon and Solnus, they sent heralds( or evangelists) who proclaimed the good news to the cities: " We have fought for you, we have won, and now you're no longer slaves; free". A gospel is an announcement of something that has happened in history,something that's been done for you that changes your status forever. Right there you can see the difference between Christianity and all other religions, including no religion. The essence of other religions is advice; Christianity is essentially news. Other religions say, " This is what you have to do in order to connect to God forever; this is what you have to do to earn your way to God." But the gospel says, " This is what has been done in history. This is how Jesus lived and died to earn the way to God for you". Christianity is completely different. It's good news." No wonder then that St. Paul declares: "When I came to you brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom but on God's power". 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 NIV Christ and him crucified, that's the key! That's the good news of the entire Bible. That's why St. Paul this time in the book of Romans underscores the point. " The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith that we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:8-10 NIV. This week also I was moved by a word from the Lord and to write the following message to my church family. Do we really understand when we say the Lord's prayer.....thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven......that in heaven: " day and night they never stop saying:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. Revelations 4:8 NI This constant worshiping of God is something we should think seriously about, as we move in this fast paced world. And consider the words of the hymnwriter....in church...at home...at work....at play. > > We have come into this place( this world,this church, this home, this office, this school....) > And gathered in His Name to worship Him, > We have............. > To worship Christ the Lord, Worship Him, Christ the Lord. > > > So forget about yourself > And concentrate on Him and worship Him > So forget........... > And worship Christ the Lord, Worship Him Christ the Lord. > > > He is all my righteousness, > I stand complete in Him and worship Him, > He is all........ > And worship Christ the Lord, > Worship Him, Christ the Lord. > > > Let us lift up holy hands, > And magnify His Name and worship Him > Let us............ > And worship Christ the Lord > Worship Him, Christ the Lord. > > I pray God that we will all yearn to worship Christ the Lord, night and day, in church and at home, at work and at play, as this is why we have " gathered into this place" and what we shall do when we are " gathered into another place". > Then we will be more effective in witness in this place. The we will have less strife and trouble in our churches. But first we have to learn to forget about ourselves. > Amen > > > > No wonder then, that this meditation under the guidance of the hand of God began with a reference to a " humble heart". As this is the state that one has to reach in order to " forget about yourself". People who are proud, and confident in their own abilities and resources to assist them in the many struggles that life offers will never really hear the gospel, the " good news " about Jesus Christ, as they never really forget about themselves. Their hurts, their pain, their needs, and focus on God's love in Christ Jesus to satisfy their deepest need...to be rid of Sin! They may attend church sometimes, they may even, like Herod, " love to hear John preach" ...and then cut off his head at the request of a loved one......they may attend crusades and even " give their lives to the Lord", several times, but all they are seeking is advice. Advice on how to better themselves, how to win an election, how to get a better paying job, or even a job where none existed. Advice on how to " make it " in this highly competitive world. > > One of the things that Keller, and others no doubt have discerned, is that when the "paralyzed man", who the four friends with great determination climbed up a roof and and let him down into the presence of Jesus, is that Jesus, knowing his greatest need, pronounced him free of sin first. And only healed his paralysis afterward. The point is that, the God who knows our hearts better than we do, knows that our greatest need, in order that we may life a full life, a satisfied life, a fulfilling life, is a life free of Sin. And only the Blood of Jesus on the Cross can wash away Sin. That's why Christianity is good news and all that Oprah Winfrey and other new age people, and Mohammed, and Buddha and Confucius, and Socialism and Communism and all others can offer, is advice. However useful it may be! > > It takes a really humble heart to accept that " .....out of the men's ( and women's) hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly....." Mark 7: 21:22 NIV > > It also takes a really humble heart, as the Lord led me to read again this week, and to post on my facebook page and to accept that : God " ....is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your father is merciful." Luke 6:35-36. And so I implored my friends to " Let it go", and forgive all who have done wrong against you, in the family, in the church , in the political arena, at work, at school...wherever. For if God can forgive the ungrateful and the wicked, who are we to hold grudges in our hearts for ever. Especially in this year of Jubilee when we celebrate the nations' 50th year of Independence > A revelation which is further underscored in the book of Romans, again a book and chapter to which I was led this week: > > " You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you towards repentance". Romans 2:1-4 NIV > > Now since this passage of Scripture follows one of the main passages used to underscores the Bible's declaration of homosexuality as a sin, (1: 26-27) and goes on in (28-31), to list many other sins which then leads into this passage in Chap 2, the question arose in my head, of whether or not we can be justified any longer in separating out one sin, buggery ( being fully aware of the power and nuances of some members of the homosexual community in their bid to to promote that lifestyle as being equal to God's righteous plan for man to be joined in holy matrimony to a woman only) to be subject to the punishment under the law,and therefore judgment, and leave out the many others, except murder, listed in the second section... > " which we not only do but approve of those who practice them".....strife, deceit, malice, gossips, slanderers, insolent arrogant, disobey their parents.... > In short all those sins which " come out of the hearts of men and women. > > My country has just passed through, thank God, a relatively peaceful election. But the wounds and the scars of previous wrongs run deep. Further, our economic situation is dire and can trigger social explosions if not handled carefully, compassionately and with urgency. My hope and prayer is that those who have been given the power by God, who has ultimate authority over every living thing, including Presidents and Kings and Opposition leaders and other aspirants to power, may truly humble themselves and really listen to the good news, the gospel of Christ. So that my country and the countries of the world may benefit from the peace which automatically flows wherever the good news is obeyed. And sin is rejected and men and women repent. It is my prayer that all of us who have been Baptized, and who have heard and believed the good news, may give ourselves no rest whilst we are on this earth, but tirelessly and with determination, forget about ourselves, humble ourselves and spread the good news, on face-book, on twitter, on the cell phone, at home, at work, on the street, over the radio, on the television, in high places and in more circumspect situations, wherever and whenever, to those who are merely listening to advice. So that under God, and in Christ this nation and all nations may flourish. And so we sing:

Search me, O God, and know my heart today;
try me, O Lord, and know my thoughts, I pray:
see if there be some wicked way in me,
cleanse me from every sin and set me free.....

I praise thee, Lord........

Spiritual Warfare, Obedience to God and Calamities across the World

2012-01-15T19:24:00.000-08:00

This year in Jamaica has not started well. In the first week, 12 persons died on our roads and 30 were murdered. And this week, the mayhem continued. But we are not alone. Strife in Lagos Nigeria, tragedy off the coast of Italy, a cynical and potentially dangerous ( for the entire world) assassination in Iran, continued mayhem in Syria and other kinds trouble in various parts of the globe have all accompanied the onset of the new year. But there is also much for which to give thanks. A generally peaceful election in my country, a slowing down of the drug related violence in Mexico, life returning to normal in Japan, the job market in the USA on the uptick, peace holding in Northern Ireland, a relatively mild winter in the northern climes so far, and so much more. But all of that could change in an instant.

Why? There is is a constant war going on at cosmic levels about which we Christians and the entire world need to take notice. This is reason why, as someone who has some responsibility for ensuring that the roads in Jamaica remain safe, I wrote to a prominent member of the church community, following the spate of deaths last week, asking for prayer, as the Devil's hand was seen in the midst of the road deaths. No doubt also that's the reason why the Lord woke me up early one morning to read His Word and to send out the following message to my Parish Church here in St. Andrew Jamaica

Of late the Lord has been speaking more intensely about this matter of spiritual warfare. After 12 persons had died early last week within a 7 day period, I sent out a message to the wider church community, for the church to be mobilized in prayer, as this dramatic upsurge, following the announcement of only 305 deaths in 2011, had to be the work of the enemy. Just last night I was speaking to a patient for whom much prayers had been sent up, she and her husband who, to cut a long story short, had been giving her a " warm time", and she told me how much he had turned around. So we both rejoiced about the goodness of God.
One of the things I said to her, and about which I have been speaking and reflecting on for some time, is that this matter of spiritual warfare is both highlighted and placed in perspective by Jesus Himself in one of the most profound passages in the Bible:

" The thief comes only to kill only to steal and kill and to destroy, I have come that that they may have life, and have it to the full". Luke 10:10 NIV

And then this morning , early, the Lord woke me up to read and share this word. Interestingly, perhaps instructively, I cannot recall, although I must have at some point in time, reading this passage before.

I saw heaven standing open and there was before me a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. he has a name written on him that no one knows but but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. " He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, " Come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and mighty men, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great."
Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur. The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh. Revelations 19: 11-21 NIV

Lessons for me and hopefully for you too:
There is an absolute connection between knowing the Word and knowing Jesus.
There is a war going on with the intent of the thief, the temptations of this world and our own sinful nature of the old Adam, to corrupt our souls, destroy our families, our finances and our health ( and God allows it to happen sometimes to test our faith, and we make it happen by flirting with the enemy) corrupt our nation and most importantly to thwart the work of the church in proclaiming the good news about the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS dressed in a robe of blood.
We can only gain victory in that war by the knowledge of the intentions and ways of the enemy, surrendering completely and absolutely to Christ and him crucified, and being completely dependent on and obedient to the Word of God, in our struggles.
Spiritual warfare then calls for sacrifice, for time spent in the Word and in prayer, in discernment about events happening around us, in perseverance and patience and therefore for judicious use of our time, how we spend it, what are our priorities, and the recognition that those with whom God had led us into contact, wherever and whenever, are in desperate need of our prayers and witness to rescue them in this war. ( discussions about politics, sports and fashion may be interesting but leave us at then end no different, but time spent in the Word transforms us)
That the battle is already won by the rider of the white horse and his army, but we by faith and trusting in the faithfulness of a loving God have to claim that victory.
And then who knows what God will do for our country, through a believing church, ready, willing and able, for war!

LWJ

Further, a reading of the OT lesson appointed for today highlights the importance of immersing oneself in the Word.

" Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.............The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of words fall to the ground". 1 Samuel 37& 19 NIV.

And, to underscore the point that, it is not only the reading of God's Word that is critical in knowing God, and thus be able to engage successfully in the kind of spiritual warfare being unleashed against God's people in particular, and the entire world in general, but being obedient to the Word, I was led to the following meditation this week:

COMPLETE OBEDIENCE

Charles G. Finney

Verse 2 Kings 14:4 ....The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.

Whosoever keeps the whole law yet offends at one point is guilty of all ( see James 2:10). He is rightly subject to the whole penalty. If he habitually disobeys God in one thing, then he doesn't obey him in anything, because obedience to God consists in an attitude of the heart. It is willingness to obey God, to let him rule everything. So if a a person habitually disobeys God in one thing, his state of heart renders obedience in anything else impossible, because a person can't in one area obey God out of respect for his authority while in another area refuse obedience.

Obedience to God is an obedient state of heart, a preference for God's authority and commandments over everything else. if a person therefore appears to obey in some areas yet he knowingly disobeys in others, he is deceived. He offends in one point, and this proves that he is guilty of all; in other words, he doesn't obey from the heart at all.....If a person refuses to obey God's law, even a single duty, he.......has no true faith, and his outwardly spiritual acts are loathsome.

The one thing that all of us as Christians have to get right, is absolute and complete obedience to God. And if we sin in this respect, and all sin originates from disobedience, repentance is an immediate requirement, not a " tomorrow story". That my friends is the only way to thwart the kind of spiritual warfare which the Devil has launched on all humanity, and which is manifest in the many calamities which continue to plague the entire world. But such a war is not being fought for ourselves and our families alone, but on behalf of those who are unaware of the devil's schemes and power, ignorant and disobedient.... Those who sit in darkness and therefore are in the shadow of death according to the Benedictus ( Luke 1;67-79 ) which is the song, sang by John the Baptist's father Zechariah, when his eyes were opened after he was again obedient to God.

I pray God that this year, all of us will learn, and yearn to be obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. As nations rise and fall accordingly. As leaders rise and fall accordingly. As people live useful lives or die accordingly. And God is merciful, slow to anger and full of compassion and love to all who seek His mercy in faith and in obedience to His Crucified and Risen Son Christ, The KING of KINGS. And thus we sing his praises in the words of the hymnwiter Martin Rickhart, a hymn the Lord laid on my heart this week and which words, having noursihed my soul and which I had not read for a long time, I recommended to two men who the Lord instructed me to engage with this song.

Now thank we all our God,
with hearts and hands and voices,
who wondrous things hath done,
in whom his world rejoices:
who from our mother's arms
hath blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us;
and keep us in his grace,
and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ills
in this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given,
the Son, and him who reigns
with them in highest heaven,
the one eternal God,
whom heaven and earth adore,
for thus it was, is now
and shall be evermore.

Prime Minister Simpson-Miller, President Obama and God Almighty

2012-01-08T19:45:00.000-08:00

This week, once again, I had the privilege of attending the swearing-in-ceremony of our new Prime Minister. On account of the swiftly changing political fortunes of the incumbents, it was my fourth in five years. The speeches have all been inspiring, promising hope for a nation badly in need of "salvation". What with our high murder rate, low levels of economic growth over the years, high levels of poverty and even greater levels of inequality in the distribution of the nation's resources across the population. So, once again, I listened intently and like many others who were there, came away with a renewed hope that this time, things might go well for the nation. But I well recall listening to President Obama's wonderful speeches, during the campaign...who can forget the one after Iowa, and even more so after the win in New Hampshire..and that famous one in Chicago when he won, almost four years ago. And yet, he too is struggling to fulfill the promises he made with such eloquence and passion...." Yes we can"! So who knows what the future holds for my country!

Well actually, someone does, and this is what I heard from listening to the divine whispers of the Almighty God.

" In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared;
he is more awesome than all who surround him".
Psalm 89:7...an extended reading of the Psalm appointed for this Sunday in my church.

No doubt a reflection on the mighty power of this Almighty God, and due consideration of the state of my country and the frequent changes of the leaders, led to a reading a the following passage of Scripture which I passed on to two of the former leaders and cabinet ministers.

As one who has been privileged, not only to work with Prime Ministers and Ministers, but also to bring the word of God to them, and have been equally privileged to attend several swearing-in-ceremonies, including the most recent one, and hear the plans of man ( and woman), this word below, received during my early morning meditations this morning, struck a chord in my heart. Hopefully it will resonate with you and instruct you as you assume a different role in the life of this nation.

" All men are like grass
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of the Lord stands forever."
1 Peter 1:24. NIV

Further, one day week this week, I awoke with a song in my heart, and went and read the words with some excitement, as only God can do those things. The first three verses are :

All to Jesus I surrender,

all to him I freely give;

I will ever love and trust him,

in his presence daily live.

Refrain:

I surrender all,I surrender all,

all to thee, my blessed Savior,

I surrender all.

All to Jesus I surrender,

humbly at his feet I bow;

worldly pleasures all forsaken,

take me, Jesus, take me now.

Refrain:

All to Jesus I surrender,

make me, Savior wholly thine;

let me feel the Holy Spirit,

truly know that thou art mine

.......

The one thing that all of who who occupy this planet earth, whether live in Kingston, Moscow, Tokyo, Lagos, Montevideo, Washington or London really need to understand, is that there is only one God. And the only way to find Him and to know His ways, and to find peace, and exert real and lasting power which will enable mankind to live peaceful lives, is to surrender fully and totally to His Son Jesus. Why? Because,
" All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". It is only then, in Christ Jesus, the crucified One, that we can claim any righteousness. It is also only in and through the power of this same crucified Christ that we can exert any power to rescue mankind from poverty, from murder, from economic stagnation and from injustice of any kind. This is the essence of the promise given centuries ago through the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament appointed for today, and which is known to us long in advance so that we can read and prepare:

" This is what God the Lord says -
he who created the heavens and
stretched hem out,
who spread out the earth and all
that comes out of it,
who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it:
I, the Lord, have called you in
righteousness;
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the gentiles,
to open the eyes that are blind,
to free the captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon
those who sit in darkness."
Isaiah 42:5-7 NIV

While the above passage is clearly a prophetic word on the role that Christ would play in the great rescue mission on which He was sent by His Father....those who sit in darkness .....often have no clue of their dire situation. No clue of how powerless they are to exert any real power, even for good. As indeed was the case with all of us who now believe that " all men are like grass....but the word of God stands forever". And that Christ is indeed the Living Word of God. That's why for centuries, the fortunes of men and women have waxed and waned in this great cycle of life. That's why we have earthquakes in Japan, and hurricanes in New Orleans; that why we have wars in Iraq and famine in Somalia. That's why every so often this broken world throws up an Adolf Hitler, or a Mussolini, or a Stalin, or a Kim Jung Il. And even though at a lower scale of importance, that's why in my country 12 people have perished on our roads and why 30 others have been murdered, and the year only eight days old! Unless you are in Christ then, you are in darkness. It's as simple as that, or as profound. There is no middle ground or spiritual third way, as proposed in political terms by Tony Blair et al some years ago. Or as the bible puts it:

"He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the the Son of God does not have life". 1 John 5:12 NIV

Therefore if one does not have life and, " sits in the darkness", terrible things can happen to that person, whether in this life or the next. And worse, terrible things can happen because of that person. No matter how secure, sophisticated, learned and liberated, they may think they are. Terrible things can and have happened to children of God, but either in this life or the next, unlike those who sit in darkness, we have a blessed assurance that God will " heal all our diseases and forgive all our sins" Psalm 103.
The challenge then for those of us who have died to our old way of life in Christ Jesus, and have therefore assumed a new identity, which then calls us to go on the same mission for which Christ was sent, and for which He died on the Cross of Calvary, is how to convince people that the words of the Bible are true. That Christ is the only way to God. That judgment is real. That a nation that does not have this vision of Christ will flounder, either morally or economically or socially. That Prime Ministers and Presidents who do not carry out the will of God, will be removed. Some sooner than others according to God's mysterious plan.

In this respect the following four things struck me forcibly this week.

1. "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself". John 12: 32 NIV...so then the battle is not ours but the Lord's. Our responsibility is to lift Him up with out life, our words and in our hearts. And paradoxically, we lift Him best by surrendering all...all to Jesus I surrender.

2. ....Bible facts are either revelation facts or nonsense. It depends on me which they are to me. God does not thunder his truth into our ears, our attitude of mind must be submissive to revelation facts. Each one of us brings certain prejudices, civilized pre-judgments, which great hinder our understanding of revelation facts.
Our attitude to the Bible is a stupid one; we come to the Bible for proof of God's existence, but the Bible has no meaning for us until we know that God does exists. The Bible states and affirms facts for the benefit of those who believe in God; those who don't believe in God can tear it to bits of they choose.
People can dispute the words of the Bible as they like, but get a soul in whom the craving for God has come, and the words of the Bible create the new life in him " ...being born again....by the word of God" ( 1 Peter 1: 23).... quotation from Oswald Chambers, one of the great Bible teachers of all time.

3. A word from the Lord sent to my church this week, which affirms the importance of discussing the things of God, and then He will reveal himself to us as we talk and lie down and walk. Not as we dispute His word, and refuse to surrender to His Son. But instead surrender to the beguiling temptation of this world: our own in-born sinful desires, the devil and the temptations of the world around us. As there is surrendering by all. The only question is to Whom or to what!...to the iPad...the iPod...the smart phone....the home movie theater....our own intelligence....our political party...our race.....the power of our money....the wisdom of others....the influence of advertising.....the pervasive influence of the Talk Show Hosts... it's unbelievable how much power Oprah Winfrey and CNN have.....our own idea of religion and worldview....our sexual appetites, many and varied.....the needs of our family...whatever

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one. Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, and when you lie down and when you get up........ Deuteronomy 6:4-7 NIV
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked with each other and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked with them: ............Luke 24:13-15 NIV
There is a connection between the " talking with each other" abut the things of God, as we are doing now, and " Jesus coming up and walking with us".
I pray God that we will engage in this " talking with each other" much more, ( whether in prayer, corporate worship or in other forms of communication) rather than being distracted by " others in this world talking to us", and so allow us to be aware of the Lord Jesus "coming", to His church and speak to us more and more.
Peace.
LWJ

4. Finally a recurrent word that we, who serve Christ, on behalf of those who " sit in darkness" are in a war. A Word that I have learned to pray often. So we have to learn engage in spiritual warfare. To protect our own souls and to rescue others.

" For though we live in this world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets up itself against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought and make it to make it obedient to Christ". 2 Corinthians 10: 4-5 NIV

I pray God then, that as we enter into a new political dispensation here in Jamaica, and await the results of the one in the USA later this year, and indeed in other places, we may surrender ourselves completely to Christ, lift Him up, talk about Him as we sit down and lie down, believe in the written and Living Word of God, and engage in spiritual warfare so that those who sit in darkness and who are in the shadow of death, will not perish but rather be welcomed into the safe and eternal kingdom of God.
Amen!

Jesus the very thought of thee

2011-12-12T05:09:00.000-08:00

Tonight's message almost did not happen. We, my wife and I, had just returned from the Annual carol Service at church, and within a few minutes of starting, all I had written disappeared....happens all the time. So clearly what I thought about to write, was not the Lord's will, but mine. I then locked off the computer and thought I would write tomorrow night when my mind was more relaxed. And as opened my Bible and " happened" upon a meditation, the message from the Lord, and the accompanying passage of Scripture all came back. What's the message? Do not allow the media or the world to unduly influence our conversations and thoughts!
This message is so relevant to us here in Jamaica...and no doubt the USA also.... as the airwaves are being flooded with campaign ads from both of our two main political parties. All geared towards influencing an increasing mature and sophisticated electorate in pursuit of gaining state power the day of national elections scheduled for December 29th. But it is a message that has resonance outside of the election period, as the electronic and print media have become so much an important, if not almost an indispensable, part of our daily lives. Thus our conversation as home, our arguments in the public square, and the decisions made on our behalf, as is the case as highlighted in the USA this week on Yahoo news and the decisions that President Obama makes, are heavily influenced by the news carried by the media.....and increasingly, for better or for worse, by the social network organizations.
So how does that reality fit with:

" Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your god with all your heart and with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. The commandm that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door-frames of your houses and on your gates". Deuteronomy 6:4-9 NIV
This text comes in the middle of the Lord god warning the children of Israel, whom He had rescued out of the hands of their enemies with His strong right hand, not to forget Him. And thus he continues......when you eat and satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.....
How does one ...talk about God's commandments when you lie down...when almost everybody now has a Television in their bedroom? How do we .....talk about them when we walk on the road....when many young people have earphones permanently in place listening to the latest songs, or even watching the news on their mobile TV! These are indeed challenging times for people of faith, as we are under constant attack by the enemy, to be distracted from hearing the still small voice of God...even at church with all the noise that happens in some places of worship. So, our God who is God who promises " never to leave us nor forsake us", guided me to reflect on the words of a hymn and tonight, a meditation from a well known Christian of old.

" O Jesus the very thought of thee,
with sweetness fills the breast.
But sweeter still they face to see
and in thy presence rest.......

Actually I did not get much past the the first line, as just the very thought of Jesus, and how He has provided for me, and for all mankind, with power, filled me with so much joy, in the midst of my contemplating the challenges that we face as Christians.

Then just tonight this meditation " caught my eye".

CONTINUE IN HIS PRESENCE

Verse: proverbs 8:30

There is no sweeter manner of living in the world than continuous communion with God....
If I were a preacher, I would preach nothing but practicing the presence of God. If I were to be responsible for guiding souls in the right direction, I would urge everyone to be aware of God's constant presence, if for no other reason than because his presence is a delight to our souls and spirits.
It is, however necessary. If we only knew how much we need God's grace, we would never lose touch with him. Believe me. Make a commitment never to deliberately stray from him, to live the rest of your life in his holy presence. Don't do this in expectation of receiving heavenly comforts; simply do it out of love for him.
Put your hand to the task! If you do it right, you will soon see the results.

As I wrote and reflected on Brother Lawrence's message and the message from Deuteronomy, two thoughts came into my mind.
One, that it is God who makes us stand form in Christ Jesus...not our own ( puny...in the grand scheme of things...) efforts alone. " Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ". 1 Cor. 1: 21. NIV
Secondly, there is a hymn which speaks directly to the penultimate point made by Brother Lawrence...and amazingly it was in a sermon that I preached today.

" My God I love thee; not because
I hope for heaven thereby,
nor yet because who love thee not
are lost eternally.

Thou, O my Jesus, thou didst me
upon the cross embrace;
for me didst bear the nails and spear;
and manifold disgrace.

and griefs and torments numberless,
and sweat of agony;
yea, death itself--and all for me
who was thine enemy.

Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ,
should I not love thee well?
Not for the sake of winning heaven,
nor of escaping hell;

not for the hope of gaining aught,
not seeking a reward;
but as thyself hast loved me,
O ever-loving Lord.

So would I love thee, dearest Lord,
and in thy praise will sing;
solely because thou art my God,
and my most loving King.

So let us, love the Lord with all our heart, speak to our children often about Him; let Him be the focus of our conversation, and let all the neighborhood know that we belong to him. And the same God who rescued His children from the hands of the Egyptians with mighty power, will provide a way out for us in these times of distractions and heavy influence by the things of the world. But this can only happen if we listen to Brother Lawrence and learn to " practice " the presence....be aware of...the presence of God in lives and love Him...and obey Him..... only because He first loved us, and showed the full extent of His love for us by sending His Son, not just at Christmas, but to die on the cross for all mankind.
Amen

Living by the Spirit of God; An offer which first begun at Christmas

2011-12-04T19:33:00.001-08:00

This week the big story in my country was the resignation of a powerful Minister of Government, and Chairman of the ruling Governing party, over the
" mismanagement of funds", by an Executive Agency over which he had ultimate responsibility. The week before the head of that agency had been fired, and now this time the scandal claimed another casualty as more revelations were made public. The sum of money involved is huge - over US$ 400 million borrowed from the Chinese government to fix our aging infrastructure. And from the very outset the opposition party had been calling for greater levels of scrutiny and accountability of the program which had the potential to do good, but also to be abused. Recently, two government watchdog institutions had discovered gross irregularities, and so now civil society has joined the call for a forensic audit and to which call the new Prime Minister has acceded. How will this play out, only God knows, as so far the Minister has been found guilty only of having allowed these irregularities to take place under his watch. This week also, Presidential hopeful Herman Cain, pulled out of the race for the GOP nomination, based on the " continued distractions of alleged unfaithfulness", and the " hurt caused to his family". And I wondered, if these allegations are true, what made him think that he could get away with it in a country where the press is notorious for uncovering " dirt" about politicians. But then again, he may yet be not guilty

So with all of this stuff swirling around me what did the Lord say during this week. First of all He instructed me to send the following note to my church members one day this week. And the essence of the message is that all of us, inside and outside the church, should be very mindful of our vulnerability to be led by our sinful nature and do evil.

"Resolving this matter of the living by sinful nature and living by the Spirit of Christ is fundamental to the our growth in the Christian life. As we look around us we will observe from recent events, and some not so recent, that our natural self will always let us down. And not just in celebrated public ways, but in private where God still sees and knows. And judges. This reality came home to me very acutely as I pondered on recent happenings and reflected on that wonderful Communion Hymn:

" And now, O Father, mindful of the love
that bought us, once for all on Calvary's tree...

and in particular the second verse

Look, Father, look on his anointed face
and only look on us as found in him;
look not on our misusing of thy grace,
our prayers so languid and our faith so dim;
for lo! Between our sins and their reward
we set the passion of our Lord.

The point is that we just cannot manage to to please God in our sinful natural self. No matter how hard we try. The natural sinful self will always let us down. Grumbling....read complaining too much! Quarreling ...read not being sufficiently thankful and grateful! Being full of envy and pride! Lacking in compassion and mercy?
Falling regularly into all kinds of temptations...publicly and privately! Engaging in languid...read casual prayers and having a doubtful, unbelieving heart!
Even as church members, much less those who are unredeemed.

It is in this context then, that the Spirit of the Lord led me then to read the following passage from Jeremiah. And I had in mind current happenings and the consequences. But we too in the church need to " work out our salvation with fear and trembling", as the Scriptures command us. As otherwise, if the Spirit of Christ does not rule over us with absolute sway, we too can behave, in private and publicly, just like those who are unredeemed and walking according to the sinful nature. Because as St Paul observes in the New Testament and Jeremiah spoke about it in the OT in the passage below, ..." nothing good lives in me in the sinful nature".

Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
he will be like a bush in the wastelands;
he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert
in a salt land where no one lives

But blessed in the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
he will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
it does not fear when the heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
it has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.

The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?

I the Lord search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward a man according to his conduct
according to what his deeds deserve.

Jeremiah 175-10 NIV

The point is that according to Oswald Chambers, " we have to feed the Spirit of Christ in us". And that is all about prayer, and fasting if we are so moved, being obedient to the Word of God, doing good works, and not subjecting on mind too readily and too regularly to the influences of this world...TV, Radio, cable, music places, people.....taking Holy Communion seriously and regularly... surrendering completely to Christ...trust and obey for there is no other way......
as this matter of a deceitful heart is so very true and real.

Finally the Spirit led me to the warning in 1 Corinthians:

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the same cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, their bodied were scattered over the desert.

Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: " The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry. " We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did--and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did -- and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did - and were killed by the destroying angel.

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you do not fall.
1 Cor. 10:1-12

The point is that we should not take lightly what is happening to unredeemed persons whether in " high " places or " low". We need to be reminded that it is only because " God looks on the anointed face of Christ in us", why we too do not suffer the same fate as those "whose bodies were scattered in the desert", as a warning to us. Therefore let us strive with all our might not to be guilty of " misusing God's grace" in Christ. Whether by languid prayers, dim faith, or more importantly allowing the " deceitful heart " of the natural sinful self to dominate our lives...and to grumble..and to commit idolatry...and to engage in immorality..and to take part in pagan revelry...and to quarrel often and rather than giving thanks always...and to doubt God's goodness and unfailing love. That leads to embarrassment at best, and death at worse. Above all things, we must constantly ask God to enable us so that the Spirit of Christ will " hold absolute sway over our lives", that God will " have thine own way", and that " Christ only, always shall live in us".

Then we can exult like the Psalmist:

How good and pleasant it is
when brothers ( and sisters) live together in unity!
It is like precious oil poured out on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron's beard,
down on the collar of his robes.
It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessings,
even life forevermore.
Psalm 133.
Amen".

The reality is that everything that is happening around us is under the control of an all knowing and Almighty God. Every situation God knows about. There are no secrets about which God is not aware. God is in the midst of very situation and will act in His own time. It's reality which struck me very forcibly when I read the following Scripture this week:

Meanwhile, when a crowd on many thousands had gathered so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak to his disciples, saying: " Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs".
Luke 12:1-3 NIV.

This issue of hypocrisy, living one life in the public domain, and another in private and in your heart, is at the heart of why the Gospel of Light needs to shine into the deepest recesses of the human heart. It is the essence of the great message continued in the opening verses of John's Gospel to which the Lord led me this week:

" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was with God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness, but the darkness has not yet understood it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light......." John 1: 1-6 NIV

The reality is that all unredeemed persons are living in darkness, no matter how much they might think that they are enlightened. And sophisticated. And cool. And powerful. And wise. And rich. And hot. That's all an illusion, which is sadly exposed in times of trouble. And trouble will come to every living human being in this world. This is how we need to view ourselves in this world where life is being framed by illusions. That unless the Spirit of Christ lives in us, we live in darkness, and in the " shadow of death". Where hypocrisy, and greed, and wickedness of all kinds, and pride, and envy and immorality all rule in one shape or another. And there is no remedy, unless we repent and turn to Christ and claim the victory over sin and death which is ours in the Cross of Calvary. Herein lies the second challenge for us as Christians, is that no one is irredeemable. Whether he may be in a high position in society or low. Whether he may be accused of wrongdoing or appear to be a " good person". Whether the manifestations of a sinful life are public or a closely guarded secret. We therefore like John the Baptist are called by Christ to bring the gospel of Light to those close to us, and those far from us so that the message of God's redeeming grace in Christ Jesus may be manifest in our lives and in our teaching.
Ultimately, that message of the Light of Christ, shinning in the lives of men and calling all to repentance is the only route to true nation building. To the creation of a just society. To the building up of the Kingdom of righteousness and holiness in politics, in business, in the schools, in the communities, in the media, in the professions, and ultimately in the family. So as we continue to watch the US presidential race, and prepare for our own elections on December 29 th .yes the PM just called it ... we need as a church to redouble our efforts to reach out to those who have strayed from the faith, the lost, the wounded, the disillusioned and those being held captive by Satan. Our efforts must be greater and more sustained and more focused than those campaigning for political power, for we have the Lord God Almighty on our side, the love of Christ in our hearts, and the knowledge that unredeemed, unbaptized persons are in terrible danger. Not just of public embarassment or worse, but of eternal judgment. I pray God that the same fever which now grips the nation in respect of elections will take hold of us in the church and spur us on to rescue the perishing and those sitting in the shadow of death, and not gloat over their misfortunes and their being held in bondage by Satan. Amen.

Joy and Peace cometh in the morning and even more so at Christmas

2011-11-28T05:26:00.001-08:00

These are no ordinary times. In Jamaica, people are going through unprecedented financial stress. Weekly events like going to the supermarket has become a nightmare and prices continue to rise and incomes remain static or shrink. Health cost continue to soar, whilst caring for aging relatives and sending children to school are major challenges. At the same time the national debt, consuming upwards of 130% of GDP, almost as much as Greece, as we are reminded by one newspaper - The daily Gleaner - almost daily, has become a burden, limiting government spending and retarding economic growth. There is an outlet, of sorts, as people continue to migrate to the USA, the UK and other countries. But the financial strain is worldwide, as country after country are experiencing difficulties. Most famous was the recent downgrade of the US by rating agencies, then the meltdown in Greece, followed quickly by Italy and other EU counties are wobbling. But it is not only a matter of financial stress, earthquakes in various parts of the world, wars and rumours of wars in Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, mass killings in Mexico, protests all over the USA, all contribute to a world living on the edge. When you combine this with deep personal tragedies, sudden death of young and even old ones in the family, fractured relationships, wayward children abusing even their grandmothers, it almost becomes too much for one to handle.

So we thank God that Christmas is coming, as this morning my church marked the first of four Advent Sundays, which will then climax its celebrations on Christmas day - the glorious event of our Lord " coming to help His people". And my God do we need help. Just this evening, in the midst of great personal angst, the Lord led me through His Word to read the comforting words from Isaiah.

" The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned...........

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
he will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accompany this.

Isaiah 9:1-7 NIV

And as I pondered how " the zeal of the Lord will accomplish this", the Spirit led my mind to the Luke passage:

" How will this be," Mary asked the angel, " since I am a virgin"?
The angel answered, " the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you".
Luke 1: 35. NIV

Wow! Alleluia! Amen! And so we lift up our voices with the words of the late great singer Sam Cooke: " Ain't that good news, man ain't that good news".

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light indeed. In my country the buzz is " call it Andrew, call it", as the new Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who under our Westminster type Parliamentary Democracy, has the sole right, within the constraints of the law - unlike the USA which has a fixed date every four years - to decide on what day national elections are to be held. And rumour has it that he will do so on Wednesday of this week, thus sending our nation into a virtual orgy of electioneering, climaxing some time after Christmas Day. So, it is not only Christmas which is coming in my country, but elections too. But according to Isaiah, "For to us a child is born, and to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders....and of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end".
What a day then, in my country, and even in Obama-land, or in the UK or Canada, when people would turn to the Son of God, and seek His peace. He, who places Princes and Prime Ministers and government on thrones and in power, and when He chooses, removes them in a day! What a day when our people would accept this Christ child into their hearts and discover the peace that " has no end". This is what Jesus promised on the night before He died when at the end of a long session with them before His "High Priestly", he promised: " I have told you these things, so that in me you will may have peace. in this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world". John 16:38 NIV

So though we walk through valley of the shadow of death, sadly for some literally, as well as for others very frighteningly metaphorically; and though we are held in the grip of high prices at the supermarket; and though we walk through the darkness of failed relationships and of wayward children; and though we are burdened by the onerous debt owed to the IMF, local banks and other agencies; though we are frustrated and disappointed, at times, with our political representatives; though we are blown away by hurricanes and have our infrastructure destroyed by earthquakes, and horrified by wars and rumours of wars and mass killings; the good news is that in Christ, despite all those things going on around and within us, God offers us Light in the Darkness and Eternal Peace in our souls. Now ain't that good news, or ain't that good news.

No doubt this what inspired the late Martin Luther King Jnr to write the following meditation which struck me forcibly this week and provided much inspiration at just the right time in my own struggles.

THE DAWN WILL COME

Verse Psalm 30:5 NIV

At the beginning of the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, we set up a voluntary car pool to get the people to and from their jobs. For eleven long months our car pool functioned extraordinarily well. The Mayor Gayle introduced a resolution instructing the city's legal department to file such proceedings as might deem proper to stop the operation of the car pool or any other transportation system growing out of the bus boycott. A hearing was set for Tuesday, November 13, 1956.

At our regular weekly mass meeting, scheduled for the night before the hearing.... I ( said) " We have moved all of these months... in the daring faith that God is with us in our struggles. The many experiences of the days gone by have vindicated that faith in a marvelous way. Tonight we must believe that a way will be made out of no way. " Yet I could feel the cold breeze of pessimism pass over the audience. The night was darker than a thousand midnights. The light of hope was about to fade and the lamp of faith to flicker......

At noon, during a brief recess, I noticed an unusual commotion in the courtroom. Mayor Gayle was called to the backroom. Several reporters moved excitedly in and out of the room. Momentarily a reporter came to the table where, as he chief defendant, I sat with the lawyers. "Here is the decision that you have been waiting for", he said. Read this release."

In anxiety and hope, I read these words: " The United States Supreme court today unanimously ruled bus segregation unconstitutional in Montgomery Alabama," My heart throbbed with an inexpressible joy. The darkest hour of our struggle had become the first hour of victory. Someone shouted from the back of the courtroom, " God Almighty has spoken from Washington!"

The dawn will come. Disappointment, sorrow and despair are born at midnight, but the morning follows. " Weeping may remain for a night," says the psalmist, " but rejoicing comes in the morning.

As I read this, again, I almost felt like crying for joy too. Amen

No wonder the prophet Isaiah in the OT reading appointed today cries out to the Lord on behalf of a people walking in darkness,: " O that you would rend the heavens and come down". Isaiah 64:1 NIV

And indeed God Almighty not only came down and spoke to people from " Washington", to those walking in darkness and to and from work, many years ago in Alabama, but two thousand years ago He did rent the heavens and came down. And by the power of the Most High entered into the womb and heart of a believing virgin. So too, right now, at this moment, we too can experience the indwelling of the crucified and risen Lord in our hearts, if we only believe that He came at Christmas, but more importantly, died and was raised to new life at the first Easter. This is the good news of Christmas. Better than any promise that Obama, or our politicians can offer for as the psalmist advises;

Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
the maker of heaven and earth
the sea, and everything in them-
the Lord who remains faithful forever.
Psalm 146:3-6 NIV

This morning at church we lit the candle of hope. The first of four. I pray God that this meditation will draw you closer to the Hope that is in Christ the King, whose coming at Christmas fulfilled the promise of a Mighty God, A prince of Peace, A Wonderful Counselor and an everlasting Father, and who alone can provide the kind of lasting peace that we so badly need in a troubled world. Amen

Unless the Lord builds the house......

2011-11-23T17:47:00.000-08:00

Two personal experiences affected me this week. One occurred at home. The other on the road today. In recent times, at home, we had erected a higher fence, as one day a strange man presented himself in my yard claiming " refugee status"....according to him others were chasing him. Then one day another young man presented himself, this time without any excuse. Just a plain thief. Fortunately I was at home to challenge him, and he ran. Needless to say, my wife was not a happy camper, as she had taken great care of what he had come to steal. So we put in an electronic gate. Then a few days later, in our absence, he simply proceeded to scale the fence, or the wall, and took what he had come for the first time, and more. So what were we to do now? Migrate? Get some dogs? Really, what kind of country is this! Well to cut a long story and debate short, the Lord instructed us to go on our knees and pray, using His Word.

"Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain".
Psalm 127: 1. NIV

So we placed our security in the hands of the Lord, relocated the " prized objects" to the back of the yard, and moved on with our life.
Then......

We, my wife and I, went for brunch after church today. That's when the madness started at the first traffic light down the road from our home. We had the green light, but the traffic with the red light, to our amazement, just kept on coming. It was a good thing I didn't venture out very far. Then we realized that today was the conference day for the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, akin , but clearly on a much smaller scale, to the Democratic or Republican party's convention in the USA. And despite the warning from the police high command, the party supporters, in their exuberance were in no mood to obey the laws governing the movement of traffic in our land. So the madness reached a higher level at another traffic light, when we noticed a young man hanging out the window of a bus laden with supporters, and a young lady seated, well not really seated, but doing what can only be described as a lap dance above him, dancing to the music. The driver, not be outdone, then proceeded to rock the steering from right to left, again keeping time with the music, thus making the bus, laden with supporters, behave like a drunken soldier. Needless to say, a lone policeman in a patrol car, spotted by my wife, chose, perhaps wisely, to ignore all of this as they sped pass him in numbers. Of course, we were the only ones alarmed, as they were all having a " good time". So we wondered, after brunch, as we were again caught up in the traffic, if this kind of thing took place anywhere else in the world, as both political party supporters behave in like manner!

As I write, I am reminded of a title of a song made popular by one of our better gospel artists, Carlene Davis: " This island needs Jesus". As only the " Living God" can so change the hearts of people who " carry on" like this. No appeal from any politician, whether young or more mature, sports-personality, entertainer, journalist or any other leader in national life, can make a difference. So the Lord led me a particular meditation, one more time, in the midst of my own anxieties, and His Word this week to make it clear how we should proceed on the journey to know Christ better, and thus to make ourselves available to be the change agents of Jesus in this land. Or any other.

First of all, we need to get rid for any idea that our desire and prayers for God's blessings, even for the essential things of life, can take place priority over our desire to know God Himself, and to delight in His will. As it is the complete determination to seek and know God which will enable him or her to know Jesus. There can be no competition, no matter how great is the personal need. Whether it be personal financial distress.... health issues, security issues, relationship problems, or national problems....on the roads, in the Parliament, in the PM's Cabinet, on the airwaves or in the boardroom! All legitimate concerns but to be pursued after another priority has been established in one mind.

EXPERIENCING THE LORD
A. B. Simpson

Verse: Matthew 17:8

Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord;
Once it was the feeling, now it is his word;
Once it was the gift I wanted, now, the Given own;
Once I sought for healing, now himself alone

Once 'twas painful trying, now 'tis perfect trust;
Once a half salvation, now the uttermost;
Once 'twas ceaseless holding, now he holds me fast;
Once 'twas constant drifting, now my anchor's cast.

Once 'twas busy planning, now 'tis trustful prayer;
Once 'twas anxious caring, now he has he care;
One 'twas what i wanted, now what Jesus says;
Once 'twas constant asking, now 'tis ceaseless praise.

Once I hoped in Jesus, now I know he is mine;
Once my lamps were dying, now they brightly shine;
Once for death I waited, now his coming hail;
And my hopes are anchored safe within the veil.

All in all forever,
Only Christ I'll sing
Ev'rything is in Christ
And Christ is ev'rything.

Not many of us , if we are truthful, think about God in Christ like that. We are far more comfortable with the blessings. But seeking His blessings alone will not make my country a better place. It will not lead to a renewal of either personal faith or the corporate faith of the church; a prerequisite for renewal in inner city life, on our roads, in our music, and in the decisions taken by Ministers of Government. We have to seek God Himself, in and through Christ, if we are serious about change in the behaviour of our people and ourselves. And then when we get to know God better, there is another step. The one taken by our Lord Himself, as recorded in the book of Philippians.

" Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death...
even death of a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name........."

Philippians 2: 5-9 NIV

So we seek to know God in Christ better day by day, and then having started on that journey, we commit ourselves to servant-hood. Dying to self, in the power of Christ, forgetting about ourselves, so that we may better find ourselves, and our true role in serving others. Then and only then will my country and your country change. No doubt it is this kind of revelation which led the hymn-writer to pen these words which touched my soul this week.

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee:
I give you back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths its flow
may richer, fuller, be.

O Light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee:
my heart restores its borrowed ray,
that in thy sunshine's blaze its day
may, brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee:
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
and feel the promise is not vain
that morn shall tearless be........

I pray God that we may allow the " builder of our house", and the " watchman of our city", to reign completely in our lives. And so transform us with His grace, in and through Christ, that the Spirit of the Living God may flow through us and touch and transform the lives of people who we meet along the way in life. Whether in our homes or on the public thoroughfare. Amen.

Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

2011-11-14T17:35:00.001-08:00

Death was in the air in my country this week. The nation awoke one morning to the news that two icons had died. One, a journalist, after a long and very public battle with cancer. The other, a sports administrator, sportsman, athletic coach, politician and confidante to two Prime Ministers was found unconscious and rushed to hospital but only to be pronounced dead. One, "Tino" Geddes was well known locally, while the death of the other triggered a call for a minute's silence by none other than male athlete of the year and superstar - Usain Bolt - at a gala event in Monaco attended by the King and watched by millions across the world. Such was the reach and fame of Howard Aris, the late President of the Jamaica Administrative Association, who guided the nation's athletes to their greatest ever performance in the last Olympic games in Beijing, and the two recent World Games in Berlin and in Daegu. And who, no doubt like many of us, was looking forward to even greater things in London next year. but that was not to be. Less dramatic, and certainly far less traumatic for the family than death was news of a more private nature, but equally troubling to my soul, of two young persons who suffered a stroke in recent times.

Death was in the air in my " conversation" with the Lord this week. Most notably, the Psalm appointed for this week, which I had read before, and which reading triggered a text message, but really as I read it again in preparation for church this morning, soul was troubled. For all who might have died and not accepted the love and forgiven of God in Christ.

" We are consumed by your anger
and terrified by your indignation.
You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish our years with a moan.
The length of our days is seventy years --
or eighty, if we have the strength;
yet their span is but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

Who knows the power of your anger?
For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Relent , O Lord! How long will it be?
Have compassion on your servants.
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
that we may sing for joy, and be glad all our days.
Psalm 90: 7-14. NIV

" For your wrath is a great as the fear that is due to you". One of the central messages, often lost in this age of moral relativity and a re-write of the nature of God, attempting to turn Him into a benevolent Creator who is only full of love and compassion, is the reality of of the Cross of Calvary on which Jesus died so horribly. As it is on account of the wrath of God, which "all who have sinned and fallen short of his glory ", why Jesus suffered and died. He took on to Himself....the doctrine of substitution...the sins of the whole world. So that we might not suffer the consequences of God's wrath. A doctrine further explained in an extended reading of the New Testament lesson appointed for today in my church.

" Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope........

Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, " peace and safety," destruction will come upon them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you my brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night
or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."
1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 NIV

The inescapable reality then is that the wrath of God awaits all those who have not accepted the forgiveness offered by God in Christ on Calvary. Little wonder then, that the sanke...Are you washed, are you washed, are you washed in the blood of the Lamb. Are your garments spotless. are they white as snow, are you washed in the blood of the Lamb ... came into my mind this evening and let me to sing. I could not recall the entire song so like any modern person I googled it....
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing pow’r?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Refrain:
Are you washed in the blood,
In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?
Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you walking daily by the Savior’s side?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Do you rest each moment in the Crucified?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
When the Bridegroom cometh will your robes be white?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Will your soul be ready for the mansions bright,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb;
There’s a fountain flowing for the soul unclean,
Oh, be washed in the blood of the Lamb!
The point therefore, is that it does not matter whether you are a King or commoner. Of international acclaim or just of local iconic status. A man of power or a woman who lives in the backwater of Palestine...as Jesus once did. Someone who has influenced the lives of many for good, or someone who was a rascal all his days. A prostitute, or the choirmaster. Gay or straight. An Obama or a Rommney. A young bright Holness or a aging but experienced and passionate Portia Simpson-Miller. If you are not washed in the Blood of the Lamb, the wrath of God awaits you when you die, and even before that, for some. That is why the sharing of the gospel message is no ordinary thing to done in one's spare time. To be taught to children when all other exams have been successfully navigated. To be shared with a spouse or a friend, when they in the mood, or worse when we are in the mood. No! As people's lives are in eternal danger. People fall asleep, and die suddenly. Strokes and other warning signs come like a thief in the middle of the night. It is the supreme task that awaits every baptized person...to share the gospel with urgency and with integrity. " Cleanse the thoughts of my heart O Lord, that I may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name...is a prayer we repeat, hopefully with understanding and belief, Sunday after Sunday in my church.
Make no mistake, God is indeed a loving God and full of compassion, as was exemplified in the gospel reading at church tonight ( John 8: 1-11) where Jesus confronted the accusers of a woman caught in adultery, and who were determined to stone her to death, with the now very famous words: " If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her".. And the narrative recalls that they all left, the older ones first. But though Jesus reassured the lady that he did not condemn her, he urged her " Go now and leave your life of sin". And that call to leave a life of sin , can only be fully realized among us when we accept Christ as Lord and Saviour and the only source of our righteousness.

Finally, to make the point...of our wretchedness before a holy God.... even more dramatically, my mind, of late, has been recalling a very profound commentary written by Blaise Pascal ( 1623-1662) , that great scientist, and arguably one the great minds in Western intellectual history....at age 12 he had worked out the equivalent of of many of Euclid's geometrical theorems. At 19 he invented the first practical calculating machine...... whose inventions were even more significant than Steve Jobs. And who later became a great Christian apologist.

JESUS CHRIST -- THE MIDDLE WAY

Verse : Psalm 51:1

The God of the Christians is not a God who is simply the author of mathematical truths, or of the order the elements, as is the god of the pagans, and of the Epicureans. Nor is he merely a God who providentially disposes the life and fortunes of men, to crown his worshipers with length of happy years. Such was the portion of the Jews. But the God of Abraham, the God of Issac, the God of Jacob, the God of the Christians, is a God who fills their souls and hearts of his own, a God who makes them feel their inward wretchedness and his infinite mercy, who unites himself to their inmost spirit, filling it with humility and joy, with confidence and love, rendering them incapable of any other end other than himself.

All who seek God apart from Jesus Christ, and who rest in nature, either find no light to satisfy them, of form for themselves a means of knowing God and serving him without a mediator. Thus they fall either into atheism or into deism, two things which the Christian religion almost equally abhors.

The God of the Christians is a God who makes the soul perceive that he is her only good, that her only rest is in him, her only joy in loving him; who makes her at the same time abhor the obstacles which withhold her from loving him with all her strength. Her two hindrances, self-love and lust, are insupportable to her. This God makes her perceive that the root of self-love destroys her, and that he alone can heal.

The knowledge of God without that of our wretchedness creates pride. The knowledge of our wretchedness without that of God creates despair. The knowledge of Jesus Christ is the middle way, because in him we find both God and our wretchedness.

I pray God that this message will impact someone's heart and allow them to urgently feel their inward wretchedness before God, and understand that unless they are washed with the blood of the Lamb, even Jesus Christ, the wrath of God cometh like a thief in the night. But joy cometh in the morning for all who have accepted the grace of God freely offered to all who believe that Jesus died for their wretchedness. Amen

The Spirit of God and the spirit of this age

2011-10-31T19:05:00.001-07:00

Do you think that Americans are ready to elect a Mormon as President, or even to give the idea serious thought? I know in the UK it probably would not fly, and certainly not in my country. Reading the well respected Economist this week on-line however, at least one writer thinks that it may not be a major issue. And in the same way Americans got past Catholicism with JFK, they may well see Mitt Romney's allegiance to the Mormon faith as a non- (political) issue. The argument being advanced is that Mormons are now considered, by some, as Christians. In our situation in Jamaica, twenty thirty years ago, the Adventist,s specifically the SDA church was not considered mainstream Christian. Now they are, unless you combine all the various Church of God denominations, the largest, and still growing, Christian denomination in my country. Further, both the constitutional head of state - the Governor General, and the political leader - the Prime Minister, are practicing members of the SDA church. Interesting times indeed!

So at a time when leadership is changing across the world, some peacefully, others more violently; when religious issues continue to make headlines across he world...will Sharia law now replace whatever was there before in post Qaddafi's Libya?...; when protests against the 1% who control most of the wealth across the world are mushrooming; when many folks are undergoing severe financial and emotional stress in their personal lives; when even young people are threatened with serious health issues, what did the Lord reveal to His people this week?

A revisit of a most important issue in the Bible- living by the Spirit vs living by the sinful nature. It began in Galatians.:
" So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so you do not do what you want." Galatians 5:16-18 NIV

This assertion that the Spirit - placed in us by virtue of our baptism into the death of Christ - is in conflict with the sinful nature - placed in us by the sin of Adam, is one of the most profound issues which confronts mankind worldwide and transcends all other political, economic and social priorities. As this is the precise reason why the God who the Psalmist describes as " you who sit enthroned between the cherubim", the God who "presides in the great assembly", the God who " the heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies proclaim the work of his hands", this God came to earth as man in Christ Jesus, so that we could live by the Spirit and not perish by living by the sinful nature. So that we could be holy, as God is holy; and not kill our brother as Cain did; and not rape our sisters...and not hate each other because of the difference in skin colour, because of which people from Africa in general and South Africa in recent times have had to suffer for centuries, or because of our ethnic background as they did in Kosovo, or even more significantly in 1938 Germany, or difference in political allegiance the manifestations of which have wreaked havoc in my country for years and which huge problem the new PM has vowed to tackle with all his energy. But more importantly, by living by the Spirit we are ushered into a new and eternal life which this world cannot comprehend, nor worse accept.

No doubt this emphasis on loving each other, rather than fighting against each other constantly, led to my being called to read 1 John 1. And in particular:

" God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another , and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins. he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. if we claim we have not sinned we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. 1 John 1: 5-10 NIV

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the messge you have heard. yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shinning.
Anyone who calims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoevr loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not knw where he is going becuse the darkness has blinded him.

1 John 2:7-11. NIV

One of the great " veranda" topics in Jamaica, trending now like Yahoo news, is how the former PM Bruce Golding lied and how this new PM is no better as he was part of the corrupt lot. The problem with this attitude, as with the " remove the Kenyan" anti-Obama movement in the US, is that, it would have us take our eyes off our own sins. And all of us have so many. That's why the Cross is so critical and central to the Christian religion, for if we claim we have no sin, we make out God to be a liar, as this is why He sent His only Son to die for the sins of all mankind. Each Sunday morning as I go to church to celebrate the Holy Eucharist, Holy Communion, or Lord's Supper, or whatever name is attached to this most holy event, I thank God for the body and blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all sin and heals all diseases. As I realize more and more each day, that " nothing in my hand I bring before God, simply to His Cross I cling. So therefore I have little time to countenance those who would spend all their time " recalling" the sins of Mr. Golding, or young Andrew Holness, or President Obama, or the man next door, or that sinful woman down the street, as in the final analysis, we will all have to face the judgment seat before a holy God, who offered his Son as an atonement for our sins. And what will we say to him? " Look at that man, or that woman, at his or her egregious sin.

The other topic of course, is the age old question of homosexuality, which according to the news has now arrived at center stage at the recently held Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference. Clearly no committed Christian, reading John's Epistle can countenance hatred against anyone. The question which arises for those of us who agree with the the unvarnished truth, (but clearly for some an uncomfortable revelation) of Holy Scripture that the practice of homosexuality is a sin, is how to explain that truth with compassion and humility, and counter the growing culture which has successfully labeled anyone who holds that view, that we " hate " homosexuals. A position which is far from the truth, but nonetheless is a campaign being waged with unrelenting fury by the gay movement and those who sympathize with them

Finally, for those who are struggling with serious trials, persecutions and challenges in their lives, the message from the book of Revelations, received in the dead of night, this week, should be comforting.

I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and the kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches:.......

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: Do not be afraid, I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever.! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Write, therefore, what you have seen............
Rev. 1: 9-19 NIV

To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars - I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that i have loved you. Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live upon the earth
I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will be able to take your crown. Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and of the city of my god, the new Jerusalem which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church. Rev. 3:7-13 NIV

So, in Christ, we are all called to suffer. To be patient. And to endure. And the God who has placed before us an open door that no one can shut, will protect us from all evil. No one can take us out of his hand. And He will reveal those who are faithful in due course. Whether they be Mormons, SDA, Church of God, Anglicans, Baptists, Roman Catholics, Gays or ......Our business is to be faithful to Him who has called us into His marvelous light in and through His Son Christ on the Cross of Calvary. As He who has the Son, hath life, but he who does not have the Son has no life at all - that's what the Scriptures teach us. Regardless of what religion or denomination, or political party, or ethnic background, sexual orientation, or skin colour we have or claim. So this week let us concentrate on our own sins, repent before a loving and compassionate God, and pray that we may live by the Spirit and not by the sinful nature, which leads us into all kinds of quarrels and bickering and distracts and prevents us from enjoying the joy and the peace and the holiness that are ours in Christ Jesus, when we live by the Spirit. Amen.

A new Prime Minister and new thoughts about an Eternal God

2011-10-24T19:46:00.001-07:00

Just this evening I had the privilege, along with many other Jamaicans, of attending the ceremony at which our youngest Prime Minister ever at age 39, Andrew Michael Holness took off charge of the reins of power. People came from all walks of life. Some carried their " party hats", and cheered both the incoming and the outgoing Prime Ministers at every opportunity. Even one past PM was warmly received also as the crowd was in a festive mood. Both men of God, one who prayed at the beginning for the nation and our leaders, and the other who gave the benediction at the end, prayed with conviction and clearly under the power of God's Holy Spirit - so touching and appropriate were their prayers. When it was the new PM's his turn he spoke well and gave a clear indication of the issues that would be a priority under his watch. The Governor General, Sir Patrick Allen spoke well too. Very concise, touching the right points and his facility with the English language was refreshing. As was the former PM. But this new PM sounds like a no-nonsense man and seems willing to tackle the age old problem of tribal politics and garrison politics which has resulted in lines of demarcation separating communities, the breach of which can and has resulted in death and mayhem. He spoke about the upcoming 50th anniversary of our Independence and his hopes and aspirations for a new Jamaica. We wish him well and wait to see how he performs. Just today also , yet again, along with millions of people across the world, I had the privilege of sharing in " the body and blood of Christ", by participating in the sacrament of Holy Communion, or The Eucharist, or " Lord Supper" as some term this most wonderful event. All baptized and confirmed - the next step in the spiritual development in my church - persons are welcomed. Each Sunday morning I prepare and look forward to meeting Christ face to face by reflecting on the words of a great hymn: Here, O my Lord I see thee face to face;here faith would touch and handle things unseen;here grasp with firmer hand the eternal grace,and all my weariness upon thee lean. Here would I feed upon the bread of God;here drink with thee the royal wine of heaven;here would I lay aside each earthy load;here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiven. I have no other help but thine; nor do I needanother arm save thine to lean upon;it is enough, my Lord enough indeed,my strength is in thy might, thy might alone. This week, also, the Lord reminded in very dramatic fashion, that when I am weak, then He is strong. And so I went back to the Corinthian passage and read the relevant passage again: ....My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2. Cor. 12: 9-10 NIV I wonder if this new PM realizes that if he wishes to be strong in the Lord, as he rightly said this evening, that he has to be prepared to be weak...in the sight of men and of God. I wonder if he sincerely realizes that " he has no other help but thine" O Lord. Further, I wonder how many Christians delight in insults, weaknesses, persecutions, and difficulties, so that Christ's power may be made perfect in their weakness. Perhaps not, as this kind of living, is counter-culture, and counter-intuitive. But if we really wish to see a better Jamaica, a prosperous Jamaica, then we need not just a new Prime Minister, but a better understanding of who God is, and whose glory we seek. This week, in fact last night, I read a very disturbing passage of scripture: The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. 2. Thessalonians 2: 9-12 NIV The reality is that the concern for the poor, about which the new PM had much to say this evening, is not the worse thing that is happening in my country nor in the world. Just like how, in today's world, receiving the news that she is pregnant and not ready for a baby, is not the worse thing that can happen to a woman. It could have been HIV. Similarly, those who take responsibility to chart a new course for a nation need to appreciate the fact that perishing spiritually, is far worse than being poor. Yes, Jesus had a special concern for the poor and dispossessed, the persecuted and the ill treated, and so should we, but ultimately He died on the Cross of Calvary, in love, that " those that believe on Him should not perish, but have everlasting...eternal... life". The essence of John 3: 16.So when I read that those who stubbornly refuse to to believe the truth about the life,death and resurrection of our Lord Christ, who we see face to face, not on TV, not at King's House, but in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, and cntinue therefore in doing wickedness, will be sent a "powerful delusion", so that they will believe the lie " of Satan ", then is it not time for us, the baptized ones, to reach out with urgency, with faith and with the power of the Holy Spirit, to rescue our people from this imminent and eternal danger. This is the challenge for the church in any country. Whether they live in countries experiencing the " Arab Spring", or where " youth " is being empowered, or where " Wall street " is being challenged. To respond in love and in faith, to the " clear and present" danger that confront those who are not under the protection of the God of Jacob. No doubt, in order to validate the message of imminent danger at every level that we face, the Lord led me to reflect and send out as a text message the first verse of this hymn, which I was reading for the first time, but which was in close juxtaposition to a favourite..."New every morning is the love". Now that the daylight fills the sky,we lift our hearts to God on high,that he, in all we do or day,would keep us free from harm today. May he restrain our tongues from strife,and shield from anger's din our life,and guard with watchful care our eyesfrom earth's absorbing vanities O may our inmost hearts be pure,from thoughts of folly kept secure,and pride of sinful flesh subduedthrough sparing use of food. So we, when this day's o'er,and shades of night return once more,our path of trial safely trod,shall give the glory to our God All praise to God the father be,all praise, Eternal Son to thee,whom with the Spirit we adorefor ever and for ever more. Finally a prayer which the new PM, and all world leaders, and leaders in different spheres of life, could adapt and adopt for their own situation. All in keeping with the message from God that " I have no other help but thine O Lord. FOR GOD'S GRACE IN OUR HELPLESSNESS - A prayer Peter Marshall - ( 1902 - 1949) A Scottish immigrant to the USA who served as Chaplain to the US Senate for two years. His life was eventually made into a film after the publication of a book by his wife entitled " A man named Peter". Verse: Judges 7:2 We know , our Father, that at this desperate hour in world affairs, we need thee. We need thy strength, thy thy guidance, thy wisdom.Thee are problems far greater than any wisdom of man can solve. What shall our leaders do in such an hour?May thy wisdom and thy power come upon the President of these United States, the Senators and Congressmen, to whom have been entrusted leadership. May the responsibility lie heavily on their hearts, until they are ready to acknowledge their helplessness and turn to thee. Give to them the honesty, the courage, and the moral integrity to confess that they don't know what to do. Only then can they lead us as a nation beyond human wisdom to thee, who alone has the answer.lead us to this high adventure. Remind us that a " mighty fortress is our God" - not a hiding place where we can escape for an easy life, but rather an arsenal of courage and strength - the mightiest of all, who will march beside us into battle for righteousness among world brotherhood.O our God, may we never recover from our feeling of helplessness and our need of thee! In the strong name of Jesus, our Lord, we pray. Amen O God indeed, may we never fail to realize how helpless we are without your help. In Jesus name, who died so that we may not perish, we pray.Amen

Youth and power: Christ and Salvation

2011-10-10T06:13:00.001-07:00

This week a young man, Andrew Holness age 39, took the first step to assuming the highest level of political power in my country. We all wish him well. This week also, another young man, age 23, full of promise and one of two sons of a Baptist Minister and his wife, who are both known to me, lost his life in a bizarre and tragic manner. So too did the son of another pastor and his wife, a well known public servant, neither of whom I know, but whose only child died in a bizarre and tragic manner. Then just this afternoon, I heard a most extraordinary interview, hosted by a well known and very impressive host on RJR's PALAV programme, by a popular young DJ, who is famous for his ability to play the right kind of music that party goers love. In the midst of all this excitement and sad news about young people, the lord sent a Word. The context was St. Paul writing to young Timothy who had been put in charge of the church in Ephesus, no doubt a big and demanding job. " Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity". 1 Timothy 4: 12 NIV The Word connects the lives of all of these young men. Alive and dead. Powerful and aspiring to power. Young people in Jamaica and young people in Lagos, in Jo'berg in SA, in Moscow, in New York, in Singapore. And not just young people but all peoples all over the world, as it has to do with ultimate power. In this life and the next. I tell you why. The interview with the young DJ revealed the power that music skillfully and deliberately played, can have over the behaviour of even the most sophisticated persons, and so much more those with less restraint, moving them to do things on a dance floor that they would never have imagined. The DJ even recounted a tragic episode, which was preceded by a graphic description of his ability to carry people to a hyped up edge, with one kind of music, and then "bring them back down" again with another. And how on one occasion when he was prevented by " an over zealous policeman", who ordered him to "cut off the sound", despite his plea to be allowed to " mellow them down", and his prediction that people would die that night unless the police relented, the policeman ignored his pleas, and later that night three university students lost their lives tragically in a motor vehicle crash. Prophetic or sheer coincidence? Multiply this episode several times over, across the world, wherever music or anything else that has the power to affect the behaviour of people, be it illicit drugs, prescribed medication, alcohol, the lust for power, poor self-esteem, depression, the exuberance of youth, testosterone driven behaviour of young males, the power of the gun, or otherwise, and we get an idea of the power that evil has, to use all of these things to wreak havoc in the lives of people created in the image of God. I had a conversation with the very knowledgeable, witty, and quite impressive host of the programme and his very energetic, articulate and bright young guest. And at the end I suggested that the new Prime Minister to be, would have a lot more on his plate than financial and economic issues, as important that those are, but equally so social and moral issues. I had in mind the level of immorality which is pervasive in my country, and manifestly so in the private and public behaviour of our young people, and perhaps so, on account of the kind of music to which they are subjected. He may or may not rise to the occasion, and might take the view that the resolution of such issues properly belong elsewhere. That depends on his spiritual awareness. Because I got the impression from the DJ with whom I spoke, who was having great fun inducing the uptown and others to " bruk out" ( behave in an out of control manner on the dance floor) that the effect that music was having on people, though he appreciated the dangers thereof, did not see it as something for him to correct. The problem for us in the church, who have a specific mandate from God to rescue people from sin and death ( in every way) unto everlasting life, in and through the telling of the gospel of Jesus Christ and his reconciliation of all mankind with God through the Cross of Calvary, is that there is a price to pay. And not many are willing to pay that price. This reminder came to me very vividly as I reflected this week on the words of a well known hymn. " Have thine own Lord! Have thine own way! And especially the words of the the last verse: Have thine own way Lord! Have thine own way! Hold o'er my being absolute sway! Fill with thy Spirit till all shall see Christ only, always, living with me. So moved was I, that I sent out the above words as a text message. As the message this week is very clear. The times are evil, and even the homes of the church leaders are under serious attack, much less so those whose lives have for the most part, been untouched by the gospel message, and therefore under less protection from evil. The young Mr. Holness will need to " think on these things" if he is to make any serious progress in promoting justice, peace and prosperity in my country. So too does the not so young anymore President Obama is he wishes to see America prosper again. The only and main agenda issue for resolution, despite what the tea-party advocates would have him believe, cannot be just the creation of jobs and the avoidance of any new taxes. Perhaps the recent riots in Britain and the scandals surrounding the newspaper magnate Rupert Murdoch has already taught the young David Cameron that he, and the British Society will pay a heavy price if he avoids dealing with these social and moral issues. What the Lord is saying to young people, young leaders in any sphere in life across the world is that fighting evil requires an absolute surrender to the will of God, in any age and at any stage in life. As only the life of Christ born ( again ) in the lives of all people, by the Spirit of the living God, can rescue our children and older folks from the power that evil is exerting in this world. The call then is for purity and not just the kind of political unity that the young Mr Holn has been talking about. The call is for faith and the kind of sacrificial love which Christ demonstrated on the Cross of Calvary. And not just for the kind of understanding of the power of evil by this bright young DJ. The call is for us to set the right example for all to follow. And that example is not something for us to dream up, but to be obedient to - even Christ Himself. I pray God that more and more we in Jamaica, and around the world, will come to fully appreciate the power of the following words. Whether young or old. Powerful or aspiring to power. Grieving or rejoicing Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling Naked, look to you for dress Helpless, come to you for grace Foul, I to the fountain fly Wash me Savior, lest I die. And the God who is more willing to forgive, than we are to repent, will rescue us from all that is evil and set us free in and through Christ His One and Only, and Son. Amen

The Prime Minister speaks a word and the God of Jacob sends a Word

2011-10-03T05:09:00.000-07:00

As I sit to write, in a few minutes our Prime Minister, who caught the nation completely off guard by his decision not seek re-election at the next party conference, which in our system of governance, means that we will have a new leader in November, is expected during a highly anticipated nation broadcast to share his thoughts on this sudden move. Regardless on his explanations, however, the entire country is taken up with a national debate on who will be the best person to lead this country until the next elections constitutionally due next year. In fact the PM has just concluded his brief address which highlighted the fact that the Dudus Coke affair - the breakdown in public trust despite exhaustive explanations - and his age - younger people are now leading countries all over the world including the USA and Britain - are the two issues which have led him to demit office at this time, and which will also give the party sufficient lead time to organize elections. This is a real shocker, as having apparently weathered the initial storm of the Coke extradition matter, most persons figured that he would continue to lead the country. In the midst of this confusion and much turmoil the Lord sent a word. And which word is shared in the following story which was sent to my church this week A remarkable thing happened yesterday. A Bishop of one the Evangelical churches came to see me. He was dressed in an ordinary shirt, no collar, no purple. Nothing to indicate his status. Perhaps that's why ( one of the reasons) - my Anglican heritage which coloured, pun intended, my understanding of who ought to be a Bishop - I had not asked him the question before, as I had known him for along time. But to fair, the other reason was the state of the nation, what with the current "excitement" in the air. So I asked him , " Bishop, do you have a prophetic word for the nation"? And without any hesitation, he referred me to the fig tree which Jesus cursed, and then he said that, in like manner, we are to " speak to the problems and not about the problems in the nation". And the same faith which the Lord promised to those that do not doubt would drive out the various spirits abroad in our land. The spirit of corruption etc....... And so I suggested that my understanding of his prophetic word was that we, the church, ought to be praying about the problems in Jamaica, and not just lamenting and engaging in " verandah talk". And he also reminded me that the same Jesus who spoke to the fig tree, is available in us and through us, by faith, to " speak to the problems in this land". And then we will be blessed. And so I should have hope for my country. So this morning I read the passage in Mark and found yet another instruction, indeed, a precondition to be fulfilled before God will answer our prayers. And having read and reflected I constructed a text message , and sent it to my "children", based on the revelation from a Psalm that the Lord placed in my mind early this morning. THE PSALM " One generation will commend your works to another, they will tell of your mighty acts." Psalm 145: 6 NIV THE CONTEXT The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, May no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard him say it. Mark 11. 12-14 NIV THE PASSAGE " In the morning, as they went along, they saw a fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered! Have faith in God, Jesus answered. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, Go throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him , so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. Mark 11: 20-25 NIV THE TEXT MESSAGE Read Mark 11.20-25 and forgive all who have done you wrong and then pray with faith about every situation you face giving priority to that which will advance the God's kingdom. And so I did just that and used the message from Mark as the basis for my prayers for self, church and nation. So let us be obedient today and forgive, and forgive...church member. pastor, bishop, self, family member, colleague, foe, politicians, journalists , and then offer believing prayers about all things, and God will, in and through a believing and forgiving church, bless this land, even as we contemplate the advent of a new political order. Indeed then there is hope for our beleaguered nation. Amen LWJ So, having reflected on the Word from the Bishop, what is the Lord saying to us at this time in the nation's history? One, is that we must not place our faith in the strength and wisdom of any man. History may or may not be kind to the PM, but the reality is that few other leaders have come to office with such high expectations based on the prevailing circumstances, the chequered history of achievements by past leaders despite many promises, and the welcome call for constitutional reform and a pulling back from the old style confrontational politics. So many young persons, some would say naively so, helped to usher him into office. Large sections of the media backed him and so did many of those with money and power! And now despite some significant achievements he is leaving office without satisfying the hopes of many who backed him. The call by Jesus, to " Have faith in God", is a call that has echoed across the ages. And the real issue facing us is whether or not " young", or more mature leaders in the future, will continue to depend on their own wisdom, or seek the wisdom of God as revealed in the written and living Word, even Christ Himself. Two, is that in the same way that Jesus " spoke to the problem", of "bearing no fruit", the church needs to take heed, as the other word from the Lord as pointed out to me by a young pastor, is to found in the readings for the Anglican church this week. Especially the words in the gospel which, not inconsequentially, are to found only a page away from the Evangelical Bishop's word to the nation. It's the parable of the Tenants which tells of how a landowner rented his well-taken-care-of-vineyard, to some farmers, and then went way on a journey. Whilst away he sent his servants to collect the fruit. However the story tells us that they treated his servants badly and even killed his son, for whom he thought they might have had some respect, and so in the end God declared that, " the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit......". Matthew 21:33-44. So clearly it is not only Prime Minister's stewardship which is under scrutiny at this time. More importantly divine judgment is on the church, the body of Christ. What fruit have we borne in this nation? Have we in the words of Isaiah, chap 5. 1-7 NIV guilty of the following observation: " ....................The vineyard of hte Lord Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed: for righteousness, but heard cries of bloodshed". One of the sad features of the "reign" of " The President" Christopher Coke a.k.a Dudus , a self confessed drug and gun runner, is the amount of blood which has been shed in Jamaica by men carrying high powered weapons, and many would say, some acting under the influence of drugs. So Coke has much for which he has to answer to God and man in this country. This is why, despite the PM's consistent explanation that he was defending Dudus' constitutional rights and not his behaviour, many Jamaicans are angry and disappointed with him, as this man Coke was a terror to many, though a benefactor to some. The question that the church has to answer, therefore, is to what extent, by what it has done or left undone, has it been guilty of being party to the " bloodshed and cries of the poor"? And the charge becomes even more personal when we apply the question to our own stewardship. Is the Lord pleased with how we have taken care of his vineyard called Jamaica? Have we been resolute in spreading the Word? Have we been unrelenting in seeking justice for the poor? Have we been guilty of taking care of ourselves and family first and leaving the " stray, the lost, the sick and the weak" to fend for themselves, as recalled by the prophetic word of Ezekiel ( 34:1-6) and thus caused God's people to become " food for the wild animals". Have we really, with all our strength, tried to help young girls to avoid going into prostitution? Have we, with all our hearts, done enough to prevent young men from falling prey to " Dons" and wicked politicians? Have we challenged the rich and powerful to live a different life or have we joined the " vera chattering class", and spent our time speaking about the problem rather than to the problem? Have we become "comfortable Christians", attending to the needs of our congregations and leaving unmet the felt needs of those around us? Have we prayed without ceasing, crying to God for mercy and for wisdom, rather than despairing like unbelievers who do not know the power of the living God. Let us, if we are guilty, urgently repent of our sins, resolve to do better, lest the Lord take away our part in the kingdom and give away to others who will bear fruit. Three, is this matter of forgiveness. As unless we forgive the Prime Minister, and all those who were involved in the Dudus affair, including Dudus himself, and all other leaders for their roles in many other issues - Portia Simpson-Miller, P. J. Patterson, Edward Seaga, Michael Manley and others - our own prayers for our sins, and who is not guilty, will not be answered. That is how kingdom of God is so structured. So if we wish to have a more orderly country, a more prosperous nation, a more civil society, a more just society, then all our prayers will count for nothing until and unless we learn to forgive. That is part of the fruit which the God of Abraham looks for in a people, in whose hands he has placed his vineyard Jamaica. I pray God that we will indeed use this terrible time in the life of the nation, to learn to forgive, to learn to trust in God, and to resolve to bear fruit for the Lord, and not just to seek for our " salvation", either materially or spiritually. And the God of all comfort will bless the nation, bless the Prime Minister, and even bless those who have done much harm, according to His will and purpose, and He who alone searches the hearts of all mankind. Amen

Dudus, the Prime Minister, and the God of mercy and alone who can transform lives

2011-09-27T19:44:00.000-07:00

Dudus is asking the wrong person for mercy. Christopher Coke, aka Dudus, that infamous Jamaican gang-lord who, by his own admission in a New York court has been convicted of serious crimes committed in the USA and whose story is so " large" that it appeared in the New York Times this week, is seeking mercy from the presiding judge whe the time comes for sentencing later this year. This is a man, the defense of whose " constitutional rights", by the leader of the country, prior to his extradition to the USA, almost brought down a sovereign government last year and resulted in severe erosion of the " political capital" of the Prime Minister. In fact news just broke today that the very same Prime Minister has decided not to seek election at the next party conference, on account of the " pressures of office". Thus paving the way for a new leader, if he stands by his decision and does not change his mind when he comes under pressure from loyal supporters. Many will readily associate the " dudus" saga with these " pressures, as well as the prevailing world economic downturn, from which Jamaica has not escaped, and the inevitable internal struggles for power that all political parties undergo. So can a judge who who has limited room in which to maneuver, grant Dudus mercy? Or does he need to appeal to another Judge? One who can punish not only in this life, but forever. And thankfully One who is slow to anger and full of mercy and can grant life not only here, but eternally, for those who would repent. And is there no hope for a politically, and no doubt emotionally drained, Prime Minister? Can he undergo a "metanoia"...a change of mind and a change in the things he cared for, and find favor with God, and with man and successfully lead this country? It is within this context that the Lord spoke this week. The message began in the book of Job......" The fear of the Lord - that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding. Job 28:28 NIV. And it continued with a reflection on that most instructive hymn: MY God how wonderful thou art.... and in particular the words of verse four ....Oh, how I fear thee, Living God, with deepest tenderest fears; and worship thee with trembling hope, and penitential tears...... So all men ought to fear God. Why? Have you read the book of numbers recently? No! Well neither have I, but the Lord guided my hand to open the Bible this week to read an amazing story which caused me great fear. It's a bit long but read Numbers chapter 16 for yourself. The story is about a man named Korah and his " crew" of 250. They became, according to the Bible " insolent", and using the language of the street, " dissed", Moses and Aaron ...although Moses made it clear later that they were in fact not merely grumbling against he and Aaron, but against the Lord himself. They claimed that " the entire community was holy", and therefore why did Moses and Aaron " set yourself above the Lord's assembly". After faithful Moses had fell on his face and prayed for them " in their madness". Then Moses sent for them to prove who was right. And they " dissed " him again by refusing to appear before Moses. Then the following day " IT " happened. The glory of the Lord appeared and warned Moses and Aaron to move away from the insolent ones - who apparently did not fear God - as he was about to strike them dead. But faithful Moses and Aaron prayed for them a second time - for mercy. "Fell facedown and cried out", is what is recorded in Scripture. But it was too late. The next day the Lord, in a way that removed any doubt about in whom He found favor, caused the earth to open up and swallow the 250 " insolent" ones, who did not fear the Lord. But the story did not end there. As the entire Jewish people accused Moses of " killing off the Lord's people". So " IT" happened again. The glory of the Lord appeared and warned Moses and Aaron to get away so that " I can put an end to them"........the whole Israelite community...all of God's people! Then Moses and Aaron had to take drastic action and " make an atonement" for the community...and the Word of God said that " Aaron stood between the living and the dead". And although it was too save 14700 who perished, the plague stopped and the people were spared. Lord have mercy. So clearly, it is not a good thing to grumble against, "diss" or in any way behave in a manner that suggests that we do not fear the Living God. And this is the problem that Dudus, and anybody else will inevitable face, when they live their lives in complete disobedience to the will of God. Especially in this age when, He who has made atonement for our sins, He who stands between the living and the dead, He who stands between the anger of the evil one and the Lord's people, His death on the Cross on Calvary is known to most people in the entire world today.....and is being made known more and more each day. In fact this message is the subject of a text message I was led to send out today following a late night encounter with the Lord: " The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full." John The evil one, the devil, only wishes to lead people away from the truth that God loves all mankind, and in Christ no matter what happened before, everyone can undergo metanoia, and become a new person and " have life to the full". As a reading of the prophet Ezekiel revealed today that , " every living soul belong to God". So yes Christopher Coke, and every living soul, no matter how wicked they are, or were, can undergo change and become a useful citizen according to God's purpose if he repents and has a change of heart. And a generous God, even if the American judge gives him a harsh and deserving sentence, will give him the same pay also that others who repented before have received - the gift of eternal life. The story gets better as in church we heard a wonderful " game changing sermon today" based on the same Ezekiel passage in chapter 18, and the gospel story in Matthew ( 21:28-32) of the two sons who, one of whom said yes to the Lord, but later changed his mind and became disobedient...and lost his " salvation". And the other son who was first disobedient and then had a change of heart, repented of his sins and found favor with God. And thus the Bible says that " prostitutes and tax-collectors are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you". The essence of the story is that we should not write off anyone. And more importantly ourselves. Whether we are terrible and infamous criminals or flawed Public Servants, whether we be " teenage prostitutes" led astray by the evil one in pursuit of economic gain or homosexuals led astray by the " spirit" of this age that tells us that our case is beyond help and beyond change...as if the words of Scripture which tells us that " with God nothing is impossible", can be broken. Finally, the God who has rescued me time and time again from evil and from my own sins, woke me up again and said in the words of Scripture, again last night: " Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me, they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day.............Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house. You must speak my words to them whether listen or fail to listen.... I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to a wicked man, You will surely die, and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself". Ezekiel CHAPTERS 2&3. NIV Hopefully then the Prime Minister will receive this message...or any other similar one from whomsoever God appoints ...... and take stock, as " all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". And therefore acts of "wickedness", deserving of death, is the fate of all " unredeemed " human beings....those who the devil can easily and kill and destroy their lives....make them unproductive, blind them to the possibility of living a different life..... on a higher plane.... a more morally upstanding life, better than the one we had before even if that one were " adequate" in the sight of man and in our own regard....., and with greater wisdom, and which can result in a different legacy. But all of which hangs on him having a " repentant heart".....create in me a pure heart O God ...cried out the Psalmist David...after he had committed the most egregious of all crimes....murder in an effort to cover up his adulterous relationship...and he was known as a man after god's heart. Hopefully Christopher Coke will receive this message, or any other of a similar nature from whomsover God appoints ,and repent and seek favour with the One who will judge the living and the dead and whose kingdom will have no end. And then, with an " undivided heart", He will indeed receive mercy - from the right(eous) Judge. So we pray for repentance for every living soul, that they may not die, not become unproductive, not fail prey to what is deemed to be " inevitable", but instead will accept Christ and the power to have new, productive and an unblemished life, and have it it more abundantly in every aspect of human endeavour. All because of the Atonement wrought on the Cross of Calvary by the One whose Blood covers us and washes away all our sins and allows us to become partakers of a new life in the power of the Holy Spirit. So let us never write off anybody as a hopeless case, and especially our own situtation in life regardless of past mistakes Amen

Famous abroad but suffering at home: Only God can help us!

2011-09-19T19:33:00.001-07:00

With all due respect to VCB, Shelly Ann-Fraser, Melaine Walker and other athletic stars, Jamaica now has two authentic superstars - Johan Blake, and Usain Bolt. And with the fabulous run by Blake, just missing Bolt's world record in the 200, over the weekend, many would argue that I got the order correct. Sadly though, with all due respect to those who continue to hold our flag high, for me, the story of the week was the slashing of the throat of a ten year promising young man, by his sister. This is just too much. Too much to live with in a country, even where violence has been a part of of culture for far too long. But this act of barbarity, by a family member is just too much. And then over the weekend another person was beheaded. How does a nation, any nation, and many other nations are grappling with similar problems, deal with with this outrageous act of inhumanity? A few nights ago, the Lord woke me up to read a passage of Scripture with a message to send to select members of my church grappling with challenges inside the Anglican church worldwide. But on reflection , the message from the Holy Word of God is applicable to all situations which we find confusing, horrific, degrading to the human spirit and just simply barbaric. The following was the message: The context of all my messages is my prayer: Lord renew thy church beginning with me; Lord renew thy church that the church may renew the nation(s). Last week the Lord Lord woke me up to read the Ezekiel passage about being a watchman to the children of Israel, even though their hearts were stubborn. And which is ( part of ) the role of the church in any society today. This morning, at 4:00 am He woke me up to read a very intriguing passage of Scripture. But before reading it I was led to: " Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me though they had seen what I did. For forty years long I was angry with that generation; I said, they are people whose hearts go astray and they have not known my ways So I declared on oath in my anger, They shall never enter my rest. Psalm 95:7-11 NIV The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it. Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side. The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for the loaf they had with them in the boat. be careful, Jesus warned them, Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. They discussed this with one another and said , It is because we have no bread. Aware of their discussions.............Jesus reminded them about the feeding of the four thousand with the seven loaves and the many baskets which were filled with left leftovers........and then , " He said to them, Do you still not understand" Mark 8:11-21 NIV I pondered for a moment and then used my reference Bible to read the story about Herod and his immoral lifestyle which John the Baptist denounced and for that lost his head. And also read two things this about the Pharisees. One earlier in Mark, where Jesus rebuked them for abiding by the traditions of men and setting aside the law of God. The other: " Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works works through the whole batch of dough? get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new patch without - as you really are. For Christ our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth." 1 Cor. 5: 6-8 NIV The context is the opening sentence of the chapter: It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, of a kind that does not occur even among the pagans: A man has his brother's wife. And therefore Paul ends the chapter with: I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.......but now I am writing you that you must associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside. God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you". One of the sad things about my country, and I am sure it is the experience in others parts of the world, is that many years ago, people saw the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod, begin to "work its way through the whole batch of dough", and warned the nation. But few took heed. My country was a relatively peaceful place. The kind of immorality, slackness and violence which is so much a part of our music and culture today, was foreign to us in the early days. And no doubt the experience is the same for other countries. The pervasiveness of the gun culture, the aggression that we have towards each other and to strangers in our communities, is in fact a "stranger" and an unwanted one, in the Jamaica in which I grew up. The animosity among the political leaders of our time, and the level of corruption in public life was unheard of in the early days. The unvarnished lack of respect for the basic laws of the land especially in the public square, the aggression between youngsters attending schools, the loutish behaviour of too many who enjoy the privilege of being on radio or television, and especially the behaviour of some of our "men of the cloth" is simply shocking. So Jesus' warning to " beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod - who had John the Baptist beheaded, in the final analysis because he Herod, was consorting with his brother's wife, and John rebuked him. So this madness which is abroad in my country, the country of Usain Bolt and Johan Blake, has been long in the coming, and now we are in a crisis and few have any answers. This week the God of all comfort, who comforts in all or sorrows so that we may comfort others who are going through the same troubles send a Word from Brother Lawrence who was a Roman Catholic mystic in the 17th century, and who work found favor more in the protestant churches than in his own. It's simple message. An old message which forms the heart of the gospel. And which if followed carefully will lead to the Revival about which the Lord has speaking to me through a hymn this week. And if the church undergoes a revival in any country that country will indeed be blessed and not suffer from the kind of barbaric acts at home even while we celebrate great things abroad. CONTINUE IN HIS PRESENCE Brother Lawrence Verse: Proverbs 8:30 There is no sweeter manner of living in the world than continuous communion with God....... If I were a preacher, I would preach nothing but practicing the presence of God. If I were to be responsible for guiding souls in the right direction, I would urge everyone to be aware of God's constant presence, if for no other reason than because his soul is a delight to our souls and spirits. It is, however, also necessary. if we only know how much we need God's grace, we would never lose touch with him. believe to live the rest of your life in his holy presence. Don't do this in expectation of receiving heavenly comforts; simply do it out of love for him. Put your hand to the task! if you do it right, you will soon see the results. To practice without ceasing, to be in constant communion with God, as Jesus was in constant communion with His Father, is the highest calling of the Christian life. Not just to go and do things for God. For if we are not careful, many of the things we end up " doing for God", has more to do with our own undisciplined imaginations, rather than as a result of the movement God's Spirit. And such endeavors, which do not spring from the abiding presence of God in us, have no power to fight against evil, nor can they bring about the kind of revival that this country needs. As this is what the songwriter expressed in the hymn: Search me, O God, and know my heart today; try me, O lord, and know my my thoughts today, I pray: see if there be ome wicked way in me, cleanse me from every sin and set me free...... O Holy Ghost, revival comes from thee; send a revival - start the work in me: they word declares thou wilt supply our need; for blessing, now, O Lord, I humbly plead The only was that God will search us, at our request is if we are in continually in His presence. Further, revival is something which comes from the Holy Ghost, not from Jamaica House or the White House. So no politician, no matter how gifted he or she is, can bring about a revival in the fortunes of a nation. Only God can. And such a revival begins with those of us who are completely surrendered to Christ, and stay deliberately and intentionally by asking, in His presence all day long. It that possible you may ask. Recently my Blackberry has been down. So no immediate access to my e -mails, no constant access to facebook, no tweeting - well I was really not on twitter in the first place, no BBM's requiring immediate responses, pictures to respond to. So is it a coincidence that God sent the message from Brother Lawerence at this time when my mind is not being bombarded continuously by my Blackberry? Technological advances have their place in a modern society, but when they begin to rob us of time which we absolutely need to spend in the Lord's presence, then we have some decisions to make. Listening to music has much to recommend it, and watching movies/TV or reading a good book can bring a lot of pleasure and help to stimulate the mind. Further, reveling in the exploits of Blake and Bolt and VCB and company on the track can bring us a lot of pride and promote a sense of community in our nation. But what is the priority for a child of God horrified by the winds of change around us. And even more fundamentally, what is the priority of a child of God who has been rescued by a generous and merciful act God in Christ Jesus on the Cross of Calvary? Is it not to " dwell in the house of the Lord forever", as the Psalmist wrote in the famous Psalm 27. Is it not to " Abide in the shadow of the Almighty, as the same Psalmist wrote in Psalm 91. Brother Lawrence is right, our role is to begin to practice the continuous abiding in the presence of the Lord and watch how His blessing will flow to, and through us, as a revival begins in the church and flows over into the community. Then and only then will sisters take care of their brothers and people will die of old age and not because they are beheaded or have their throats slashed. That's why we continue to lift up the name of Jesus in all we say and do. That's part of the reason why another Psalmist wrote the famous words: How good and pleasant it is when brothers ( and sisters) dwell together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes, It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessings, even for life evermore. So we pray for God's blessings, His revival on our nation(s) as we dwell in unity in the presence of God. Amen Praise God.

9/11 and other sins and the mercy and forgiveness of God in Christ Jesus

2011-09-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

Should we forgive them? Who ? Johan Blake the world champion of the men's 100M final and still a superstar Usain Bolt. Both of them issued apologies for " horsing around" during the playing of the National Anthem in Daegu in the recently concluded World Athletic Games, and assuming that that are contrite, of course we should forgive them. They also need to receive proper counseling and careful handling from now on, but forgiveness is justified. What about Serena Williams who almost had another " meltdown" during the finals of the US Open tennis match today - the Aussie Stosur finally prevailed? Is this once too often, and suppose she is not contrite should we still forgive her? Can the Americans who, ten years ago during what the entire world now refers to as 9/11, find it in their hearts to forgive the evil planned and executed in the name of Allah which sent three airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and almost three thousand souls to an early grave? Can Russia forgive the " sins" of Stalin and Lenin? Can the people of Cambodia ever forgive the Pol Pot regime for committing genocide against its people? Perhaps we should ask the South Africans whose leader Nelson Mandela displayed extraordinary vision and forgiveness in rescuing his country from the brink of anarchy and civil war! Finally can Israel and the Palestinians ever live in peace and learn to forgive, even though they do not forget, and help to prevent other atrocities being committed in the name of Allah, which is what many experts believe sparked the concept of 9/11 in the first place? Perhaps the Jews should follow the example of their God and our God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and the God and Father of our Lord Christ, who sent His Son as an Atonement for the sins of all mankind, as the Bible makes it clear, " even when we were still enemies of God". This is the lesson that the Lord taught me this week. As we have been forgiven, so must we forgive. But there is a price for that forgiveness. And because the price paid is so precious and so powerful, all sin, not just an unforgiving heart, needs to be destroyed and not just corrected. The powerful Word of God, set me free this week, by my being led to reflect on one of the most profound passages in Scripture. " What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin, how can we live in it longer? or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has any mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin and once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ. Therefore do not let sin reign in mortal body so that you obey its evil desires....for sin shalll not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace". Romans 6:1-14 NIV The context in which the passage was written was the debate in the church at that about the difference between living under the law and living under grace - the free undeserved and unmerited mercy of God. But what struck me as the Lord led me through the passage, was the fact that although all of us who have been redeemed by the Blood of Christ, and who have " died with Him in Baptism", will be forever under the temptation to sin until we die, in Christ, we do not have to sin, nor let sin reign in our mortal bodies. Since we will not gain perfection in Christ in this mortal life, we will sin, and we will need the continuous forgiveness of God and man. But as we grow in Christ, we will do so less and less as the power of sin and death over us is destroyed the but indwelling of the gift of Holy Spirit imparted to us during Holy Baptism. So, we don't have to have a unforgiving heart anymore, regardless of whatever wrong, or perceived wrong has been meted out to us. The Peace of God that passeth all human understanding can help us to forgive - even murder. That is the only way Nelson Mandela, no doubt heavily influenced by the grace of God through persons like Bishop Tutu, could actively seek the forgiveness of those who mercilessly were responsible for the killing of Children of Soweto, the killing of Steve Biko and the many other freedom fighters and advocates for freedom who paid the ultimate price for their belief. That same grace can help us to forgive genocide and rape, as happened in Rwanda. There are many countries which are in desperate need of healing and forgiveness in order that the society may begin to move on to greatness again. And my country is one such nation. For years, and we are approaching fifty years of sovereign rule, the two political parties in their quest to gain and preserve power, have been guilty of spreading abroad in our society a level of violence and mayhem previously unknown to us, and which has resulted in unfulfilled dreams, unrealized potential of our people, mass migration and widespread poverty of thought and resources. Only the mercy of God can help us to break this vicious cycle. The sad thing is that unredeemed leaders cannot lead us out of this " Babylon" that we are in, except of course they are willlig to either seek the Lord for themselves, or avail themselves of spiritual guidance in the same way that Mandela did. Not from false prophets however, or for selfish political gain, as some, not just one or two, have done and tried to " manipulate God" for their own purposes, and received their just reward of failure. But there is more to this passage than the " big picture". Those who are in Christ, do not have to fall prey to sexual temptations, as pervasive and as powerful as such temptations may be. Thus marriage vows can be kept. Young, and even old Christians can flee successfully from fornication. Sex before marriage does not have to happen. Fidelity to one partner of the opposite sex is possible, contrary to popular opinion and contrary to what purports to be the received wisdom which flows out of Hollywood, from the Television and from the Radio and the Internet. Those who are in Christ do not have to get angry and say and do things that they regret after, and worse do not regret at all. All ungraciousness can stop. Envy can be thwarted. Greed does not have to be in control of your life anymore. Selfish ambition, even in matters of the the church and of the things of God, can be destroyed. So can pride which makes us fee that we are better than non-believers, better than those in a different economic status or intellectual class or even worse better Christians than others. People who are truly in Christ and have died with Him, do not beat their women nor abuse their children nor those belonging to other people...in the community or in the classroom. And so peace and quiet can reign in homes and communities. The peace of God can reign in the schools, in the business place and in the public square. But there is a price to pay. A quote from Oswald Chambers which I read this week, and sent out as a text message, hits the nail on the head. "Sin cannot be corrected. It must be destroyed". And that is what Jesus came to do, to destroy the works of the devil. By His blood and by the power of His resurrection. So the only way we can destroy sin, an unforgiving spirit, or any other sin, is by remembering that we have died, and therefore live the scripture that implores us to " count yourself dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus". And that kind of life requires sacrifice. Requires that we "put to death" some of the things to which we expose our minds. As that's where the struggle is either won or lost - in our minds. As a result, many of us have spent many years and many tears and prayers in pursuit of getting rid of many things that we allowed into minds and that corrupted our souls. We thank God for Jesus, who has helped us to destroy these things as we take deadly seriously the Scripture which warns us: " Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the patter of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The you will be able to test and approve what God's will is ---his good, pleasing and perfect will. This " renewing of our minds" constitutes the single greatest challenge in this ipad, Blackberry, laptop, and now aging PC world. And a desire to renew our mind and seek God in Christ, usually happens according to Chambers, only when our backs are against the wall. That's why the Cross of Christ is so central to the life of a Christian, as in that Cross we remember that " outside of Christ we were once wretches". That's why Christ died. Because our situation was hopeless. That's why we absolutely need him, every hour. But of equal importance, in the resurrection of Christ we are confident in the knowledge that in Christ, we are also raised to a new life, that is daily leading to holiness and righteousness. hence the need for the " discipline and the pruning". Finally, the Word of God is " living and active". And in it we have power to overcome sin. So make it your practice to memorize the Word of God and use it to fight against Satan as Jesus did. And be persistent and you will overcome, which is a promise made more real on reflecting on a story I read in The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers this week. " An ancient legend tells of a blacksmith who became famous for the magnificent swords he made; he claimed that he could cut a coat of armour in two with one sweep. The king hearing of his boast, summoned the blacksmith to his presence and told him to cut through his coat of armour and if he could not do it, he would be put to death for his boasting. The blacksmith swung his sword round and put it back in its sheath; the king was about to challenge him, when the blacksmith said, " Shake yourself, your majesty"; the king shook himself and fell in two." Chambers continues: The legend is an illustration of the tremendous power of the sword in God's hands, " the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. " The word of God is ...sharper than any two-edged sword", and it deals effectually with the sin in us; for a while we may not be conscious that anything has happened, then suddenly God brings about a crisis and we realize that something has been profoundly altered. No one is ever the same after listening to the word of God, you cannot be; you may imagine that you have paid no attention to it, and yet months after maybe a crisis arises and suddenly the word of God comes and grips you by the throat, so to speak, and awakens all kinds of terrors of hell in your life, and you say, " Wherever did that word come from?" Years ago, months ago, weeks ago, it sank straight into your unconscious mind, God knew it was there though you did not, and it did its damaging work and now it has come to light, the question is, will you allow yourself to escape the edge of the sword, or will you be destroyed with the thing the sword has pierced? A couple night ago, the Lord woke me up to read, with some terror, the Ezekiel passage about being a watchman to the house of Israel, and to warn his people. Let those who have ears to hear and eyes to see be warned. Amen

Bolt the superstar: Christ the balm in Gilead

2011-09-06T19:19:00.001-07:00

So it's all over now. The World Athletic Games in Korea have come to a dramatic conclusion. And at the end Jamaica's name stands tall, as our men, not just won the gold medal, but, broke their own world record, in the final event - the 4 x 100 relay. So there will no more waking up in the wee hours of the morning ( not me) to watch the Kenyan long distance stars, the dominant European field events stars, the upcoming Caribbean stars, and the now household names of Jeter, VCB - even the British commentators " caught the fever" and began using that affectionate term - Sally Pearson, Allyson Felix, Usain Bolt and other stars perform. There will be no more exciting commentary and almost encyclopedic type recounting of athletic data by the numerous well read and highly competent commentators - although some had fairy creative pronunciations - we have heard, read, and listened to, in various forms of the media. So sadly, as far as many are concerned, we are back to the mundane politics, the latest movies, the latest dance-hall moves, and other happenings until the Olympics in London next year, when the salivation and excitement starts all over again. So while the entire world was watching the "Usain Bolt" Games - why do you think they switched the 4 x 100 men from the usual penultimate day to the final event - and there are some people in Jamaica and indeed in the world, who come pretty close to worshiping him, "The God of Heaven and Earth and the sea and all that is in it", spoke in very clear terms about the only One before Whom " every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord." That why all history is divided into B.C. - before Christ, and AD -Anno Domini, after Christ. Firstly a Word about why He came on earth from heaven. " Do not let not your heart be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me." John 14: 1 " When he ( the Counselor ) comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.: in regards to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regards to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. John 16: 8-11 NIV " If the world hates you, keep in mind that that it hated you first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to: No servant is greater than his master . If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. if I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now however, they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me, hates my Father as well. if I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: They hated me without reason." John 15:18-25 NIV One of the big problems in our societies across the world, and sadly creeping into the church, which really is a manifestation of our inherent tendency - like all sheep - to disobedience, is the modern trend of downplaying the notion of sin. Both private and public! No so, said Jesus. In fact it is to establish and draw attention to the sinfulness of mankind which caused God " in the fullness of time" to send His Son - to die on the Cross of Calvary. All because of Sin. So how can we be like " traitors" to the Cross of Jesus and not challenge ourselves and other to turn back from living a sinful life. And the prophecy is that the more we stand up for Jesus in this regard, the more the world will hate us, and persecute us. And sadly, too many people shy away from that kind of lifestyle as they " love praise from men more than praise from God". So they preach "powderpuff" sermons that do not challenge the souls of their congregations; they don't challenge persons, by word and by lifestyle, who come into their lives to do better; the pursuit of justice is not part of their Christian agenda; and they fall easily into being entertained and satisfied by what Bolt and others serve up on a regular basis. So be careful as a Christian when you have no apparent troubles in life. Be careful when, even though you may be assiduous in your worship and prayer life, reading the right books and leading an " upright life", you create no " waves" in the lives of non-believers; when yourself and non-believers watch the same television shows, agree on " moral issues", and in fact can hardly be shown to be any different from your friends in how you spend your time and your money and your efforts - apart from going to church and reading your Bible. As the reality is that we too have " seen the miracles" that Christ performed and the most important one took place was on the Cross of Calvary. That's why, if we are really surrendered like St. Paul to Christ, persecution in some form or fashion, from man or from the devil, will inevitably follow, as night follows day. So be very careful of the " trouble free" Christian life. Be careful when, like Bolt, the entire world likes you, rather than hates you. Be very careful when the entire world, or even all your friends and associates, " hang on to every word you speak or write", as many of the journalists do with Usain Bolt -why do you think that the Jamaican Press Conference in Korea attracted over three hundred journalists as was reported in the press! Also this week the Word of God from the OT Scripture passage appointed in my church stated that: The word of the Lord came to me: Son of man, speak to your countrymen and say to them: When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him a watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows his trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take the warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be upon his own head. Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be upon his own head. if he had taken the warning, he would have saved himself. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of of one of them, that man will taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood." Ezekiel 33:1-6 NIV So where does that leave the church of Jesus, the forerunner of which was the children of Israel, and to whom this prophecy was given by Ezekiel and which Word came directly from God? If we have not been diligent in warning one of the worse criminals of our time, and he has admitted to some of his crimes, Dudus Coke, and though he now languishes in a foreign prison, is his " blood" not on our head. And even if the case against us is not as manifest as the crimes of this drug don, regardless of the status of those around us; whether they have HIV or not; whether they are gay or not; whether they commit adultery; whether they tell lies publicly or privately, big ones or small ones; whether they use foul language like a sailor or like a frustrated mother or wife; whether they sit in the sanctuary or wear a mitre or " get in the spirit" in the congregation; whether they steal from the public purse or from the privately owned business; whether they be wife or husband or child; whether they be the one who looks in the mirror or points to the neighbour next door; if we do not act to warn others and most importantly, turn back from our wicked ways - then blood of those around us is on our head. There is a wonderful story of a cripple, who had been waiting by a " healing " pool for many years without being able to get inside and who Jesus healed with great compassion. And when Jesus sought him out later, told him to " stop sinning otherwise something worse may happen to you". So we too who have been healed by Jesus' stripes, need to repent daily and turn back to God and stop sinning. Finally the same song from last week keeps reverberating in my head. There is a balm in Gilead To make the wounded whole, There is a balm in Gilead To heal the sin-sick soul. Sometimes I feel discouraged, And think my work's in vain, But then the Holy Spirit Revives my soul again. ...There is a balm If you can't preach like peter, If you can't pray like Paul, Just tell the love of Jesus, And say he died for all....there is a balm That's what keeps me going from day to day, from hour to hour, not just from one kind of excitement to another. The fact that my Lord died for me on the Cross. The fact that , as the song writer states so eloquently and poignantly: Amazing love! how can it be That, Thou my God shouldst die for me. So it's not all about Bolt and VCB after all. Nor is it all about USA vs Jamaica! But rather, it's all about being obedient to the One who died for us on the Cross of Calvary. As when Asafa really wants have the right balm for his soul as well as his injuries, when Bolt's father gets down on his knees, when VCB's mother gives thanks for her daughter's victories, they all turn to the One who is the only balm in Gilead. So should we too turn to Christ as a nation, and Kenya, and the big America and all nations should bow before Him and worship Him, Christ the Lord. From Queen to commoner, from President to the janitor and from Prime Minister to the ordinary man in the street. In Daegu and in Kingston, in Moscow and in London, in Lagos and in Jo'berg. Amen

Strange happenings and the God of Compassion and mercy

2011-08-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

Recently a few unexpected, if not downright strange things have happened, which when put together makes one wonder. An earthquake on the East coast of the USA. That's a problem normally associated with the West Coast of America. And California in particular. Then a Hurricane/Storm running along the Eastern seaboard of the USA. First one in decades. Passing strange indeed! Then Usain Bolt, just this morning, shocks the entire sporting world by false starting and thus being disqualified from a race which everyone expected him to win easily. First time we have seen him do that. Actually we in Jamaica were worried about VCB - the popular name for our famous world class female sprinter, Veronica Campbell- Brown, as she is the one who has been bedeviled with false starts in recent times. Strange indeed! What to make of it?

Not sure. But what I am sure about is the fact this week, in another realm, again and again, the Lord led me back to the same theme - His compassion. I first encountered this message in the book of Micah - at the very end of the book.

" Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression

of the remnant of his inheritance?

You do not stay angry forever

but delight to show mercy.

You will again have compassion on us;

you will tread our sins underfoot

and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

You will be true to Jacob,

and show mercy to Abraham,

as you pledged on oath to our fathers

in days long ago."

Micah 7: !8-20. NIV

And again in Psalm 103

The Lord is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger and abounding in love.

He will not always accuse,

nor will he treat us as our sins deserve

or repay us according to our iniquities.

Ps 103:8-10 NIV

And then a very strange but powerful and profound message from the book of Romans - from a verse that I have read many times and on which I have spent much time reflecting.

" For God has given over all men to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all ". Romans 11:32 NIV

So much so that, using the words of the Psalmist and of St. Paul to the Romans, I send out two text messages to persons whom I thought would benefit from these comforting yet challenging words of scripture. And imploring them to ask for mercy in the name of Jesus.

Is it that Usain Bolt and the people living along the Eastern seaboard of the USA need to reflect on God's mercy anymore than elsewhere in this world! Certainly not! And a word from St Luke's gospel validates this position.

" Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you , no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

Luke 13:1-3 NIV

So we must be careful about concocting theories about why people have misfortunes, but rather spend our time praying for them for God's comfort and mercy in times of trouble, as we did in church this morning for the people affected by the storm in the USA and for all our athletes.

But the story is not yet finished. I was privileged to preach a sermon in a small church this morning. And one of the passages appointed for today which struck me forcibly came from the book of Jeremiah.

" Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable?

Will you be to me like a deceptive brook,

like a spring that fails?

Therefore this is what the Lord says:

If you repent, I will restore you

that you may serve me;

if you utter worthy, not worthless, words

you will be my spokesman.

Let this people turn to you,

but you must not turn to them.

I will make you a wall to this people,

a fortified wall of bronze;

they will fight against you

but will not overcome you,

for I am with you

to rescue you and save you, declares the Lord.

I will save you from the hands of the wicked

and redeem you from the grasp of the cruel"

Jeremiah 15:18-21

Why are we, a nation that can produce three potential gold medalists in one race, beheading our own people like animals? Why are we, a people who can produce a Marcus Garvey, who inspired millions of black and oppressed people across the world to rise up and take control of their destinies, murdering our women and children? Why can we spawn a poet/musician like Bob Marley who is perhaps the only Jamaican more popular that Usain Bolt, even in death, and yet spawn men who would trade willing in guns and ammunition and drugs and become agents of death in my country - and be exported to other countries of the world thus bringing the good name of our small but famous country into disrepute. Oh God why is my pain unending and my wound so grievous and incurable?

Perhaps America needs to sing the same lament and ask the same questions. Why is a country so richly endowed with natural resources so heavily indebted to China? Why is a country so powerful in terms of its military strength has such a high murder rate, relative to other rich countries? Why is a country with such a high level of education have such a high level teenage pregnancy compared to other rich countries? Why is there so much immorality in the land of the free and the home of the brave?

How I wished I could sing today, as the Lord declared from the days of Jeremiah, that He, in Christ Jesus, is the only "balm in Gilead", that the world needs.

Listen again.

" If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me"

This is the gospel that the entire world needs to hear in these strange times. That the cure for the "grievous wound", the many social and economic ills confronting many countries across the globe, is repentance before a holy God in the name of Jesus Christ. That the cure for the many personal problems confronting individuals and families is for them to repent in the name of Jesus. In Seoul Korea, In Moscow Russia, in Tripoli Libya, in Syria, along the West and East Coast of America, and cetainly in my country in Jamaica. Turn to God, and not to turn to what this world offers in terms of fame and riches and popularity. As these things are all transient, as Bolt will soon discover, and Felix, and VCB and a host of stars in Korea. And the God of all compassion and love is just waiting to welcome the humble with open arms, as that was His plan when he purposed in His heart to send His Son Jesus, in the fullness of time - in a very strange occurrence indeed in Bethlehem 2000 years ago - to die on the cross for all mankind.

Perhaps Bolt has allowed success and fame to " get to his head", and needs a few lessons in humility. Perhaps in the same way that Tiger Wood was " brought back down to earth", albeit for different reasons, hopefully, Bolt needs to just " chill" for a while and refocus. Perhaps the folks on the eastern seaboard, arguably the most well known and sophisticated of all the regions in America - certainly true for New York and DC - need to humble themselves before a mighty God, and realize that they really are not quite in control of their destinies as they once thought. For us in here in Jamaica, we need to " wake up" and understand that we are a special country that God has blessed in so many different ways, and turn back to Him who rescued us from a life of slavery into freedom - that's why our forebears spoke with such familiarity about " puppa Jesus" and "massa God". All this nonsense about exalting " Sister P" and " Bruce", the two popular names for our leader of the opposition and Prime Minister respectively has to come to an end. Respect them yes. Vote for them yes. But realize clearly that the future of Jamaica lies not in their hands, not in the feet of Usain Bolt, nor in the music of Bob Marley, but in the "hands of the man who stilled the waters". Christ Jesus, whose shed blood on the Cross of Calvary has opened a new way for all mankind into the very presence of God - the eternal Balm in Gilead.

Jesus said to his disciples - and to the world - who do you say that I am? A question for all ages!

2011-08-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

This week the recent discussion in my country about the airing of a controversial ad which purports to spread the message of tolerance and love for gays caught my attention. Especially an interview on radio during which a local pastor advanced the well known theory that, this was all part of a larger, world wide plan, to promote the gay lifestyle.So far the electronic media has declined to air the ad. Also the gift of a book entitled, " The Peacemaker: A Biblical guide to resolving personal conflict", from an a old friend visiting Jamaica gave me pause - especially since it happened on the day after I was involved in a major dispute with another Christian over an institution for which have some responsibility. And therefore the next morning during my prayers, the Spirit of Lord led me to pray for unity and peace in my country; unity and peace in my church; and unity and peace with this aforementioned individual. Continuing in that vein, the same Spirit led me to reflect on the kind of gift that those with influence in our two major political parties, could offer my country next year on our fiftieth anniversary as an independence state. Is it possible to agree on a set of principles and policies, within the context of a competitive democratic state, which would transcend petty partisan politics and shape the governance of my country for the next fifty years, regardless which party is in power? And thus put us on a path of economic independence, and giving us an opportunity to rear children in a peaceful and orderly society? Is it possible for our churches to put aside their denominational differences and shape a moral vision for this nation? Is it possible for even my Anglican church, in particular, to dispense with " worldly agendas", at every level, and seek to craft a vision of how this church can contribute to national development, within the context of building God's Kingdom here on earth?

For that to happen though, the Lord spoke very clearly, we need unity of purpose in every sphere of national life. And without any doubt the first priority is an agreed understanding of who is this God about whom most Jamaicans seem so familiar, and Americans too - God bless America is the common refrain of all Presidents. One of the strongest messages the Lord sent, came from a Russian writer and a Jewish tax collector, and which message I sent to the rich and powerful in my country yesterday, on a day when I celebrated life in a special way. And no doubt, perhaps deep in my subconscious, the thought that, it is more blessed to give than to receive, triggered the sending of this "gift". I offer no apologies for what the purists may see as exegetical adventurism as I was simply being obedient.

It started with the story of Zaccheus.

" Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zaccheus ; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was..............When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, " Zaccheus, come down immediately, I must stay at your house today..........
Zaccheus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.
Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

The Message: Zaccheus repented of his foolish thinking, and was forgiven. Who was Zaccheus? A chief tax collector! Ultimately, who is the chief tax collector.
The Prime Minister, and his fellow ministers. But Zaccheus was also rich, and therefore prominent and privileged. Who are the rich and privileged in any society? They too need to hear the gospel

The story continued with Fyodor Dostoevsky ( 1821 - 1881). A promising literary career seemed to await the young atheistic socialist....But in 1849 he and other Russian intellectuals were arrested for studying the forbidden subject of French socialist utopianism. Four years of Siberian exile and imprisonment left him psychological scars, epilepsy and the Christian faith. His life was characterized by physical hardship, poverty and great literary productivity...Crime and Punishment....The Idiot....The Possessed brought him world recognition....Dostoevsky was concerned with the justice of God and the idea that " if God does not exist, then everything is permitted.

And the the message ended with:

IVAN HAS NO GOD. HE HAS AN IDEA
Fydor Dostoevsky

Verse : Habakkuk 1:11 " Then they will sweep past like wind and go on - guilty men, whose own strength is their god."

You see, I never had any of these doubts before, but it was all hidden away in me. It was perhaps just because I did not understand these ideas surging up in me that I used to drink and fight and rage. It was to stiffle them in myself, to still them, to smother them.

There is an idea in Ivan; he is not Rakitin. But Ivan is a sphinx and is silent, he is always silent. It's God that's worrying me. What if he doesn't exist? What if Rakitin's right - that's an idea made up by men? Then, if he doesn't exist, man is the chief of the earth, of the universe. Magnificent! Only how is he going to good without God? That's the question. I always come back to that. For whom is man going to love then? To whom will he be thankful? To whom will he sing the hymn?
Rakitin laughs, Rakitin says that one can love humanity without God. Well, only a sniveling idiot can maintain that. I can't understand it. Life's easy for Ratikin - " You'd better think about the extension of human rights, " he says, " or even of keeping down the price of meat. You will show your love for humanity more simply and directly by that than philosophy."

I answered him, " Well, but you without a God, are more likely to raise the price of meat if it suits you and make a ruble on every kopeck." He lost his temper.
But after all, what is goodness? Answer me that, Alexey. Goodness is one thing with me and another with a Chinaman, so it's relative thing. or isn't it? Is it not relative? A treacherous question! You won't laugh if I tell you it's kept me awake two nights. I only wonder now how people can live and think nothing about it. Vanity! Ivan has no God. He has an idea

Final Message: Zaccheus, politicians, rich and powerful men in any society, intellectuals all need to know God in and through Christ. All need to repent of their foolish ways. Otherwise they just have an idea about Him like Rakitin....and in that kind of scenario " anything goes". Raising prices to make money....crafting policies to stay in power....seeking knowledge to advance self. In that scenario, we don't have to love one another, we don't have to stop to give thanks, we don't have to sing praises to God. And then to what end that kind of life. Vanity!

Recent public events...black Friday, and the life and death of a prominent and powerful figure should give us pause. The kind of politics we practice should give us pause. The god who some powerful men serve, should give us pause. Especially as we approach our 50th birthday. On my 60th, the Lord has send a message through me. I pray God that those who have ears to hear will indeed hear. Too many of us only have an idea. And thus we really do not have any idea of the justice of God that led to to the death of His only Son. That's why Christians exult in the word of God that states: " Now there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.". Having an just an idea of God, and being entirely satisfied with that idea, is a dangerous thing. For individuals and for a nation. At the very least let us even try like Zaccheus to " see who Jesus is".
Peace
LWJ

N.B. This note does not require any response except perhaps to send it on to someone who might be in need of this kind of reflection.

And for those who only have an idea of who God is, the Lord led me to reflect on a passage on Colossians this week which offers a really concise explanation of the
" Gospel", preached by the Christian church.

" He ( Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over al creation. For by him all things all things were created; things in heaven and things on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn among the dead, so that in everything he may have supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation - if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Colossians 1:15-23 NIV

You really cannot get any clearer understanding of who Jesus. And those who persist with an "idea" of whom God is, need to be confronted, with all humility, but with insistence, that "Christ was before all things and in Him all things hold together". But for this truth to sink deep in any society the prayer of the Psalmist has to come true.

" How good and pleasant it is when brothers ( and sisters) live together in unity!

It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard,

running down on Aaron's beard, down opon the collar of his robes.

It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.

For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life for evermore".

Psalm 133 NIV

The great problem in any society is a church in disunity. A church afraid to declare to all sinners with compassion and humility - and all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God - including homosexuals and adulterers and drug addicts, that, "Once ( we) you were alienated from God because of ( our) your evil behaviour, but now he has reconciled ( us) you"..... through the death of Christ on a cross". And like Zaccheus, all who have sinned need to repent before a holy God, whose intention is to " present us holy in his sight, without blemish. This is why " God decided to come down in human form, not just to Zaccheus' home, but to the heart of all who are longing for Him. But repentance comes first. Not just some public relations exercise, or public education spreading the " gospel" truth about gays".

Further, a church is in disunity when it does not confront the rich and powerful about justice for all. For example, about the continued marginalization of the poor by the policies of those seeking to pass IMF tests by cutting government expenditure, when the IMF itself is advising the rich governments to spend more in their countries. How ironic! How hypocritical! But the greatest threat to justice in any country, best exemplified by the near suicidal action of the politicians in the USA recently, is the extent to which social progress and economic advancement is held hostage to vulgar partisan political practices ultimately in pursuit of power. And all churches, who claim that Christ is their head, should be united in rooting out this evil from our land. Finally, a church is not united when individuals fail to put aside their personal differences in pursuit of a higher good - the glory and honor of God. As what's the use of winning an argument, if in the end we displease the very God who gives us the ability to reason and the protection to live in peace

Finally, in this context of unity and peace, the Lord led me to read and reflect on one of the all time great hymns - in praise of God, and about which activity the great poet and writer Dostoevsky was concerned.

When we walk with the Lord

in the light of his Word,

What a glory he sheds on our way!

While we do his good will,

He abides with us still,

And with all who will trust and obey!

Refrain

Trust and obey!

For there is no other way

To be happy in Jesus,

But to trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise,

not a cloud in the skies,

But his smile quickly drives it away;

Not a doubt nor a fear, Not a sigh nor a tear,

Can abide while we trust and obey..........

I pray God that people all over the world may come to know the true and Living God through Jesus Christ. I pray God that people may put aside all their " ideas' about the God of all Creation, in whom all things hold together. I pray God that all who claim Christ may live in the Light as He is in the Light and in Him there is no darkness at all. As there is so much darkness in the way we practice our politics, understand morality, seek to achieve personal wealth, build our countries, and worse of all live out the Christian religion. May the God of Jacob, and the God of Zaccheus grant us forgiveness of all the wrongs we have done, set us free in and through the redemption wrought on the Cross of Calvary, and lead our respective nations to true peace. In the name of Christ. Amen

O God that people may come to their senses in London.......

2011-08-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

The lines from one of Bob Marley's songs, " burning and a looting", became a reality for the much vaunted " civilized" British culture last week. They were clearly shocked as bands of well organized ( tweeting and BBM's) marauding youths trashed and set fire to buildings in many towns. Thus setting off " fire alarms", literally and metaphorically in this first world state. Many youths were reacting to the " alleged" execution of one Mark Duggan by members of a specialized British police force. Others were clearly just upset with the British society in many many ways. While others were mere opportunists, running away with loot that they did not need, and then either being turned in by their own parents or pricked by a still functional conscience and then acknowledging their guilt. It was, and continues to be a major embarrassment for the normally stoic, "stiff upper lip" British society, quite concerned about the damage posed to the image of a nation privileged to host the Olympics next year. We shudder to think of how quickly such a scenario could play out in Jamaica, and perhaps in many parts of the world, where the behaviour of the young has become so unpredictable, so well organized by the available technology and so incredibly powerful. Recent events in Iran, Egypt, Syria, Libya and Syria attest to this new development across the world. One of the reports which stuck in my mind as I listened to the news on Radio, was the point made by a social worker in Britain......I think his name was Peat, and he spoke on Beyond The Headlines with a local journalist...was the observation that many of these young people were from homes where, for at least two or three generations, the mothers were teenagers. And the inference was that the quality of discipline at home left much to be desired, and hence the vital need for interventions in the schools - the only place left where some kind of proper socialization could take place. A point which took me back to the last two messages that I wrote - maybe a bit " heavy" for some - tracing the history of the church and its role in shaping the foundations of western society. Well here we are in a society which has elected, for the most part, to ignore the benefits of the Christian religion - so many churches in Britain have been closed down - with a consequence that many of these youths have no exposure to the moral guidance that Christianity offers. Their religion in now Football at Man U, or Chelsea or Arsenal.

In the midst of these reflections this week the Lord spoke in different ways. Powerfully in a re-read of the story of the Prodigal son....."When he came to his senses....." Luke 15: 17 NIV
And I prayed to God that many of our people would come to their senses and realize how dependent on an Almighty God they are. And how hopeless life is when people do not have a relationship with the Creator of Heaven and Earth. Of all mankind and all that exist on land and in the sea. And the consequences for societies which have de-linked the search for order and peace from the pursuit of transcendence which religion offers. The story is a well known one across the world. How a young man demanded his " share of the estate" from his father. How he went on squandered his money, and when all was lost suffered immeasurably until he came to his senses and decided to return to his father in penitence. And having made that decision, all kinds of wonderful things happened, long before he arrived back home. But he had to reach that nadir in his life. To the point where the narrative reveals that " this son of mine was dead but now he is alive". Far too many persons in this world are " dead", but think they are alive because they do not really understand what life is all about. And worse, the joys and benefits of eternal life - which begins once someone " comes to his or her senses", and surrenders that life to Christ. It's an explanation for many of the ills of societies across the world. In Lagos, Nigeria; in Moscow, Russia; in Singapore; in Jo'Berg in South Africa; in Philadelphia - the city of music in the USA; and of course in London, England. How I wish that our leaders here in Jamaica, and in America, would "come to their senses", and admit that they cannot manage to govern a society where we are beheading our neighbours, and where we produce people who would kidnap their neighbour and sexually abuse them for years. And then turn to the Creator and ask for help.

This brings me to the second Word which struck me powerfully this week. " I tell you that in the same way - that there is rejoicing when one sheep out of ninety-nine is found - there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine persons who do not need to repent". Luke 15:7 NIV

This Word brings us back to the observation of the social worker in Britain about the need for more interventions in the schools. Some time ago, while asleep, i clearly heard the Lord's voice speaking about the need - for Anglicans who have many many " church " schools - to focus more on evangelizing those schools rather than expend our energies evangelizing elsewhere. Perhaps the Word is different for other denominations, but clearly there is a crying need for church members to become more involved in schools across the globe. In fact if memory serves me right , one of the features of the so-called dark ages or Medieval Ages, about which I read in Robert Royal's book, was the policy of church to build a primary school wherever there was a church building. In order that that people would be brought up in the fear of God. As this lack af any fear of God is a prime cause for much of the anti-social behaviour now rampant in our schools, in our communities, and in our homes across the world. Not just in the UK, or the Caribbean. People who really fear God, are afraid to do certain things.

Last night, this time I was dreaming, and the Lord spoke to me about King Uzziah. So I got up and read the passage in Isaiah. And two things struck me.
One was the clear message from Isaiah:
In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne....woe to me I cried. I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live m among people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. The one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With that he touched my mouth and said, See, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sins are atoned for.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, here am I. Send me!.
And he said, Go and tell this people

Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.
make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.

Then I said, For how long, O lord?
And he answered:

Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and until the fields ruined and ravaged,
until the Lord has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid to waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.

Isaiah 6:1-13 NIV

As I write and reflect on the fact that the prodigal son " had to die" before he could come to his senses. The clearly Isaiah speaking thousands of years before had the same message. To the children of Israel and the prophesy about their exile into Babylon. And so the eternal message from One who speaks from heaven, according to the writer to the Hebrews, should carry even greater weight.

" So, as the Holy Spirit says:
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the desert,
where your fathers tested me and tried me
and for forty years saw what I did.

Hebrews 3:7-9 NIV

And so there is going to much tribulation for societies who fail to hear the Word of the Lord. As people ,despite the warning and teaching of the church will be "forever hearing but never understanding". That's the first message. The other one is that, we the church have to be intentional and obedient about warning those who do not believe. Not just that there may be peace and righteousness in London, in Egypt, in Kingston, Jamaica, in Lagos, Nigeria, in Toronto, Canada, but more importantly, that there maybe rejoicing in heaven whenever one sinner repents. And so the words of Francis Havergal echoes across the ages.

LORD , SPEAK TO ME, THAT I MAY SPEAK

Vs. Isaiah 6:8

Lord, speak to me, that I may speak
In living echoes of thy tone;
As thou hast sought, so let me seek
Thy erring children lost and lone.

O teach me , Lord, that I may teach
The precious thins which thou dost impart;
And wing my words, that they may reach
The hidden depths of many a heart.

O fill me with thy fullness, Lord,
Until my very heart o'erflow
In kindling thought and glowing word,
Thy love to tell, thy praise to show.

O use me, Lord, use even me,
Just as thou wilt, and when and where;
Until thy blessed face i see,
Thy rest, thy joy, thy glory share.

Finally, a word to my church this past week, and which warning should cause all church members across the globe to pause and reflect on their stewardship of God's Word.
As in the final analysis, it is the church, the body of Christ, which God has appointed to reconcile the world to Himself. And to cause men and women to " come to their senses" , by the power of the holy Spirit, throught the spreading of the good news - the Gospel of Christ

This morning, during my devotions, I was led to read this very profound meditation. After which reading I was led to a related passage of Scripture.
As the " leading " church in the Diocese, and more importantly as individuals journeying with the Lord, in a country that is desperately need of God's Love and Mercy, the sharing of which with all is our mandate, we need to reflect deeply on both of these passages.

THE GIFT OF INSUFFICIENCY

" Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."
John 15:4

IN WORD Jesus declares with emphasis that he is the source of our life. This should be a huge relief to us, but sometimes it is an affront. The human ego balks at the declaration in verse 5: " Apart from me you can do nothing." But once we let it sink in, we realize that this is really the only to accomplish anything lasting. Its stand to reason that eternal fruit can only come from an eternal source.

Human pride gets in our way. Self-effort and self-sufficiency may be admirable qualities to unspiritual eyes, but nowhere in the Bible is anyone rebuked for being too dependent on God. The Bible does contain numerous rebukes for being too self-reliant The glory of God is the centerpiece of the universe, and everything that points to it is blessed. Self-reliance doesn't point to it. God -reliance does. Lasting fruit can only come from Jesus Himself.

IN DEED Every one of our days should begin with a " declaration of dependence." We should start each morning with an emphatic acknowledgment: " Lord, i am insufficient in everything I will encounter today. I have insufficient wisdom to make the decisions I' ll be required to make. I have insufficient skills to manage the conflict that may arise. I have insufficient resources to minister to the people I'll encounter. I am entirely dependent on You."

The blessing of the Gospel is that in our insufficiency, Jesus is sufficient. Salvation began when we recognized that out righteousness was insufficient to coexist peacefully and eternally with a holy God, and it has continued ever since into every arena of our lives. We are deficient in every meaningful way. Embrace that deficiency, and let the eternal Vine be your life.

To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ' I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear. so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes so you can see.
Those who I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent....and as I write I recall Jesus' saying that there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than for those who do not need to repent.....Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come and eat with him, and he with me. Revelations 3:14-20. NIV

The question therefore arises, not so much about the state of the British society, or the Jamaican, or the Nigerian, or the Singaporean, or the American, or the Canadian, but more profoundly, the state of the church in these countries and across the world. Are we sufficient, or insufficient? As sufficient people cannot cause
others to " come to their senses". And if you cannot, what purpose do you serve in the kingdom of God?

An Independence Message - Who is wise and who is foolish.

2011-08-08T20:02:00.001-07:00

President Obama is now fifty years. And therefore no longer a young man (have you noticed how he had gotten grey). Yesterday my country celebrated – officially - 49 years of being a Sovereign state, but in the grand scale of things, we are still a relatively young state. But not too young to engage in serious reflection on the state of our society. The missed opportunities. The many achievements. And the challenges ahead.
. The more I read Robert Royal's account of history, about which I wrote in an introductory form last week, and learn about the search for the truth - in philosophy, in science and in drama, all wonderful gifts to modern society from the Greeks and the Romans ( Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Cicero, Virgil, Homer, Marcus Aurellus,) and Christian thinkers ( Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther) ; the more I reflect on a perspective as revealed in the following extracts from the Royal, and wonder how much further we could have advanced as a society, if those who had been given the privilege of shaping a young nation, had not been so selective in absorbing ideas and thoughts from antiquity, much of which have had profound effects on the history of the west, of which we are so firmly a part.

"... The opposition between a supposedly rational Greece and an uncritically religious Judeo-Christian tradition, is of course, a strong current in recent Western thought. As early as the second century A.D... The Christian writer Tertullian could famously ask from the other side of the supposed divide: Quid Athenae Hierosolymis? (What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?"), though he meant something different by it that a conflict between reason and revelation. And the answer to his question, historically at least, proved to be: quite a lot, in spite of the different views of the world that arose in the two illustrious cities. Jerusalem gave Athens something that it conspicuously lacked: a popular conception of God worthy of the notable poetic and philosophical search of the Greeks. And Greece, as it did for many other cultures, gave Jerusalem singular intellectual tools, which proved their value in the Jewish and Christian thinkers in the centuries before and after Christ who, historical myths notwithstanding, used reason to analyze, expound, and advance revealed truths in ways that Socrates and Plato might well have appreciated (Is this a reference to the use of parables - my question).

That fruitful interplay ( between church and state) was never wholly forgotten even after the collapse of the Roman Empire, though it sprang into new life in the High Middle Ages as soon as Greek authors became available in Latin translations. Another wave of Greek influence arose in the Renaissance with the recovery of the Greek language in the West, partly owing to the Greeks fleeing the Muslim invasion of Byzantium after 1453. The discontinuity in the older tradition, however, led some later thinkers to see the Greek heritage not as something already incorporated into Western thought by way of Jewish and Christian speculation, but as a radical alternative to it. This reconceptulalized Greece took on an idealized and highly selective form. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, German scholars and romantics, especially the historian Winckelmann ( never heard of him) and the poet Goethe ( introduced to him by Bonhoefffer), thought they saw in the Greeks the perfection of " nature" as opposed to a degenerate Christianity. This anachronistic view had no little influence in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries among people who thought Christianity was finished, and it even found its way into Anglo-American education until the mid-1960:
" Ancient Greece as interpreted by the new scholarship became an ersatz religion. Greece was adopted by the modern West as, in part, a replacement for Christianity. This was not the actual Greece of two thousand five hundred years ago. however, but the Greece re-created by adoring scholars, mostly in Germany and England, starting around 1770.' From Grace Davie, " Europe: The Exceptional case: Parameters of Faith in the Modern World".
Arguments like this make many people nervous because they appear to join in the deconstruction of Greece and other Western foundations that has been standard motif of feminist, Marxist, multiculturalists, post-modernist, post colonialist, and other radical intellectual currents. But the ancient Greek legacy is quite strong enough to withstand all such assaults, and we need to be careful not to falsify the real historical achievement by recasting them in our own image".

This re-write of history clearly debunks the popular notion in the minds of some of the intelligentsia in Jamaica and other western countries, especially in Universities and in the media, and in the political arena, that matters of Church and State ought properly to be
quite separate……but there is more. Much more.

”The ancient Greeks.......had a deep sense of the world's order and the need to reflect that order in human life. In one crucial respect then, the Greeks resembled the ancient Hebrews more than they do a modern European or American. The Jews believed that they had been given the Law - the factory instruction manual, so to speak, for how human beings ought to behave - by the Creator himself. The Greeks, it would be fair to say - and Saint Paul said it more than once in his letters - believed that what constituted the good life could be discovered through rational inquiry into the nature of the god, man and the world. What Greeks and Hebrews agreed about, above all their differences was that there is simply a common and fixed human nature that sets a limit on the path that leads to good human lives. In other words, they denied what large numbers of people living in advanced societies think of their rights or as their pursuit of happiness. And in both instances, their view was rooted in a larger religious vision of the world.

And......It was quite odd that long before this “Roman" model of cultural complexity and stability was much understood, Virgil allowed his Zeus to promise “imperium without end" to Rome. There were many different schools of thought in the ancient world, but one thing almost all agreed upon, on the basis of repeated human experience, was the impermanence of all things earthly..........
In political affairs, the one exception seemed to be the notion that human life shows a tendency to move in cycles, what the historian Polybius and later writers would call anakuklosis. It is clear from human history, they all thought, that young, vigorous people's with multiple virtues achieve success as a result. Success leads to wealth, ease and a decline in the hardier virtues that made success possible. Decadence ensues, and with it public disorder and new hardships, to such a degree that the cycle starts all over again. People develop virtue once more in order to deal with their difficult conditions, and they begin their rise to success again, eventually producing conditions that will lead to another round of decadence. There seemed no way out of this continuous cycle any more than there is any deliverance from the cycles of the seasons or the perpetual motions of the stars in the sky.
The seemingly inescapable problem of the virtue-vice-virtue cycle exercised many intelligent minds for centuries after Virgil, mostly within the civic-republican tradition of the renaissance, including Machiavelli. But it was a worry for the sober and practical men who founded the United States as well. They clearly looked for the many benefits to be had from the institution of a commercial republic, but even after the new nation had been created and seemed to be functioning well, the most astute among the early leaders recalled the sad history of antiquity. For example, in 1791, John Adams wrote in a letter to Thomas Jefferson: “Will you tell me how to prevent riches from becoming the effects of temperance and industry? Will you tell me how to prevent luxury from producing effeminacy, intoxication, extravagance, vice and folly?”

One of the most profound problems affecting Western democratic states, even if people do not wish to admit it, and which malaise is spilling over even into places like Jamaica where we are still struggling to achieve success, is the extent to which decadence, and the resultant lack of virtue is sapping the energies of societies, destroying once stable family life and affecting entire communities. The obsession with sex and the associated lewdness – pornography is the number one request on most search engines in the USA; the “ nakedness” of our women; the unfettered and unapologetic use of expletives in books, movies, music and in general conversation both publicly and privately; the insatiable desire for, and show of, luxury even, and perhaps especially among those unable to afford it; the widespread engagement in gratuitous and horrific acts of violence; are all manifestations of this terrible disease about which the founders of the American state were concerned. And which concern goes back to antiquity among the early philosophers, from whom we appear to have learnt only in selected areas. All of which has taken place because in pursuit of , “ freedom”, whose roots we either failed to understand or ignored completely, we have delinked the connection between stable orderly and free societies, from their original base – religion and the pursuit for truth and transcendence.

…….The political point here contains a philosophic and religious vision. Saint Augustine, who clearly loved Virgil, often quoted him against the real behavior of the Romans. In his City of God, he accused the Romans of having made idols of themselves under the guise of religious submission. Nevertheless, Virgil had posed a question that would occupy Christian thinkers and rulers also in subsequent centuries: how much of any political system partakes in the sacred ordering of human life and how much is merely the necessary apparatus of earthly life in community? Virgil makes the sacred connection a strong one because he sees the alternative as unleashing passions and forgoing the best means to curb them.

......” unleashing passions indeed”. How much of our political culture here in Jamaica, and indeed in other western states, has been affected by the unbridled lust for power – manifest in the kind of debate over the “ debt ceiling”, recently in the USA, and which “ aftershocks”, even after a last minute compromise bill, threaten to derail an entire global economy. A situation not unfamiliar to my country, but where, sadly, unfortunately one the most pervasive strategy employed to gain power, thankfully to a lesser extent in recent times, has involved the use of violence, rather than policy measures – with equally catastrophic results. All again on account of the fact that we have ignored these fundamental lessons from the Greek and Roman societies and philosophers. And elected to “use the best of these historical lessons”, without understanding the vital connections and interplays.
….” Occupy Christian thinkers and rulers for centuries?”…..I can’t recall listening to a discussion on this issue – how much of any political system partakes in the sacred ordering of human life, and how much is merely the necessary apparatus of earthly life in community - in my country, whether in church circles, on the campaign trail or in the nationally televised debates. The state of the economy yes; the need for more jobs yes; the need to get rid of corruption yes: but the proposition that there is a vital and organic link between political arrangements - western style parliamentary democracy - and religion. I cannot recall, And if I am correct, whose fault is that? Our noble journalists, most of whom who have been in the vanguard of the struggle to prevent Jamaica falling prey to the excesses of many of our post Independence Leaders? But who themselves, despite their commendable actions as guardians of our beloved democracy might have fallen prey to the pressures of the post modern philosophy, about which Royal writes. Perhaps the church, though once a standard-bearer of the Cross of Christ during the period between the enslavement of our people by the colonial powers and the post-emancipation era, and which according to the hymn writer ought to “ stand up for Jesus” who must not “suffer loss”! But which now can be guilty of the accusation of being increasingly infiltrated by elements representing a myopic and far too pietistic church with little vision and scope of the role of a church in any society and which is apparent unaware of the power of God to make disciples of all people and be present in every aspect of human affairs? A political class steeped in the virtues of ideology, the pursuit of which “mountain top experiences - whether it be Federation, Western style Capitalism, Democratic Socialism, the “Third Way, Market Driven economics – has brought us mixed results as a nation; and which pursuits for the most part has not involved any major discussion on what drives ordinary human beings, and how best to incorporate such “speculation” – the basis of philosophy - in charting a way forward for our people. A business class striving to amass personal wealth and in so doing building an economic base for a nation, but largely unconcerned and unfamiliar with the age old virtue-vice-virtue cycle debate? An unsophisticated middle class, once the driving force of a nation, but now beleaguered and ravaged by socio-economic forces, and migration, and now just content with survival – watching cable television and playing golf on a Sunday morning? Or an undemanding working class more concerned with trying to eke out a living, dodging bullets, and paying the light bill, than being preoccupied with matters about which they know little, care less, and make no connection between their desperate situation and the kinds of philosophical currents which inevitably and inexorably affects their lives. While on the other hand, an uninfluential, and unheeded humble class of Jamaicans who trust in God, depend on Him for everything – protection from gunmen, food, education for their children, upward mobility on life - are concerned about their neighbor even in their difficult situation, try to convince others to live right and pray, many of whom have been pioneers in trying to build an orderly and peaceful society, but whose lifestyle of trusting completely in the God of Abraham, the God of Marcus Garvey and Sam Sharpe – two of our National Heroes – sadly goes, for the most part, unheralded.

Little wonder then that St. Paul who lived and evangelized among these philosophers who would be later be so influential in western societies, could write with authority and power that:

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing; but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.

Where is the wise man? Where is the wise man? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through it wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than any than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential, not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised thing – and the things which are not – to nullify the things which are, o that no one may boast before him. It is because of him why you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord”. 1 Corinthians 1: 18-31. NIV

For me, there is nothing that could more beneficial to my country, and even for middle aged Obama’s America, than a resuscitation, of at least, an ongoing conversation about the role of Religion in the affairs of a nation. We in Jamaica have a far way to go to achieving equity in opportunity, in Justice, in education. We have a far way to go in achieving economic independence which has been the goal , and burden of my generation – others having striven and sacrificed much to achieve political independence and to put an end to the terrible period of enslavement of our forebears. But there is an even greater task at hand, which the ancients had the foresight to envision and to seek for - the quest for transcendence. A built in desire in all mankind as suggested by Royal in his opening sentence:
All people by nature search for meaning and even for truth, and almost all of them conduct that search through some form of religion…. Robert Royal. Page 1
And which profound issue is raised by none other than our Blessed Savior; ‘What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul.
As the reality is, whether we wish to discount it or not, and the ancients agreed in their limited fashion, that “man (indeed) shall not live by bread alone but by every word that come from the mouth of the Lord. And therefore the achievement of Independence – political or economic – ought not to be the “end game” of a nation or civilization, but a knowledge of the truth. And we the children of the God of all ages, believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and indeed the life. Therefore, only when we become obedient to His commands to love Him with all our heart and to love our neighbours as ourselves, will we achieve any kind of lasting success that the Romans craved, and about which Virgil prophesied in his epic poem Aeneid………” the imperium of Rome…..without end, but which the Bible states only the Word of God lasts forever. Ultimately, however, as the power of God manifested in the extraordinary growth of the church from 120 at the time of Jesus, to an estimated 30 million by the time Christianity became to official religion in Rome 300 years later, it is the church’s responsibility to encourage a society to draw near to God in Jesus Christ. It is the church on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come in its mandate given by our Blessed Savior, to make disciples all people across the world. It is this universality of the scope and breath of the mandate of the church which escaped the early philosophers, and unfortunately too many of the church’s members in the 21st century. And what God did in ancient times, He certainly can do again in this great country of Jamaica. We just have to learn to trust and obey, love God and neighbor, both which features of the church greatly encouraged its growth during antiquity, and will certainly serve it in this age. Happy Independence!

An ' Emancipation' Message for Jamaica - and the world from a believer in the God whose Word cannot fail

2011-07-31T21:27:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow will be a holiday in my country. In fact this week we will have two holidays, as we pause to celebrate Emancipation from Slavery, and also celebrate 49 years as a Sovereign nation, having gained independence from the British in 1962. Tomorrow too will be a significant day in America's history as they seek to avoid a default in the payment of their debts - which would be the first time in their history - and which action could trigger a financial panic in the USA and around the world. A situation which could spell absolute disaster for my country and for other fragile economies that depend heavily on the West for survival. Thankfully word came tonight that a deal has been struck between Democrats and Republicans and thus the vote tomorrow should prevent the largest and most efficient economy in the world from going into a tailspin. Interestingly this past week I spent time reading a book which has greatly helped in my understanding of the development of Western societies, of which we in Jamaica are so firmly and irreversibly a part. The title says it all. "The God that did not fail: How Religion built and sustains the West", by Robert Royal.

A historical overview which is set against the background of the prevailing view in the minds of some very influential individuals in the West who have come to regard Religion, and more specifically the Christian religion, as anti -science, irrational, superstition, the cause of much grief in the world, and that in effect God has failed.
Several thought provoking - and worthy of serious prayer - issues, emerged during my journey through the ages with Robert Royal, whose scholarship - particularly in the quality of the research - nuanced, balanced and fair analysis, makes this book a very timely one. Especially as we stop to reflect on the progress we have made and the serious challenges posed by our political arrangements - the actions of the Tea party members in the current debate ought give Americans reasons to pause; the quality of our social intercourse - the recent cases of beheading in my country ought give us even more reason to pause; the moral decline evident in all western societies; and what the Christian religion offers us as we seek to chart a course for the future.

Perhaps the most important point raised is captured in a quotation by the author Peter Berger; " The religious impulse, the quest for meaning that transcends the restricted space of empirical existence in this world, has been a perennial feature of humanity. ( This is not a theological statement but an anthropological one - an agnostic or even an atheist philosopher may well agree with it.) It would take something close to a mutation of the species to extinguish this impulse for good." In the sense that ultimately all cultures seek to understand " the truth" about life; who are we, where do we come from, why does evil exist, and what exists after this life - according to Royal.

The question is how much in this 21st Century, do our current crop of world leaders, even those in marginalized countries like mine, and individuals in general consider questions like these? And consequently, how much has the absence of this kind of debate, which was very lively among leaders and the elite in ancient and recent history, contributed to many of the social, moral and political challenges we face today? As I thought and prayed about these issues, they spawned two e mails to " thinking folks", back home, And which " conversations" I believe were inspired by the Lord as I sought to understand why He had led me to Borders book shop - I normally shop in Barnes and Noble - to purchase this book, which I did not find when I eventually located a BN store.

THE FIRST MESSAGE

I have not finished it as yet and already there is a lot to contemplate - Robert Royal's, The God that did not fail: How Religion built and sustains the West". It traces, and shares a different perspective on, the historicity of the Greek and Roman scholars and thinkers and their connection with the history of Jews and ultimately Christianity. Then it seeks to recast the history of Christianity and the Middle ages and the Renaissance period......and now we are into the new world. All this against the background of the current received wisdom of many scholars and people of powerful influence in the West, that man is a rationale being and Christianity is a purveyor of superstition and an instigator of wars; a very negative influence on the progress and the desire for freedom inherent in the hearts of mankind. And now this morning I have a greater appreciation on what St. Paul means when he says, I am not ashamed of the Gospel" .......and " Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks ( Aristotle, Socrates and Plato) look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified", and ......When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom....my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words ( of the philosophers) but with demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith may not rest on men's wisdom but on God's power. The same power which sustained the church in the midst of the battle of the received wisdom of the Greek philosophers and strength of the Roman army on the minds of the people, vs the Word of God as advanced by the Jews and then even more powerfully in word and deed by The early Christians. Question is, where is the evidence of that power, that fervor, that unashamed of the lifestyle that the Gospel demands, and which lifestyle and involvement in the life of the people with whom they interacted, by force or by desire? Where is the leadership of men like St. Augustine and Luther and Thomas Aquinas and many others I am reading about, who had a seminal influence on the spread of the " Gospel" - with it's many lessons - aided by the power of the Spirit of God? In the midst of " hostile territory" far worse than that posed by the proponents of this allegedly post modern society, of whom this current crop of church leaders seem so afraid and unwilling to challenge on a consistent basis. And who do not really understand the debt they owe to the Christian culture for their inalienable rights - including the right to corrupt history. There is more, but I am in the midst of my " devotions" and being obedient. Peace.
THE SECOND MESSAGE

.........I just finished watching the video reporting on the Lausanne Conference - I am on their e mail list -. Powerful stuff! Discussing the entire gospel for the entire world; the ethnic violence gripping the world and one man made a point which has been in my heart since I started reading the book, and which was brought home even more sharply to me this morning when I sent the first message. Essentially he said that many Christians in today's world were behaving in a way which suggested that spreading the gospel did not involve sacrifice - cheap grace - and which kind of Christianity would not be recognized by the early Christians.
This morning in my prayers, I repented of my part in being " ashamed of the Gospel". An issue I think if closely examined, could characterize how we live as Christians in this century.

The following " revelations" on my journey so far with this book have impacted my mind and my soul greatly.
......The fact that the love that Christians had for each other, and for the poor of the Roman empire, much more than they the ruling class did, greatly impressed the Romans, and in the view of one historian, could account for the penetration of the gospel, both in the ruling class and in the lower working classes. An example was cited how when famous men of philosophy fled the scene - Galen was one example - as most rationale person would be expected to do in the face of terrible epidemics, the Christians stayed and took care of the sick and destitute.......this concept of love in its purest form as mandated by a loving God, who we love and love for our neighbour and those who persecute us, had escaped the brilliant minds of the early Greek philosophers. And whose speculative reasoning had influenced the Roman culture, as it has impacted on Western thought for thousands of years
........the fact that religion, in its nascent form as we understand it - acknowledging gods who were part of human society vs the Sovereign God of the Christians - played a central role in the lives of these early philosophers, as discovered in closer examination of the great works of Homer and Virgil. A fact which has been deliberately suppressed by modern day philosophers in their quest to nail home the point about religion and superstition, anti-science, and the emergence of the rationale man unencumbered by the constraints of irrational thoughts.

..........the flowering of universities under the influence of the early Christians who were determined that they should produce men and women who could then continue to teach the basics of the faith. And the powerful debates which raged at the time over theological and philosophical issues, as these Christians, contrary to popular thought, used the thoughts and methods of debate of the Greek philosophers to augment and deepen their understanding of the gospel.

.....the fact that despite the label of the dark ages, this was the age when Christian culture helped to prevent the overrun of Europe by the Arabs, after the fall of Rome. By the fact that many of the barbarians, were already converted Christians who helped in the various struggles

.......the explosion of monasteries across Europe and the resultant push of the gospel into the northern parts in general and into Germany in particular, and then eventually to Anglosaxon England.....and the exporting of new ideas of science and agriculture and ideas of freedom to these cultures

....the great impression that the ordered and moral high high ground which were features of the Christians....commitment to marital fidelity vs. the debauchery and immorality rampant in the Roman society.

......but the great general impression was the unconquerable spirit possessed by these early Christian who were prepared to sacrifice their very lives - and to die with courage and dignity
for the spread of the gospel. They were clearly not " ashamed of the Gospel".

Question is, are we ashamed of the gospel, or just ignorant of the demands of this high office to which we are called. A global vision of spreading the kingdom of God. An urgent view of the need for the gospel in all places and for all people. A personal acceptance like St. Paul, that on account of the cross, we have been crucified to the world and the pleasures of the world to us. Perhaps the view of the early philosophers that life moves in cycles of striving to achieve and then having achieved, decadence and decline sets in. Which then triggers another cycle of striving to achieve. The resolution of which pattern of human behaviour, greatly occupied the minds of the Roman elite who were very mindful of the consequence for their rule. But which problem, history has recorded, they were unable to prevent. This issue according to Royal also occupied the minds of the early founding fathers of the American revolution, who were afraid, having been influenced/warned, by the Roman and Greek philosophers, as many of their time were, that what seems to happening to America, decadence leading to decline, was a concern, and is now very much a problem. This of course is countered by the linear understanding of time according to the Sovereign rule of the living God of Abraham, whose promise to that wandering and unsophisticated Jew, has resulted in a people numbering over 3 billion and rising. The problem is whether aspects of the church, unfettered by the demands of the true gospel, have fallen prey to this cycle of decadence and decline - being very comfortable with the kind of Christianity which does not cost anything, and which has no overarching global or even national vision. And therefore becoming quite irrelevant in the scheme of things, and if not careful could attract the attention of the One who famously declared that one such church was supposedly alive but was very dead indeed.
May we consider these things deeply as we worship and praise the Lord on a Sunday - or Saturday, as this is neither the time nor place for that kind of debate - morning, remembering what price men and women paid to allow us this privilege - we could have been living under Arab rule and studying the Holy Q'uaran rather than complaining about the 'quirks" of the Christian faith. But ultimately the price Jesus paid for being the author and sustainer of the gospel.
Peace.

I need to read this book again, but as I considered the implications of this " revelation", watched and drew inspiration from - tears almost came to my eyes, when Biko's friend escaped to tell the tale of the wicked act, so long after the event - the movies , " Cry Freedom" - about the brutal death of Steve Bike during the Apartheid era; Invictus - about Nelson Mandela's perceptive and extraordinarily statesman-like and forgiving leadership in the early days of his Presidential rule in post Apartheid SA; and tonight " Lion King", one of the most beautiful movies ever made about leadership, I pondered.......Do we need a public debate or a careful analysis by competent and unbiased intitutions and individuals on the philosophic foundations which underpin the plans which leaders - potential and current - have considered in their plans to craft an an orderly, peaceful and society? Do we really understand what makes Obama, Rommney, Sarah Palin and other leaders " tick"? And the same question ought to be put to Prime Minister Golding, Andrew Holness, Tufton and other wannabees as well as Portia Simpson-Miller, Peter Phillips and others at home. These are serious times in the life of many countries and we cannot allow " gods that have failed", to influence, without challenge, the minds of those who lead us anymore. Royal pointed out that it is these gods that have failed; Scientific socialism in Russia, which resulted in the death of millions of people compared to the equally horrific Crusades and Inquisitions, but which death rate pales into almost insignificance - estimated in the thousands over many years; Nazism - which killed millions in Europe and sought to exterminate an entire race of Jews in Europe; the followers of Nietzsche, Rousseau, Voltaire and Freud, who famously mocked God, and one whom went totally mad before he died. I even " discovered ", a most appropriate poem written by William Blake:

Mock on. Mock in Voltaire, Rousseau
Mock on. Mock on: 'tis all in vain!
You throw the sand against the wind
And the wind blows it back again.

And every sand becomes a Gem
Reflected in the beams divine;
Blown back they blind trhe mocking Eye,
But still in Israel paths they shine.

The Atoms of Democritus
And Newton's particles of light
Are sands upon the Red sea shore
Where Israel's tent do shine so bright.

And I considered these things, the Word of God came into my mind;

" All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the
flowers of the field;
the grass withers, and the flowers fall,
but the word of the Lord stands forever." 1 Peter 1: 24. NIV

Perhaps men need to consider such revelations before they make fools of themselves and others by trying to undermine the Sovereignty of the Living God. However, my final thoughts, as inspired by the Lord, were so much about those who had failed to be obedient to the God of Abraham, as they need serious and persistent prayer - the following message to a senior political leader reflects this truth:

"No man ever believes with a true and saving faith unless God inclines his heart; and no man when God does incline his heart can refrain from believing". Blaise Pascal "Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me, and keep all my commands always, so that it may go well with them and their children forever". Deuteronomy 5:29 NIV. The Word of God;
but rather we, the redeemed children of God, upon whom the fulfillment of the ages has come, in and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What is our role in the post modern society? What is our role in shaping the course of history, in Jamaica, in the USA, in the now very secularized - but not hopelessly so - Europe, in post Communist Russia and post Apartheid South Africa and everywhere Christians find themselves. The final e mail provides an answer.

FINAL MESSAGE

Ever since I have been here in Miami, the story of Jonah and the great city of Nineveh has been in mind. In the sense that God spared the great city of Nineveh because Jonah, after much disobedience, preached the word and the people, inspired by strong leadership, repented. Then this morning: The story of God and Noah. How the Lord grieved that He had made man on the earth......as every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time....Genesis 6:5-6......Noah found favor with God.
Immediately my mind went to the story of Abraham and Sodom.....Then the Lord said, The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and the sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me........Then Abraham approached him and said: Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked.....far from be it from you to do such a thing......Will not the judge of the earth do right? Genesis 18:20-25
Then I recalled God coming down in response to the cries of his people Israel in Egypt, and then the exaltation of the people after Jesus had done a particular miracle.....that God had come down to save his people .
Then I pondered the high calling that the church has in this context ......the called out to speak the word of God to this great city of Miami....New York...Kingston.....
Then I remembered this meditation :

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY

Epistle to Diognetus

Verse Galatians 5:6

The relation of Christians to the world is that of a soul to the body. As the soul is diffused through every part of the body, so are Christians through all the cities of the world. The soul, too inhabits the body, while at the same time forming no part of it; and Christians inhabits the world, but they are not a part of the world.
The soul, invisible herself, is immured within an visible body; so Christians can be recognized in the world, but their Christianity itself remains hidden from the eye.
The flesh hates the soul, and wars against her without any provocation, because she is an obstacle to its own self-indulgence; and the world similarly hates the Christian without provocation, because they are opposed to its pleasures. All the same, the soul loves the flesh and all it's members,despite their hatred for her; and Christians too, love those who hate them.
The soul, shut up in inside the body, nevertheless holds the body together; and though they are confined within the world as in a dungeon, it is Christianity that holds the world together. The soul, which is is immortal, must dwell in a mortal tabernacle; and Christians, as they sojourn for a while in the midst of corruptibility here, look for incorruptibility in the heavens.
Finally, just as to be stunted of food and drink makes for the soul's improvement, so when Christians are everyday subjected to ill-treatment, they increase the more in numbers. Such is the high post of duty in which God has placed them, and it moral duty not to shrink from it.

In case those of us who live, temporarily or permanently in this great city of Miami....New York....Toronto....London....Birmingham...or in California.....or Florida.....or Maryland...or Texas .....or Bermuda.....or in the Bahamas....or in Japan....or China.....that you are here, as a child of God and therefore co-heir with Christ in the Kingdom of God, to simply advance your material progress and secure a better future for your children........think again. By God's grace that may happen, but you have a much higher calling. To be a watchman in this great city, and warn the people about impending disaster like Ezekiel. To call the people to repentance like Jonah. To protect the city from destruction like Abraham, with your prayers and with your righteous and blameless Lifestyle. To cry out God for relief from the bondage of your sins and the sins of the people around as did the children of Israel. To represent the Lord Jesus in your interaction with people so that He may work miracles of love and mercy through you, so that the recipients of such sacrificial love will declare that ....God has come to save his people. That's the high calling of the church in every society, and throughout every age......that's why we are......diffused through all cities as the soul is diffused through every part of the body.

Waitng on a Sovereign God - by faith in Christ Jesus

2011-07-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

This past week was a difficult one for most of us. The untimely death ( from the complications of acute Leukemia at age 52) of a committed Christian wife and mother, who together with her husband, a Pastor, was very involved in a wonderful ministry in an inner city area in Kingston Jamaica. The horrific and brutal killings in Jamaica, especially that of a young woman about to attend law school and her mom, both of whom were beheaded. The unbelievable report of a gunman in Oslo Norway, posing as a policeman and calmly and apparently with some glee, shooting to death scores of young people - just simply staggering and macabre! Then just yesterday, news broke about the death ( from the reports about her, almost predictable ) of Amy Winehouse. The question could very much be on the lips of many; : "where was a loving God in all of this?" Especially in respect of the young people in Norway and Jamaica! The question also emerged during a visit with the Pastor's wife and the answer which she shared with those who loved her and wondered why God had allowed her ( of all people) to become ill, and so seriously, as she related the story to me was; " God is sovereign and can do what pleases Him"! It's a story I shared with her husband after she died, as we all sought to find words of comfort in this most difficult period in his life. And it is a question which has exercised the minds of many Christians and people of faith, and even people of no faith, for centuries. Why should a young girl with so much promise, have her life snuffed out by someone with a mind crazed with revenge and bitterness? Why! Why!Why!

But as much as these questions occupied my mind this week, one issue caused me much agony and provoked a series of e mails to a select group of my church members back home. Not seeking any responses, although I received a gracious one. And as I agonized the Lord led me through various passages in the Bible which then formed the basis for a part 11 of the discussion - there was a part 111 also but that's for another time - both of which e mails are set out below. Finally the Lord who is indeed sovereign led me to reflect deeply on a meditation which speaks very clearly about waiting upon on Him for answers to questions about life which baffle us. Whether the context is a new ministry, unexplained events, ilness, or our journey as sinners in a broken world, all of which may be a subject of great concern for us in one form or another. The key point was that, however puzzled we are, we should wait with deep prayer and unyielding faith, as we seek to negotiate our way as people of faith in these troubling times.

PART 1

I am thinking aloud. And writing. The gay issue is so " in your face", in the media, and in the church too, in this country. At least the Episcopalian church where we worship when visiting with Kimare and Kurt. On Sunday, the preacher, a retired Bishop, used the story of the wheat and tares to justify " not judging anyone". And in particular gay people. He never had to but I suppose he felt compelled to do so. No mention of sin. No mention of the cross. Just God's love for all who come. What Bonhoeffer terms cheap grace. I recall once advising a member of the church who was living with with his girlfriend, unmarried, and who had come before me - as a Chalice Bearer - for Communion, that such behaviour was unacceptable, as I understood it. I mentioned it to the then Rector, now Bishop Thompson, and he took action quietly, as indeed the late Bishop Spence had done in the past. So what do we do with such a person who is a practicing and publicly known gay person living with a partner? Serve them Holy Communion, without any counselling! So, for them why did Christ die?

I am troubled. Quite so. But God is sovereign and is aware of everything. That's why He led me to read Timothy. I am intrigued by the father-son relationship between Timothy and Paul, having had, like many others, a similar relationship with the late Bshop Spence. And I was not even aware that it was the second book which draws our attention to what willl happen in the last days - men will not put up with sound doctrine; Scripture is useful for rebuking.......We must preach the word in season and out of season. It's very painful to see these things happen in front of your very eyes in the church, and to hear it being validated on CNN - Cafferty Files today. I often wonder if I am too harsh or judgemental! But how can one call sin something else when " we carry around in our bodies the death of Christ so that Christ's life may be revealed though us". But then how can one repent of what they feel to be so 'natural'. Like being black or white. When I was growing up, I did not fell like a 'sinner. It is only since I have matured in the faith that I realize how much " wickedness" there is in me, and spend my days asking God to " cleanse the thoughts of my heart........" and pray Palm 51 every night. It is quite a revelation that as we draw closer to God we realize how far from Him we are in the flesh, and thus yearn for a " pure heart" and an individed heart

But then again that agonizing does not include my sexual orientation. God loves them, that I know, as He loves all who He has created. But we all have to die to self, even our sexuality if needs be, in order to gain new life in Christ. We must be full of compassion and mercy like our Lord. But the one thing we cannot do, is to be comfortable with sin. Ours or anybody's. That would be to deny what took place on Calvary. And what can take place when the Holy Spirit empowers us - the impossible, or seemingly impossible. Perhaps we dwell too much on this issue, as greed is like idolatry. A rampant problem in all of humanity. So too envy, and anger. But even worse is the sin of unbelief. For without faith it is impossible to please God....... Lord I believe! Help thou my unbelief.......and pray without ceasing for the renewal of the church, beginning with me....and also the children of Israel. Lord teach us how to pray for those who are involved in the discussions between the members of the Anglican Community on this thorny issue. Peace.

LWJ

PART 11

........amazing! After last night's agonizing, this morning, during my devotions, on the way to one passage of scripture, which I located eventually, the Lord arrested my hand and placed it on another one. Amazing indeed, as it added another dimension to my struggles. And so did the one I was seeking too.
1 Cor.6:9-18

"The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord.....flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside the body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body......you are not your own, you were bought with a price.........do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God .....sexually immoral. idolaters,adulterers, homosexual offenders, thieves, greedy....and that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were just justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.......actually I had been led to again to read the high priestly prayer at the start, before searching for the warnings from Israel's history......protect them by the power of the name - the name you gave me.

Along the way too came Bernard of Clairvaux's :

Jesus, the very thought of thee

With sweetness fills the breast;

But sweeter far thy face to see,

And in thy presence rest

By this Name we are thus protected, and by His Blood we are sanctified...we are therefore no longer our own. So what then prevents us from giving up all things for the sake of Christ, including our sexuality, if that is the will of God.

Our goal is to be able to live the words we sing....When I survey the wondrous Cross....love so amazing so divine, demands my life my soul my all. So if we have to "give up" ...mother, spouse, child, even our very life to follow Jesus...then why is our sexually so precious...if indeed we accept that lifestyle to be sinful and part of the broken-ness of what reigned in human life since the sin of Adam. Bernard of Clairvaux - a Christian mystic of the eleventh century -also had profound words to say on that subject of the fall, and which are relevant to this discussion. As we have not one, but two reasons to be in debt to God. And therefore none whatsoever to make any claim on God.

THE DOUBLE DEBT

Bernard of Clairvaux

Verse: Hebrews 9:14

God certainly is well within his rights in claiming to himself the works of his own hands, the gifts himself have given! How should the thing made fail to love the maker, provided that it have from him the power to love at all? How should it not love him with all its powers, since only by his gift has it got anything? Man, called into being out of nothing by God's free act and raised to such high honor, how patent is his debt of love to God's most just demand!

How vastly God has multiplied his mercy too, in saving man and beast in such a way! Why, we had turned our glory into the likeness of a calf that eateth hay; our sin had brought us to the level if the beasts that know not God at all!

If then I owe myself entirely to my Creator, what shall I give my Re-Creator more? The means of our remaking too, think what it cost! It was far easier to make than redeem; for God had but to speak the word and all things were created, I included; but he who made me by a word, and made me once for all, spent on the task of of my remaking many words and many marvelous deeds, and suffered grievous

and suffered grievous and humiliating wrongs.
What reward therefore shall I give the Lord for all the benefits that he has done to me? By his first work he gave me to myself; and by the next he gave himself to me. And when he gave himself, he gave me back myself that I had lost. Myself for myself, given and restored, I doubly owed owe to him. But what shall I return to himself? A thousand of myself would be as nothing in respect of him....were an offering far too small.

It makes you wonder if Isaac Watts and Clairvaux collaborated to write " When I survey the wondrous cross....but Bernard lived from 1063 and Watts from 1674.

So then the question is not " why then did God make us this way"? But rather, having made us and re-made us in Christ, how would He have us live?

This is where the passage I was searching for places a 'bookend" on all of this agonizing.

I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact brothers that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they passed through the sea............They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the

spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.

Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did......We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did - and in one day twenty three thousand of them died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did - and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did - and were killed by the destroying angel.

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall" Cor. 10:1-12 NIV

Amazingly the hymn The Wondrous Cross appears in my Classic Devotional Bible on the page opposite the Corinthian passage on Sexual Immorality.

So what do I make of all of this. God is always speaking and we must be always listening. God's love for all broken mankind, Adam's helpless race, came at a price. There is no cheap grace. We accept this free gift of love, by loving in return and giving up all claims of self. Sexual issues are only but part of the brokenness of mankind.....idolatry - the enthronement of something other than God on our hearts - seems to be at the root of all evil.

May God continue to have mercy on all of us, as we are so guilty and only Jesus can set us free!

BLESSED IS THE ONE WHO WAITS

Charles Spurgeon

Verse: Daniel 12:6

It may seem an easy thing to wait, but it is one of the postures which a Christain soldier does not learn without years of teaching. Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God's warriors than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what aprt to take. Then what shall we do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right in fear, rush forward in presumption/ No just simply wait.

Wait in prayer, however. Call on God, and spread the case before him; tell him your difficulty and plead his promise of aid. In dilemmas between one duty and another, it is sweet to be humble as a child and wait with simplicity of soul on the Lord. It is sure to be well with us when we feel and know our own folly, and are heartily willing to be guided by the will of God.

But wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in him, for unfaithful, untrusting waiting is but an insult to the Lord. Beleive that if he keeps you tarrying even till midnight, yet he will come at the right time; the vision will come and not tarry.

The final word, for the time being, on this agonizing, about homosexuality and Christianity, about the sovereignity of God even when the evil of murder and the finality of death confront us, is expressed so much more profoundly by a meditation by OSWALD CHAMBERS than anything that could emerge from my own thoughts.

THE NOTION OF DIVINE CONTROL

" How much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him". Matthew 7:11

Jesus is laying down rules of conduct for those who have His Spirit. By the simple argument of these verses He urges us to keep our minds filled with the notion of God's control behind everything, which means that the disciple must maintain an attitude of perfect trust and an eagerness to ask and to seek.

Notion your mind with the idea that God is there. If once the mind is notioned along that line it is easy as breathing to remember --Why, my Father knows all about it! It is not an effort, it comes naturally when perplexities press. Before, you used to go to this person and that, but now the notion of the Divine control is forming so powerfully in you that you to God about it. Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct for those who have His Spirit, and it works on this principle God is my Father, He loves me, I shall never think of anything He will forget, why should I worry?

There are times, says Jesus, when God cannot lift the darkness from you, but trust Him. God will appear like an unkind friend, but He is not; He will appear like an unnatural Father, but He is not; He will appear like an unjust judge, but He is not. Keep the notion of the mind of God behind all things strong and growing. Nothing happens in particular unless God's will is behind it, therefore you can rest in perfect confidence in Him. Prayer is not only asking, but an attitude of mind which produces the atmosphere in which asking is perfectly natural. " Ask, and it shall be given to you".

That Dr. Sandra Morgan asserted, virtually on her deathbed, that God is Sovereign, is a reminder that we ought to carry with us all the time. Whether visiting the sick, reading the news online, watching CNN, traveling abroad or when at home, or when struggling with our own issues deep in our souls. And the Sovereign God whose promise to Abraham in the backwaters of Palestine, when he was a wandering nomad of no consequence, compared to Alexander the Great or the mighty armies of Rome, is being fulfilled in the "children of Abraham " who now number in excess of 3 billion across the world, will always provide an answer. But in His own time and according to His will and purpose. And only in and through Jesus Christ by His Spirit who is transforming our will into the will of God day by day, in response to our faith and obedience.

Yes we can Mr. President, but only in Christ Jesus

2011-07-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

“Mr. President, do you have hope of reaching a deal", asked a reporter during a Q & A session at the White House this week, following another day of deadlock in the discussions (on the way forward in resolving the Trillion Dollar Deficit and the need to fund Government spending) between the Republican Majority leaders and the Democrats. " I always have hope; don't you remember my campaign", was the immediate response, much to the amusement of the rest of the media reps gathered there. And don't we all recall the very infectious and inspiring " Yes we can"! slogan, which has since spawned many ' cousins' across the world including those involved in the recent Egyptian revolution. From the first and unlikely victory in Iowa, to the soaring heights of his victory speech - was it in New Hampshire? I can remember getting goose bumps just listening to the speech on my way to work the morning after - having missed it the night before. Then who can forget that amazing night in November, just over two and half years ago, when his victory speech in Chicago made even Jesse Jackson - and many other men, and women cry with joy. People across the globe celebrated. From Kenya, the land of his paternal forebears, to my homeland in little Jamaica, From the red hills of Georgia to the busy streets New York, a nation celebrated a time of hope. But now the mood is more somber, less optimistic, and there is even talk of the "D" word - a default in paying America's debts which would be catastrophic for the entire world, and certainly would destroy any hope of President Obama winning a second term. Whose fault? His own! The Republicans, elements of racist America, the legacy of George W Bush. Perhaps all of the above. Whatever the reason, hope - about the economy - is fading fast in America at this time. But who knows what will happen next year!

In the midst of this “bad news" about one of my all time favorite world leaders, the Lord reminded me that He is faithful. And that no one who puts their trust in Him will ever be disappointed or become ashamed. Also that it is His wish that we should be passionate and faithful in our hope in Him. In retrospect I think this message about hope was triggered by an interview in CNN featuring the very popular American comedian Bill Maher - an avowed Obama fan, but very disappointingly an equally avowed atheist, passionately denying the reality of the God of Abraham. The Sovereign God of those of the Judeo-Christian faith. And so my God, who is very real, who walks with me and talks with me, in Miami, in Kingston, in Moscow, in Madrid and in Singapore, led me to read, reflect on and send the following meditation to my church members. A message from one who was once in the employ of the Devil - like Bill Maher and all who deny the living God - who was once a captain of a slave ship, and who like Paul, had an encounter with Jesus. The result? The composition of one of the all time great hymns, which even unbelievers sing with joy and feeling - Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me......
I pray God that Maher and other unbelievers may one day come to appreciate how much they need the Lord God of Hosts.

A MESSAGE TO MY CHURCH ON FRIDAY OF THIS WEEK

Someone needs this reassurance. I know I did!

BE STILL MY HEART
John Newton (The same one who wrote Amazing Grace.)

Verse: Hebrews 10:22

Be still my heart! these anxious cares
To thee are burdens, thorns and snares
They cast dishonor on the Lord,
And contradict his gracious word.

Brought safely by his hand thus far,
Why wilt thou now give place to fear?
How canst thou want if he provide,
Or lose thy way with such a guide?

When first before his mercy seat
Thou didst to him thine all commit;
He gave thee warrant from that hour
To trust his wisdom love, and power.

Did ever trouble yet befall,
And he refuse to hear thy call?
And has he not his promise passed,
That thou shalt overcome at least
He who hast helped me hitherto
Will help me all my journey through,
And give me daily cause to raise
New Ebenezers ( 1 Samuel 6:12) to his praise.

Though rough and thorny be the road,
It leads thee on, apace to God;
Then count they present trials small,
For God will make amends for all.

Amen. But we must believe that when the Word of God says that...... by the Blood of Jesus we can enter into the presence of God with confidence and ask for grace and mercy in times of trouble......no power or trial can overcome such an assurance. So we thank God for the Blood of Jesus and endeavor not to commit the sin of unbelief....." burdens thorns and snares".

The message also came in time for me to share it with someone whose loved one was in hospital, and who wanted the church to pray for that person. An experience which is common to many persons in today's world, where trials in our physical health, finances, relationships at home and at the work place, and even in the church, all threaten to erode the hope we have in a God who is Sovereign and has proven Himself to be faithful, time and time again. Thus the writer of that most wonderfully comforting Psalm - 91 - can exult that: ".....his faithfulness shall be your shield and rampart". vs. 4 NIV. So my God is real, O so real.......I can feel it deep in my heart, Mr. Maher.
John Newton is the same person who wrote “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me......". He was the captain of a slave ship until he had an encounter with Christ and was converted to Christianity. And afterwards, was ordained as a Pastor and wrote many hymns and reflections.

And in case you think that all of this is my imaginings, how would you explain the fact that the very same day, the same Sovereign God, led me to read another of John Newton’s meditations, but this time to send it to one person - a prominent politician in my country.

MESSAGE

I thought about you in my devotions as I read this poem inspired by Rev. 5:9 “You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." I pray that it may touch your soul and lead you to know Christ as Lord and Savior as I obey what the Lord has placed in my heart at this hour.

THE ENCOUNTER

An evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopped my wild career;
I saw One hanging on a tree
In Agonies and blood
Who fixed his languid eyes on me,
As near his cross I stood.

Sure never till my latest breath
Can I forget that look:
It seemed to charge me with his death,
Though not a word he spoke:
My conscience felt and owned the guilt,
And plunged me into despair,
I saw my sins his blood had spilt
And helped to nail him there.

Sure never till my latest breath
Can I forget that look: Though not a word he spoke:
My conscience felt and owned the guilt,
And plunged me into despair,
I saw my sins his blood had spilt
And helped to nail him there.

Alas! I knew not what I did!
But now my tears are vain:
Where shall my trembling soul be hid?
For I the Lord have slain!
A second look he gave, which said,
' I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid.
I die, that thou mayst live.'

Thus, while his death my sin displays
In all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too....

And as I write strains of the wonderful hymn below, flow, without effort, into my mind. As this is the basis of the hope we have in God - The atoning death of Jesus on Calvary, the mystery of His grace and His precious Blood that washes away all our sins Our hope is built on nothing less - not our bank account, not our political leaders, not even our church leaders - and thank God for those who preach sound doctrine, epecially in this " let all ideas contend " country of freedom. That’s why Holy Scripture assures us that ....by the Blood of Christ we can enter into the very presence of God with confidence and ask for grace and mercy in times of trouble. I pray God that even now, Mr. “no drama Obama” will approach the throne of grace on behalf of his country and ask for help from the God of all hope and comfort, in this time of trouble.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

When darkness seems to hide His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Finally, in respect of hope for all peoples and especially for the forebears of the Judeo-Christian faith the children of Israel, the Lord had a message of hope which I sent to select members of my church this week also.

MESSAGE

Will thou not turn and quicken us O Lord that thy people may rejoice in thee.

" I speak the truth in Christ - I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit - I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons: theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs. And from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. Romans 9:1-5

It was not a dream but a quarter to four in the morning message.
Our prayers have been too small and limited.
" Lord renew thy people, beginning with the people of Israel. Lord renew thy people that thy people may renew the nation(s)".

That's how my decade of evangelism prayer will read on my blog from now on and as I read chapters 9-11 it struck me that we should begin our Intercessions with prayers, not just for the remnant but for the whole people of Israel, in the same way we pray for the Diocese and for our leaders.

" O Jerusalem, Jerusalem how I longed.....but you were not willing"

If the salvation of the children of Abraham was so much on the mind of our Savior and St. Paul, how much more they should be in ours too.

" Enlarge the place of your tent
stretch your tent curtains wide
do not hold back;
Lengthen your cords
strengthen your stakes".
Isaiah 54:2
Let us therefore widen our prayers, private and corporate, as they are too narrow, as many nations and peoples are waiting on " four friends" to carry them and let them down through the roof right in front of Jesus. Amen
Peace
Therefore let us heed the Word of God as spoken by Jesus Himself": Trust in God, trust also in me". John 14:1 NIV
We pray that our political leaders may place their hope in God. That the people of Israel may place their hope in Christ. That like Nineveh, this great city of Miami may repent and turn to Christ. And equally so we pray for New York, for Chicago and for those in Washington DC. We pray because our hope not based on " yes we can" but on the Word of God that states that " with God all things are possible''. The dead can rise, sins can be forgiven, nations can turn around and become Godly, for the Blood of Christ has purchased for God, people from every race and tribe and language.

Amen.

A wedding and faith: A Savior and love

2011-07-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

I just love weddings. And so it was with great joy that I attended the wedding of one of my many "daughters", last Sunday - both bride and groom are Adventists. T'was a wonderful affair with red and white being the dominant colours. The bride was, in the words of the young people, " just amazingly beautiful", and totally bubbling over with happiness. The groom was dressed in the latest men's fashion and made quite a statement himself and was full of confidence. And in the words of one of his mates, he described his bride as someone "full of vibes". The truly amazing thing, however, was that in the midst of all this virtual riot of colours and sparkling beauty on display, stood a groom who was visually impaired and could hardly see a thing. Talk about faith! As it takes a remarkable man of faith together with the deep love required to woo and marry a partner who he has never seen, and is confident about spending the rest of life with her.

That is what my Lord spoke to me about this week from one of the most important passages of scripture to which He led me to read and reflect. The context is St. Paul's exhortation to the Galatian Church not to be burdened and enslaved by the law, but to live a life of freedom in the spirit. And so he writes:

" It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul tell you that if you let yourselves by circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all......You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we await we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." Galatians 5:1-6. NIV

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love! We make the Christian life too complicated by taking our eyes off the cross of Calvary, as that's where abiding faith and everlasting love first revealed itself to all mankind in the person of Jesus Christ - the author and perfecter of our faith. Too many people have been turned off Christianity by all our debates about which is the right denomination, what is the right doctrine, the different church rules - clothes, and jewellery and hairstyles, the day on which we are supposed to worship and all kinds of stuff, when what we should be doing is exhibiting our faith ( not blind) and expressing our love for Christ by how we treat others with whom we come in contact. By day and by night. Privately or publicly. In what we say and how we think!
Do we really trust God when the chips are down? And have we really loved those who don't love us, persecute us, ignore us and just provoke us?

This week I had reason to reflect on those questions personally, and as part of the worldwide church of God, and a citizen of my nation. Even more so, as I spend time in the USA with relatives, the land not just of the brave and free, but also of the " plenty. And as I reflect on God's mercy on me and on my family, on the wife of a friend for whom many of us have been praying and who just had a miracle wrought in her life this week, as I reflect on the profile of a young man, as written in a local newspaper today, who in a spasm of violence snuffed out the life of a young school boy last week and reportedly fled to the USA. " Allegedly known by and known to senior members of both political parties and the police force.....alleged links to the infamous Dudus Coke....the owner of a private jet.....a multi-millionaire......aged 30 yrs."

As I reflect on the state of the church and its influence, or lack thereof in these United States, and in my own country. As I reflected on a conversation I had with a good friend about the story of the sower and the seed, and what happened - the devil took away the seed from some; trouble and persecution stymied the growth of others; the pleasures of this world and the deceitfulness of wealth affected others; while those who persevered produced good fruit. All, according
to my friend, is about the different type of " soil" where we sow God's word. All about the fact that there is nothing wrong with the Word, the seed, and what, therefore, we are called to do is to be faithful in sowing the seed in how we live and what we proclaim. Not to worry about the results, as that is God's business. All of which reflections led me to write the following message to my church this week, and now to the larger ministry to which the Lord has called me.

THURSDAY - I read the following meditation this morning and prayed for the church and my country, guided by Daniel's wonderful prayer of repentance in chap 9:1-19 NIV .

" O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and rebelled, we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings.........Lord you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame -......Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand (and out of slavery to the British with a mighty hand) and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. O Lord, in keeping with with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger from Jerusalem your city.......our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of your scorn to all those around us. Now, our God, hear the prayers of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary.......we do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! For your name sake, O my God do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name." And Daniel was heard because he was " highly esteemed".

The question then arises, " are we the church, highly esteemed?" And so assured that the Lord will hear us and save our nation from the kinds of madness taking place on the roads because of rage, the madness that cause a little girl to be murdered and possible raped and thrown into bushes, and the kind of madness which purports to be wisdom because it flows from the pages of the Gleaner editorial this morning - that because New York and other cities have approved same sex-marriages, and are gaining economic benefits from it, and dressed up in a thinly disguised human rights cloak, they are suggesting that we too should too.

That question is posed in the meditation from one of the all time great preachers A. Z Tozer. And if as a church we cannot claim to be the True Church, if we do not resemble the description that Tozer paints, then like Daniel we have a lot for which to repent and to pray.

WHAT IS THE TRUE CHURCH
A. Z. Tozer

Verse: 2 Thessalonians 1:4 " Therefore, among God's churches we boast abut your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

The true church is ....composed of regenerated persons who differ from all other human beings in that they have a superior kind life imparted to them at the time of their inward renewal.....
They have espoused the cause of a rejected and crucified man who claimed to be God and who has pledged his sacred honor that he will prepare a place for them in his Father's house and return again to conduct them there with rejoicing.
In the meantime they carry his cross, suffer whatever indignities men may heap upon them for his sake, act as his ambassadors and do good to all men in his name.
They steadfastly believe that will share his triumph, and for this reason they are perfectly willing to share his rejection by a society that does not understand them.
And they have no hard feelings - only charity and compassion and a strong desire that all men may come to repentance and be reconciled to God.

......are we really willing to share his rejection by a society that does not understand us....and do we have no hard feeling - only charity and compassion and a strong desire that all may.......
Lord have mercy on us as we have sinned exceedingly in thought word and deed. It is a tremendous tribute to freedom of the press that Father Richard HoLung's very penetrating article on the state of the nation and the world, appears on the other side of today's very "worldly" editorial. I hope we all read it and reflect on it.
Peace.
LWJ

This then is the esence of faith expressing itself in love. At a wedding and in the wider society about which we are all concerned. Faith in One who has been rejected by this world. And faith expressed in our love for all for whom Christ died.
Adam's helpless race, best expressed in St. Paul' profound words to the Corinthian church.

" For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again". 2. Cor. 14-15, NIV

If therefore Christ's love compels to move in any other direction; doctrinal purity, diocesan approval, fulfilling church rules, trying to justify ourselves by the law, possessing certain gifts.....among other things, then we would have missed the mark, and our "gospel" will have no power to effect any change in our society. But God is faithful and sovereign and will sustain and empower and work miracles in and through those who do not try to " empty the cross of its power", and have learned to depend on Christ and Christ alone. For love and for mercy. Amen

A child dies - and there is grief. A Child is born - and there is hope. Thank God for Jesus

2011-07-03T21:07:00.000-07:00

I just cannot get it out of my head! Murder on a mini-bus. Twice in a couple of days. What kind of mad country we live in that allows such animal kind of behaviour to happen on public transportation on which so many of our people depend. Young and old. Can you imagine the absolute terror that young people, in particular, face when such atrocities take place. I spent three weeks in Singapore in 2001 taking part in a Leadership course in Evangelism sponsored by the Haggai Institute. Early one morning I was doing my exercises - walking fast - and spotted a young girl at the bus stop all alone. And when I asked how come, I was told that no one would dare interfere with her. Since then it has been one of my fervent wishes that young girls in particular, and young women in general, could walk the streets of my city at any hour of day or night and not be fearful of being molested. What a dramatic change that would be! During this week also a young school boy was shot dead by an " aggrieved" driver who pulled his gun on a taxi-man with whom he apparently had a dispute, having met in a crash with that vehicle. And instead of the driver being shot, the only passenger, a young boy died tragically. What a country indeed! May God have mercy on us.

So on whom are we going to depend in the midst of this madness - even as the police and the government continue to assure us that crime, in general, and murder in particular, is trending down. This week the Lord reminded me that on God, and God alone will we find refuge. This instruction came from various sources. One was a little known former slave who escaped from Rome and went to live in Ireland. And which meditation I sent out to persons who I know were going through a difficult period in their lives

I arose this morning and found this meditation which was of great comfort to me. Hope it will comfort you also in these troubling times. Let us commit to praying for each other without ceasing as many of our members are going through challenging times.
LWJ

I ARISE TODAY

Patrick of Ireland

Verse: Psalm 23:4 ....even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's hosts to save me
From the snares of the devil,
From temptations of vices,
From every one who desires me ill.
Afar or anear,
Alone in a crowd.

.The other came in the form of early ( this) morning 4:am message which should serve to allay the fears of all of us who are passing through challenging times. Personally or a nation, as there in within this passage of Scripture a prophetic assurance that, in Christ, every yoke of evil which currently dominates our lives shall be removed.

" The Lord Almighty has sworn, Surely as I have planned it, so it will be, and as i have purposed, so it will stand.
I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains will I trample him down.
His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.
This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations.
For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?
His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? "
Isaiah 14:24-27 NIV

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the way of the sea, along the Jordan -
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice
when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment
rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.
For unto us a child is born, to us a child is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord will accomplish this."

Isaiah 8:1-7 NIV

The great sadness is that many who are exposed to the Gospel, even some to whom this Ministry is sent, have yet to comprehend much less apprehend the profound promises that God has made, and which have come to pass in the person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth - the crucified, risen and ascended Lord.
As pointed out today during a very insightful sermon by one the Bishops in my church, Harold Daniel, and delivered during a " healing Service" this morning, in which I was privileged to participate, is the fact that God cannot, and has never lied. So when God in Jesus Christ issues an invitation to " come unto me all who are weary heavily burdened and I will give you rest" - the text from Matthew 11: 25-30 on which he preached - we can be sure that such a " rest " will happen.
Equally so, therefore, when God promised, hundreds of years before the coming of Christ, through Isaiah, that a child would be born, who would " shatter the yoke" - of sin and injustice and provide healing of mind body and spirit, and protection from every evil - we can be assured that Christ has the power to do all of that, in our personal lives, and in the live of a nation. As we are also promised that " Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance". Psalm 33: 12 NIV.

Bishop also suggested that mankind has been granted basically two gifts. One intellectual, with which he or she can use the mind to discern things. The other, the gift of love , which operates through the heart, and which is the only gift that can assist us in apprehending the mighty love of God. As God only reveals Himself to us as we love Him and place our trust in Him. All who consider themselves wise and sophisticated will never truly know God. They may know about Him, but will never have a personal relationship with Him. Mankind, no matter how hard we try, and how bright we are can never " work out God". God in His mercy reveals Himself to the humble in heart who love Him. We have arrive at a place where we have a need for God desperately, and that is why the ordinary people of this land love God so much and the wise and the intellectual, like Herod ( Luke 23:8) love to hear about Him, and wish very much to see some miracles done, but do not really recognize that He is, in Christ Jesus, and has been give all authority on heaven and on earth. And to take up His yoke, rather than the yoke of evil, murder, greed, envy and sexual immorality, which result in murder on a minibus, means simply to surrender completely to Christ. And therefore pray that , "your will, and not mine be done, Lord".

How I wish that others could have heard that sermon of healing today. But sadly many chose to attend political meetings, or attend to other "pressing " matters that they find it difficult to do on Sunday. Or simply stay at home and sleep or go to the beach. The Word of God, has come in the person of Christ, to set us free from every ill, as promised by God, and make us whole again as a nation. That young girls may walk unmolested in the mornings. That young men can take a taxi withour fear of becoming another crime statistic, and so cause parents to grieve for their offspring. The Word of God, has come in the person of Christ Jesus to set us free from all fears, " You of little faith why are you so afraid", says the Master to us, to me in the early morning and freed me from fear, as He said to the disciples two thousand years in the midst of a storm( Matthew 9:23-26) . The Word of God has come in the person of Jesus Christ to heal those " suffering from severe pain, from demon-possession, seizures and the paralyzed" ( Matthew 4:24). My country will only be rescued when as a nation we accept the invitation to come on to Him, who only can provide rest - accepting that Jesus is the Son of God, loving Him with all our hearts, and believing that He has authority over all things.
May we arise then each day with God's strength to pilot us, and God's wisdom to guide us, as nation, in and through Christ Jesus, and so enable us to find rest and peace in the midst of the storms of life. Amen

Bless the Lord O my soul and let that is within me bless His Holy name

2011-06-29T18:55:00.000-07:00

Her story did not make it in the newspapers, the radio, on TV Face-book or Twitter. But it troubled my heart greatly. Five of them were inside watching world famous and the immensely popular Asafa Powell (despite his seeming inability to beat the awesome "Mr Bolt") win the 100 metres dash at the Jamaica National Trials. They were excited and forgot to lock the grilled door. In a ghetto, and in fact anywhere in Jamaica today, that can be a fatal mistake, even in the pouring rain. In a flash, three heavily armed gunmen took control and ushered all of them under one bed. Threatening to kill them the 'wicked' demanded cash. Every single dollar. Not even the money for the dialysis next morning, as explained to them, they spared, this after being shown the " catheter' in the neck of the sick man. Terrified, they prayed, and they prayed and they prayed, even though they were not all Baptized , but they feared God, and thus prevailed upon the only true and living God who could save them. Her sister was an asthmatic and began wheezing badly. And so in desperation one man decided to "save " her even if he was shot, and bravely got up to fetch the pump, the inhaler. Thank God by then the gunmen had exited the house. That was one experience by one of my staff members that touched my heart this week. And thus we praise God for His mercy, as others have not been as fortunate. The other touching experience was the sharing by the wife of friend and pastor, with whom I visited in a local hospital in Jamaica, and who became ill in the USA with a form of leukemia. Miraculously, she, having been referred immediately the diagnosis was made, arrived at the University Hospital, of that state, on the same day that a nationwide famous specialist in that field was on his scheduled visit to that hospital - once per year. And thus was able to commence care with the best possible treatment available. Further this lady who along with her husband ministers in the ghetto had to teach those who loved her about the God whom she serves in the midst of her her struggles. As they kept asking , " why you". And her answer was that " God is sovereign, who can explain His ways of dealing with us". Praise God indeed. Finally my encounter with cows on the highway. Coming home in the dark one night last week, on a highway which is fenced to keep out animals and intruders, I barely saw a huge white cow, and then a black one, to my right - which means that they jumped the median. No mean feat. I was convinced that I would crash into them, but God in His mercy took over, as I swung to the left and managed to escape and thus was able to call home to tell my wife of the good news, rather than someone else callingg her.

And as I listened to the stories of God's mercy and reflected on my own story, the Lord led me to read the following passages. First a meditation from Chris Tiegen

JESUS AND OUR NEED
" But what about you?.......Who do you say I am

IN WORD WE have heard the common answers to this question - good teacher, moral leader, tragic hero, well intentioned martyr etc. - and most of us have found them to be insufficient. He is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God. As a matter of the witness of Scripture and the faith that we hold dear, we know this to be true. Many of us have even boldly proclaimed it to others.
But we must ask ourselves this question. Who do we say He is? Perhaps an even better question would be this: Who do we really - deep in our hearts - believe He is? We must go beyond the pew and the pulpit and into the our living rooms and offices for the answer. We must wonder if this is true for us on Wednesdays just as it is on Sundays. We must come down from the mountaintops and answer from the valleys. Why? Because regardless of how long we have been Christians, this answer must be more than theology in our heads; it must be the truth that grips our hearts.

IN DEED When your situation is dire - a relationship has broken, finances are looking impossibly bleak, a disease is pronounced incurable, or tragedy strikes a loved one -- who is He? Is He a theological tenet or really your Savior, your Provider, your healer and Friend? When you are tempted beyond your strength - immoral desires are running rampant, an ethical compromise would come seem so easy, or you are pressured to conform to the world's expectations - who is he? An ancient biblical character or your Righteousness, your Strength, and your refuge?
Know Him in your innermost being. Jesus doesn't help us much as the center of our theology; He helps us as the center of our lives.

At four am this morning, in the midst of my own struggles with faith and trust in a Sovereign God, and sorely tempted to find my own solutions and " help" the Lord who was taking too long, despite the Lord working many miracles in my life in recent times, and therefore not really trusting Him as outlined above, the Lord woke me up in a now familiar way and led me to read and to seek forgiveness.

" How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you". Psalm 31:19

" Blessed in he who whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.......Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not over up mine iniquity. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord - and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance." Psalm 32:1-7

" Some trust in chariots and some in horses but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm."
Psalm 20:7-8.

God is indeed a faithful God, and is calling us to regain that childlike trust in Him as God who is Sovereign over all things, even when we cannot see our way out of a particular situation. When we trust Him in desperate times, in small things and in weighty matters then He gets the glory and the honor, even if we suffer much in the process, as " thine is the Kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever". Amen. Praise God.

Then having read the following passages, I sent out an e -mail to some powerful people today, as they too need to be reminded that God is Sovereign.

" Come to me, all you who are weary and heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light." Matthew 11:28-30 ( The gospel reading for the Anglican church for Sunday coming).

" This is why I told you that that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him". John 6:65

Hear my cry O Lord, attend unto my prayer......for your Word says : " Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance". Psalm 33:12...and we are praying for our nation.

So we pray that the Lord may enable all of you to turn to the Lord Jesus and find rest for your souls, and so help this nation to find peace in Christ Jesus. Why?

" I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are very wise and very beautiful: but I never read in either of them: " Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden." - Augustine of Hippo ( 354-430) ...son of a pagan father and a Christian mother....he established the doctrine of the church, gave a clear statement concerning the person of Christ, and made the grace of God the theme of theology in the West...and became of the great Bishops of the church after living a wayward life for over twenty years during which his mother prayed for his soul without ceasing. Amen

Finally a meditation from one of the world's great poets reminds us of the need to protect our mind from the devil's schemes by inviting this same Sovereign God into our hearts so that " the angels of the Lord may encamp around us", and so that the Spirit of the living God may direct all our paths. So that we may learn to pray, and pray, and pray always for grace and mercy in times of trouble, and to give God all the glory.

THE HOUSE OF PRAYER

William Cowper
Verse : Matthew 21:13 " It is written, he said to them, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers".

Thy mansion is the Christian's heart,
O Lord, thy dwelling-place secure !
Bid the unruly throng depart,
And leave the consecrated door.

Devoted as it is to thee,
A thievish swarm frequents the place;
They steal away my joys from me,
And rob my Savior of his praise.

There too a sharp designing trade
Sin, Satan and the world maintain;
Nor cease to press me, and persuade,
To part with ease and purchase pain.

I know them, and hate their din,
Am weary of the bustling crowd;
But while their voice is heard within
I cannot serve thee as I would.
Oh! for the joy thy presence gives,
What peace shall reign when thou art here!
Thy presence makes this den of thieves,
A calm delightful house of prayer.

And if thou make thy temple shine,
And if thou make thy temple shine,
Yet, self-abased, will I adore;
The gold and silver are not mine,
I give thee what was thine before.

Is " the thievish swarm", of the cares of this world, the pleasures of this earthly life, the pressing needs of our affairs , and the temptations of Satan, frequenting our minds, stealing way our joys and robbing our Savior of His praise? Have we really trusted the Sovereign God, as individuals, as married couples, as communities, as political parties and as a nation in the midst of trials, or have we looked " back to Egypt" for solutions? Are we trusting in " chariots", in technology, in weapons, in our own wisdom when confronted by evil, or do we " trust in the Name of the Lord Jesus" - The Sovereign God. " Your name and your word, O Lord, have you exalted above all things".
As we go about our business this week, may the name of Sovereign God be praised, in our hearts, in our homes, our communities, on Facebook, on Twitter in our e-mails, and repent of our sins and unfaithfulness and seek His face while He may be found, as surely the mighty waters are rising, and who can withstand them without the help of the Sovereign God. May the God of all compassion, who died for us on the Cross of Calvary, forgive all our foolish ways and lead us back into His presence in and through Christ Jesus. The One who invites us to come to Him all who are weary and heavy laden and promises rest for our souls.

Congressman, Prime Minister, Satan and the saving power of Jesus

2011-06-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

Finally, this week, the news broke in New York that Congressman Wiener, and a front runner for the post of Mayor of New York had resigned. The pressure had been building steadily since the revelation that he had been guilty of sending sexually suggestive e-mails to a female supporter including one bizarre message that said, " I have my wardrobe demands too, I need to highlight my package". And so ended what had been acknowledged as a promising political career. Sadly, and perhaps appropriately Wiener had few sympathizers as he had disappointed so many of his voters. Also in Jamaica, news broke this week that, the most eagerly anticipated report had exonerated everyone, included our Prime Minister of any wrong doing in the Mannatt - Dudus affair, and which proceedings had captured the interest of the Jamaican public as no other had done before. Expectedly, there was for the most part, great disappointment with the report as the conclusions
" flew in the face" of what people had witnessed on prime time television. And like the Congressman in New York, albeit for entirely different reasons, a very promising politician who came to office with enormous political capital, generated even from those who did not vote for him, it would appear, has lost the confidence and trust of the people. What went wrong? Even if both were to regain power at some time in the future, what could have occasioned this bizarre behavior in one case, and inexplicable action in the other - succumbing to base pleasures in one case and being found guilty by the bar of public opinion of placing the interest of a powerful and notorious supporter, and thus party, over the interest of the nation in another case. What went wrong?

I believe, a seemingly simple, but yet very profound passage of Scripture gives us an insight into human behavior, which explains in large part why the actions of so many of us, all of us, at different times in our lives, result in disappointment, hurt, pain and much trouble for self, family, friends and community. And which explanation goes to the heart of the Christian message: " Repent and be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and holy Spirit".

In the New International Version the passage is contained in a section entitled " Judas agrees to betray Jesus" (Luke 22: 1-5) and I began reading it as the next section gives an account of the Last Supper and has within it a verse which has meant a lot to me in my journey with Christ in recent times. " Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.' Luke 22 : 31. But the dramatic verse occurs early on, " Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the twelve". Luke 22: 3 NIV

The point here, is that as we now know, Judas was a thief and used to help himself from the money collected to help the poor as he was the " banker". So long before this final moment came, he had been doing things that made him vulnerable to the wiles of Satan, who we now know according to Scripture " is like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour". And the reality is that, like Adam , who for just a moment, just one fatal moment, disobeyed God as the Devil suggested to Eve and himself that perhaps they had " misinterpreted", the command of the Lord God not to eat the fruit of the tree in the garden, we have all been born with that disposition to disobey God. And the only way to escape from this sin, the wages of which lead to death, according to the Bible, is to repent and accept the gift of God, which is the Atonement for sins wrought on the Cross of Calvary by the shed Blood of Jesus the Christ. The reality is that all those who are not " covered by the Blood of Jesus" will fall easy prey to Satan. Satan will enter you and lead you to do all kinds of evil, some of which you cannot even begin to imagine much less dream about. And worse, even the " saved" , if we do not persevere in " dwelling in the secret place of the most high" ( Psalm 91), if we do not remain obedient to God ( Trust and obey as there is no other way to be happy in Jesus...), then we too can fall prey to the evil one, as has happened to high profile members of the Church throughout history and in recent times. In fact it is only by the infinite mercy and compassion of God, both within and outside the church why more scandals and embarrassment has not taken place. Thank God for Jesus.

So how should we treat those who have been held up to public ridicule? With compassion and mercy, not with boasting and triumphalism, and behaving as we are all paragons of virtue, lest we too, fallen creatures that we all are, run afoul of God's mercy. That does not mean that we should not hold our public officials to very high standards of behavior, as we should our entertainers and other " stars" in the society, whose behavior reflect " Satan entering them", but even as we do so let us pray without ceasing for mercy for the new kind of society that Jesus came to inaugurate. A society heralded by that famous passage of Scripture, the familiar KJV of which I quote " Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away, behold all things are become new." 2. Cor. 4: 17.

Mr. Golding and his colleagues in Jamaica, and Mr Wiener in New York will have to give an account before God in the fullness of time for their actions. Also some terrible things have been done in the name of politics and in pursuit of gaining and preserving state power in my country. One of which, the widespread use of the gun which has wreaked so much havoc, has occurred because " Satan entered the minds " of someone or persons to provide these weapons of death for their followers. Equally some terrible things have happened in my country in pursuit of fame and success in the music industry, one of which occurred when " Satan entered the minds" of some persons and helped them to pervert a conscious music, born out of the struggles of the working class and transformed it into something that has corrupted the minds and hearts of our people, especially the young and vulnerable. The same kind of wickedness has affected the body politic of the American society, as repeatedly " Satan has entered the minds of men and women" causing them bring disgrace on their nation and on themselves. All of them will have to give an account to god one day. That's why President Obama, in particular needs our unfailing prayers, so that he may escape the trap set for him by the evil one.

So what is the solution! A reflection by John Stott, about whom I have written before provides a context for this question to be answered this week, as I journeyed with the Lord in reading and in prayer. In Chapter 7 of his Book " Life in Christ" Stott recommends the following. One that we live for Christ as His love compels us. Two that we are obedient to Him as that is His command. Thirdly, that we go on mission to tell others as we are His ambassadors. And fourthly and finally, that we suffer for Christ as He did for all mankind. And thus by living for Christ in these ways we help to bring in the new society and rescue all who have fallen under the rule of Satan. Each of these noble aspiration are grounded in Scripture.

FOR CHRIST

" For Christ' love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them ad was raised from the dead". 2 Cor. 5: 14-15.

Note the reaffirmation of the death of all as occasioned by the sin of Adam, and the the new life of all who have been raised to a new life in Christ.

CHRISTIAN OBEDIENCE

" If you love me you will obey what I command.....Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will show myself to him.....If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." John 14: 15, 21, 23.

Note the great joy and power available to us ( to resist Satan and other kinds of evil) when we obey Christ. The Father and the Son through the power of the Holy Spirit will abide with us - today in my church we recognize this important theological truth in the celebration of Trinity Sunday.

CHRISTIAN MISSION

" So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor 5: 20-21.

All Christians are then to be on mission for God to tell the story of Christ. A fact which was highlighted today in the sermon on the Triune God today by my pastor. He explained that life is about relationships. And that in Christ the Three parts of the Godhead - Father Son and Holy Spirit became manifest - in order that we may have a relationship with a " very real and present God among us" - the meaning of incarnation - and not a distant God in heaven. So, having had this experience with God in Christ, we are now given a mandate to tell the gospel story. A mandate which is captured well in a hymn he quoted.

We have a gospel to proclaim,
good news for men in all the earth;
the gospel of a saviour's name;
we sing his glory, tell his worth.

Tell of his birth at Bethlehem,
not in a royal house or hall
but in a stable dark and dim:
the word made flesh, a light for all.

Tell of his death at Calvary,
hated by those he came to save;
in lonely suffering on the cross
for all he loved, his life he gave.......

CHRISTIAN SUFFERING

" Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. rejoice and be glad......." Matthew 5: 10-12

" Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. " Matthew 24.9.

The reality is that our decision to follow Christ is going to lead to suffering. The intensity of which and the length of time is determined only by God for His purpose and will. The " saving grace" is that suffering that leads to perseverance will in due course bring about holiness and righteousness. And thus like Christ, over whom Satan has no authority, we will be able to live a life protected by the power of the Holy Spirit from the wiles and temptations and evil that Satan produces in those who are unprotected by the Spirit. It does not mean that we will not be subject to the " sifting by Satan", as the Lord allows, but we will be given the grace to persevere. And in that crucible of suffering for Christ, we will become better ambassadors, more obedient, compelled by Christ's love, and willing and able to help Congressmen and Prime Ministers and Ministers of Government, Opposition leaders, other parliamentarians, entertainers, and all others in the society, and even within our own church to resist Satan, who is truly like a roaring lion seeking whom he will. All for the good of our homes, our communities, our nations and for the protection of our own souls from evil.

Rhianna, American Politicians and Pentecost - The Birthday of The Church

2011-06-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

While the world, and folks in Jamaica in particular, were discussing Rhianna's latest video, " Man Down", a major section of the church celebrated its birthday today. While the world discussed the latest sex scandal in America, and in Europe - for an intriguing article on this subject, " America: One nation under Sex", written by one of our most well respected and well read journalists, Ian Boyne check the website : http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110612/focus/focus1.html - in our church today we celebrated the day of Pentecost when The Holy Spirit of God was poured out on the early church as they were all together in one place, according to the book of Acts. The fact that this highly celebrated American spawned singer, but born in Barbados, chose to make this controversial video in Jamaica, and is steeped in violence, has angered many Jamaicans who are already sick of the violence in our country. " We don't need this now", I heard many of them declare on a popular evening news programme, " Beyond The Headlines", hosted by another of our top journalists, Dionne Jackson-Miller on RJR. That does not, however, mean that many do not empathize with her very public experience of domestic violence, but perhaps she could have been more creative in the video and not have the violence be so explicit. Perhaps the one she did with Eminem " I love the way you lie" ( I am being educated as I really don't follow these things) would have been more acceptable. The reality is , however, that as long as mankind chooses to ignore God and be forever disobedient to His commands, as given by the His Son, Jesus, then we will always have these problems. In this respect, I was amazed to learn from Boyne's article of the " carrying on" of no less a person than that American icon, Abraham Lincoln. And others too.

So this week, the Spirit of God led me to read, and reflect on words written by that much celebrated theologian, and author the set of Movies which have done so well at the box office, " The Chronicles of Narnia":

" We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. We are far too easily pleased". This quotation was juxtaposed to a meditation by Chris Tiegen, which is what really grabbed my attention.

THE HEART"S CONTENTMENT CHRIS TIEGEN
Verse: " Love the Lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment." Matthew 22:37-38

IN WORD Despite our extraordinary calling - to experience God' love and to love Him in return - we fill our lives with idols. Given the greatest invitation in the universe, we treat it as an obligation that we might be able to squeeze in around our other interests. Could anything be more ludicrous? The infinite, holy, jealous, merciful, mighty Ancient of Days makes a straight path for us into His heart of passion, and our response is so often to say, " we'll see; I've got some other things I'd like to do, too". The angels must be astonished at the squandering of such an opportunity.

The idols of our hearts grip us tightly. We are afraid to let go of them. We are, in imagery provided by C. S. Lewis, like children content to make mud pies in a slum because we can't imagine what is meant by the offer of a vacation at the beach. We hang on to what we know - our idols - because fellowship with God is too incredible for us to grasp. Our idols are essentially one -night stands. They provide a moment of empty pleasure, but there is no lasting joy in them. They string us along with the offer of contentment, but contentment never comes. They rob us of something far more valuable - an intimacy of infinite depth with a Lover whose love has not limits.

IN DEED The passions that draw us away from God can be intense. Jesus does not ask us to rid ourselves of passion, but to turn that passion to towards God. When we realize this and break ourselves free from the illusions - or delusions - that make us think that we can find fulfillment in anything other than Him, our lives begin to resemble watered, fruitful oases where there was once a desert. Determine to pursue God in love as a response to His loving pursuit of you. Leave everything else behind.

When you read Boyne's article, you will notice the kinds of excuses offered up in explanation for the sordid behaviour of these American politicians. That " they are men who have come to experience power and that such power increases their sexual desires"; that "sexting" is not on par with other sexually explicit crimes". And speak about idols being essentially "one -night stands", and in many cases literally so, as prominent American politicians have been caught " going with" prostitutes. how Lincoln suffered from depression and how one President pined after his lost " male" partner, and how many of them had " love children" and led adulterous lives! Perhaps most egregious of all is the argument that they should be under less scrutiny, as after all, they are human, and perhaps the way the Europeans handle their politicians who " indulge', or perhaps as Boyne suggested the how we Jamaicans treat those kind of "sins', and named one prominent former leader, might offer a way forward - clearly a bit of tongue- in- cheek suggestion.
For many, especially our young people, stars like Rhianna, and "J Lo", and Eminem and Mavado and Assasin ( what a name) and Kartel are literally " idols" who are 'worshiped' and on whose lifestyle, their lives are closely patterned. The trouble is that increasingly so, many of the mothers and grandmothers, and fathers and grandfathers (whose influence on the children are less than the females) are caught up with their own idols of drink, sex, money, power and entertainment in general, and therefore have little time for things spiritual until and except when the crises of life intervene, all too suddenly, and sometimes, unfortunately, fatally.

And it should not come as surprise, or like a thief in the night, as the Word of God, to which I was drawn this week, is very clear about those who elect to ignore the God who is merciful and full of compassion, and just waiting on us to come to Him.

" Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourself with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time doing what pagans choose to do - living in debauchery, lust , drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of disspation, and they heal abuse on you. But they will have to give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray." 1 Peter 4: 1-7 NIV

One of the great challenges in a modern society for Christians is to recognize when the, now ubiquitous, television set has become an idol in our lives. Or the computer, or the Blackberry, or your choice of cell phone. Or anything, or anyone, be they your significant other, wife, husband, child, grandchild or friend or relative, that is proving to be a distraction from loving The Lord Jesus with all our heart. A God who, in Christ Jesus, died for all mankind, to rescue us from that which Rhianna sings about, or that which Ian Boynes writes. Or the corruption in government which is always topical, or the violence in our schools, or the many trials which are " knocking down" families across the land. The other great challenge which the birthday of the Lord reminds us about, and which was the topic of an excellent sermon by a young female preacher today, is the need for us to get past the " speaking in tongues", debate, and focus on being " all together in one place", so that we who have been filled with the Spirit of God, can more effectively proclaim the gospel and the works of Jesus to a world pre-occupied with sex, violence, alcohol, cocaine, power, money and the Rhianna's of this world. As we are filled with the Spirit of a God who is full of mercy and compassion towards all He has made, and is ready to forgive, and forgive and forgive, all who would turn and repent. But also we represent a God who will judge the world one day. And that will include we who have a mandate and hence an awesome responsibility, to search for the lost, to bind up the wounded and to bring back those who have strayed. Even and especially the " vilest offender".
Amen

The death of friends and Christ's death: the one final the other life-giving

2011-06-05T21:22:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I had two funerals to attend. Both of them were scheduled for the same time. One was the funeral for the husband of one of my colleagues, and the brother-in-law of another colleague and school mate. The other funeral was for the mother of a childhood friend, and the wife of a close friend who regrettably is no longer with us. One was a former Minister of Government and a former Police Commissioner and therefore would have had a huge funeral with lots of important people attending. The other was a former post mistress, a quiet person who served her country and God without fanfare, and therefore her ceremony was devoid of any public scrutiny. I chose to attend the latter, and the Lord allowed me to hear the full details of the testimony of the officiating priest, who I had already heard had been held up by gunmen and lived to tell the tale. He told us of having blessed the offering at a crusade that our church had organized for the entire week, last week, and then was trailed to his house, on the assumption that he had carried home the said offering. Three gunmen pointed their guns at his head, had him lie down on the ground, attempted to " find" his wife and two girl children in the house, and then having failed, left without getting anything at all. Praise God. Praise God indeed.

And so the pastor was able to relate well to the Psalmist's exultation: " Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me...."

This week as I went through these experiences and attempted to comfort my friends, in their time of grief, the Lord taught me some important lessons about death in another realm. And it started by a focus in Scripture on one of the fundamental lessons of the faith:

" When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified". I came to you with weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith may not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

1 Corinthians 2: 1-5 NIV

One of the great tragedies of our time, is the propensity of Christian witnesses, whether preachers, teachers or evangelists, to depend on their " persuasive power" in their attempts to bring people to Christ. It's fraught with potential dangers as, if we are not careful we may be found guilty of " emptying the cross of its power".

This testimony then, of this priest, whose life, and the life of his entire family, was spared by the mercy and power of God, is a far greater witness to the power of God, than the "wisdom" to be found in many sermons. As our God is an awesome God, and is constantly demonstrating His mercy and grace to all mankind if we would only humble ourselves and see. This is why the story of the great rescue of the children of Israel from Pharaoh's hand, the sending of the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, and the many other events which took place during their return to Canaan, have become the subjects of great movies, many books and thus firmly etched into the minds of most of the people in Western Civilization.

And this power of God reached its climax on the Cross of Calvary, and in the life of the risen and ascended and soon coming Lord Jesus Christ. This is why St. Paul had no other desire but to know Christ and him crucified. In this context then the Lord led me to reflect on powerful words from the book of Galatians and a further explanation from a book written by John Stott, an eminent theologian.

" I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives with me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Gal. 2:20. NIV

JOHN STOTT LIFE IN CHRIST

CHAP 5 " WITH CHRIST OUR SECRET

...........UNITED WITH CHRIST

i come now to the fullest exposition in the New Testament of what it means to be 'with " Christ. The reader will observe that the same words 'with Christ', or " with him" occur no fewer than four times within the compass of these few verses:

Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules?......Since, then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God, When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will with him in glory." (Colossians 2; 20 and 3: 1-4.)

It will be seen from this passage that Paul's concept of being 'with ' Christ is something much more than enjoying his friendship, as in the popular chorus, ' he walks with me and he talks with me along life's narrow way'. It is that, for God has called us ' into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord' ( 1 Cor. 1:9), and we are to have no reason to be ashamed of the claim to know Jesus Christ as our friend. ....Nevertheless, to be 'with Christ', is more than to enjoy his companionship. it is rather to share in the four major events of his whole saving career - his death, resurrection, ascension and return - in such a way that we have experienced the first three, and will come one day to experience the fourth, 'with him'.

First, 'we died with Christ'. To those who hear this assertion for the first time, it sounds ( and indeed is ) quite fantastic. ' I have been crucified with Christ', Paul wrote, and again, ' I have been crucified to the world' ( Galatians 2:20; 6:14). And what he writes there of himself, he writes also of all believing and baptized Christians: ' don't you know that all of us who baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?' ( Romans 6:3). Thus Jesus Christ did not die alone. On the contrary, all his people who have been united to him by faith ( inwardly) and by baptism ( outwardly) have shred in his death and died with him.

So what can this mean? .........There is a finality about death; death is the end. So when Paul wants to emphasize that our old pre-Christian life has come to an end, he says that we 'died' to it. Our former life was one of bondage to sin, self, fear and guilt, and to the unseen powers of evil which, because of our estrangement from God had enslaved us.........Then I learned that the only way to be set free from sin was for the just penalty to be borne, and that God had done this himself in and through Jesus who died for our sins on the Cross..

Secondly, 'we have been raised with Christ'. Not only have we died to the old life, but we have risen to a new one....

John Stott continues in this chapter to lay out the new life that those who are 'with Christ' are expected to live. The central point here is that, the death of the relatives of my two friends should serve to remind us that, though there may be a finality about physical death, which accordingly brings great sorrow and heartache, and these very Scriptures warn us to " mourn with those who mourn" and rejoice with those who rejoice, there is more to this lesson of life. And which lesson is that we are all called, as Christians, believers in the saving grace of Christ, to 'die with Christ" and to live a new life with him. A life of new standards, new relationships, new ambitions, new principles, new behaviors.

It makes one wonder how great a country this could have been, if we had had even one Prime Minister who was a practicing Christian, who had 'died with Christ', and therefore able to eschew the narrow interest of seeking and holding on to political power, but rather bringing glory to God, by pursuing justice without favor to his loyal and powerful party supporters. By pursuing sound economic strategies than would bring long term benefits to our people rather than merely seeking to attain short term goals in order to placate the potential voters. By rooting out corruption as soon as it rears its ugly head. By being a living example of righteousness and holiness in a land where immorality abounds in the music, in the homes, on videos and in the hearts of our people. By following Christ's injunction to "love your enemies and to bless those who persecute you". Would to God that we had more persons in high places, in business, in finance, manufacturing, in the school system, at the Universities, and in the media and in the professional class, who had 'died with' Christ, and could therefore set an example for us to follow. I pray to God that in the humble homes across this land, far from public scrutiny, that mothers and grandmothers and fathers and uncles and aunties would die to Christ, and begin to live a new life which once obtained in my country years ago. And produce once again homes where there is fidelity, where the marriage bed is honored, where the woman of the home is a woman of peace and grace even when provoked to wrath, and the father is dependable, a man of his word, hardworking and respected in his community.

The power of the living God was once manifest is such ways in my country, and what God has done before He can do again with the same power to rescue people, that brought back Jesus to life after His crucifixion. But we who believe on Him, must be willing to 'die with Him" in order that this kind of revival can happen in Jamaica and across the world, where the power of God, the unseen hand, is at work, producing democratic forces - to set the captives free - which are beyond the ability of mankind to stop. Whether in Egypt, Iraq, Libya, or Yemen. And we can confidently believe that such a power is already at work in the USA, Britain and even secular Europe, because the earth is the Lord's, and all nations belong to Him. Therefore, let us wait with patience and thank God even now for the great work He will perform in our respective countries, as we place our faith in His unfailing love and awesome power which reached its climax on the Cross of Calvary.

PS. We continue to pray for all who are sick, the dying, the bereaved and the dead, even for those who have not died 'with Christ', as our God is God, "who can do abundantly and exceedingly more than we can ask or imagine". Amen

Visa issues, a divided nation and Healing through the Body of Christ

2011-05-31T19:43:00.000-07:00

This week the nation woke up to read in the newspapers, that the US Government had revoked the visa of a Government Minister and a Deputy leader of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party. This was big news indeed, as most Jamaicans have close links with the USA, through family and business interests, and so the privilege of traveling unencumbered to that country, is a highly valued one. Speculation continues to be rife about the reason for this drastic action by the US, and further, whether or not similar treatment will be meted out to other officials. What did not make the news, however, is the Annual Healing Conference, sponsored by the Anglican Diocese in Jamaica, and which event now attracts persons from all over the Caribbean, especially from the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and Belize. This "institution" is now heading for its fortieth anniversary, and there is no doubt that our country is deeply in need of the kind of healing that the Anglican church in particular, and the wider Christian churches, are promoting, through this and other such efforts.

The national debate over the issues emerging from the request by the USA to extradite "Dudus Coke", a reputed Don in the Prime Minister's constituency, including the Gleaner's reporting of the " confidential" information released by WickiLeaks, has left the country deeply divided and troubled. Although trending down, thank God, the extremely high incidence of murder in our island has badly affected the psyche of our people, leaving many hopeless, embittered - blaming the political leaders, past and present, active and retired - vengeful and extremely fearful. Although reportedly on the upturn, the recent devastation of the standard of living occasioned by the worldwide recession, and some would contend, misguided policy decisions, has left many Jamaicans poor, hopeless and bewildered. The repeated shocking incidences of murder in our schools, teenagers killing other teenagers, has sent many into deep despair, wondering about the future of our country.

And so the country is in deep need of healing - politically, economically, morally and socially. But what the Annual Healing Conference is advocating is that, even more importantly, the country needs spiritual healing. In the sense that, unless those who have a mandate from Christ, to be healers, to be agents of reconciliation to God, according to the preacher at the Healing service this morning - Cannon Steve West from Trinidad - there will be no lasting healing in this nation. Cannon West used as his text that well know passage in the Bible, John 15:1-8, where Jesus declared that:

+ "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. If a man remain in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."

Using this text he made several observations. One, that once we accept the fact that Jesus is the true vine, then all other "vines", all others who would try to promote themselves as examples or leaders whom humans beings ought to emulate are imitators (or pretenders - my word). Secondly, that pruning is a painful process - the inference here is that when we are undergoing suffering and discipline it maybe a sign that the Lord is " pruning" us for better works. Thirdly, that we must make every effort and determination to remain in Christ, through obedience to His Word, as we are called not to be successful but to be faithful. Fourthly, that there is no room for unproductive labour, no room for doing nothing as a disciple of Christ, lest we be cast away and burned. Fifthly, in Christ we are all called to produce fruit, and fruit that will last. Finally, once we are in Christ , and His word remains in us, then our prayers will always be answered. As the same power which raised Jesus from the dead is available to us, by faith and by obedience. And therefore what tremendous things we can accomplish for the glory of God, if we believe and obey. In this context a reminder from the Bishop of Jamaica, Alfred Reid, in his presentation during the conference, that " all Christians are healers" is worthy of note. As with this kind of understanding of the power and the mandate that we possess as people of God, rescued from sin and death by the Blood of the Lamb, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, there is no limit to what we can achieve as healers, in a land deeply divided by political tribalism, economic stagnation, social unrest, all leading us to be morally adrift and thus easy prey to the " wild animals" that have overtaken our people.

Whilst pondering these issues, twice this week, the Lord led me to reflect on a passage in Jeremiah:

" The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond all cure. Who can understand it?
I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."
Jeremiah 17;9-10. NIV

Then this morning He led me to reflect on the words of a well known hymn.

Search me, O God, and know my heart today;
try me, O Lord, and know my thoughts I pray;
see if there be some wicked way in me,
cleanse me from every sin and set me free

I praise thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin;
fulfill thy word, and make me pure within;
fill me with fire, where once I burned with shame,
grant my desire to magnify thy name.

Lord, take my life, and make it wholly thine;
fill my poor heart with thy great love divine;
take all my will, my passion, self and pride;
I now surrender - Lord, in me abide.

O Holy Ghost, revival comes from thee;
send a revival - start the work in me;
thy word declares thou wilt supply our need;
for blessing now, O Lord I humbly plead.

I believe that in all of this the Lord is sending a message that the pains, angst and trials; the many tears that have been shed, the embarrassment, the shame; the many nights of sheer terror, all are pointing to the fact that the Holy One of Israel, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, and Father of Lord Jesus Christ,
is " cleansing this nation". That He is calling the many healers who claim Christ to a deeper relationship with their Savior, and that He is cleansing the church also, so that church " already clean because of the Word", can truly become agents of reconciliation to God and to each other in this nation. In the same way that the Psalmist prayed for " a pure heart" so that he could then call sinners to repentance. For at the root of all our troubles, whether manifested in visa cancellations, revelations by Wickileaks, murder most foul in the communities, gross immorality masquerading as popular music, violence in the schools, indiscipline on our roads, and rage and unforgiveness in the church, is the " deceitfulness of the human heart, and which heart is beyond all cure". All manner of ills in a society begin right here. And only the God who alone can search the heart, can also heal it". And that He has done in and through the shed Blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. That's why the songwriter was moved to express the prayer......" fill me with fire where once I burned with shame". There is such a great need for us to be dreadfully ashamed about the state of our nation and to beg God for forgiveness. And God being a God of Mercy is waiting with open arms, to forgive and to forget.

Finally a meditation by one of the great preachers of our time. And which meditation speaks to the need for us to have a deep desire to know Christ much more than we do now, and which process begins with a cleansing of the mind. The only way to truly remain in Christ and become a healer - healers in a nation so desperately in need of healing.

SEARCH ME, O GOD
A. W. Tozer
Verse : Psalm 139:23

The author of the celebrated devotional work, The Cloud of the Unknowing, begins his little book, with a prayer that expresses the spirit of the deeper life teaching:
" God, unto whom all hearts be open....and unto whom no secrets are hid, I beseech thee so for to cleanse the intent of mine heart with the unspeakable gift of thy grace, that I may perfectly love thee and worthily praise thee. Amen."

Who that is truly born of the Spirit, unless he has been prejudiced by wrong teaching can object to such a thorough cleansing of the heart as will enable him perfectly to love God and worthily to praise him? Yet this is exactly what we mean when we speak about the " deeper life" experience. Only we mean that it should be literally fulfilled within the heart, not merely accepted by the head.

Nicephorus, a father of the Eastern Church, in a little treatise on the Spirit-filled life, begins with a call that sounds strange to us only because we have been for so long accustomed to following Jesus from afar off and to living among a people that follow him afar off. " You, who desire to capture the wondrous divine illumination of our Savior Jesus Christ - who seek to feel the divine fire in your hearts - who strive to sense and experience the the feeling of of reconciliation with God - who, in order to unearth the treasure buried in the field of your heart and to gain possession of it, have renounced everything worldly - who desire the candles of our souls to burn brightly even now, and who for this purpose have renounced all the world - who wish by conscious experience to know and to receive the kingdom of heaven existing within you - come and I will impart to you the science of eternal heavenly life - ".

Such quotations as these might easily be multiplied till they filled half a dozen volumes. This yearning after God has never completely died in any generation. Always there were some who scorned the low paths and insisted upon walking the high road of spiritual perfection. yet, strangely enough, that perfection never meant a spiritual terminal point nor a state of purity that made watchfulness and prayer unnecessary. Exactly the opposite was true.

I pray God that we will all seek to heal this land. That we will ask God to search all our hearts "so deceitful and wicked", and cleanse us from every sin. So that in a deeper relationship with Christ we may truly become healers, so that God may pour forth the Spirit of His Son through us in a dry and thirsty land. All for His honor and Glory. Amen

The IMF Boss, the Governor, the Prophet and Jesus the Solid Rock

2011-05-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

Two issues dominated the minds of most persons around me this week. The " prophetic" message about God coming and the end of the world as we know it; and the exposure of the " secret lives" of two prominent citizens of the world. One accused of attempted rape. The other admitting to fathering a child with his household help. All three lost their credibility in the eyes of the world, with two having to pay a significant price for their actions, whilst the third, so far, just ends up looking foolish. Is there a lesson here for many of us who follow the "stars" of this world - those with power based on the positions they hold, the money they earn and their access to the media. Persons on whom who we unwittingly or quite often consciously try to pattern our lives - that's why the advertisers pay huge sums to enlist their help in selling their products. Are we then destined to " fall" or fail, as many of them have. And often quite ingloriously.

Not so, says the Lord God of hosts, as long we chose to follow Jesus, rather than the " princes" of this world. This is the central message to us in these times when " fire ", completely unplanned for circumstances, reveals just how ephemeral, how transient and superficial is the power, which many revel in and of which many are so envious, and hunger for, that they go to extraordinary lengths and spend huge sums of money in an effort to try and achieve the same results. And quite often leaving broken homes, broken promises and "broken bodies" -ill health - in the wake. A message that affirms the fact that those who trust in the Lord, and truly follow Him, shall never be ashamed.

First came a reflection on an old hymn during a reading, again, of John Stott's "Life In Christ", in which he features the various aspects of the foundations of Christian life using the prepositions found in the New Testament: Through Christ our Mediator; On Christ our Foundation; In Christ our Life-giver; Under Christ our Lord; With Christ our Secret; Unto Christ our Goal; For Christ our Lover and Like Christ our Model. The introduction to the hymn came as follows:

" Not only has Christ made promises in his word, but he has pledged himself to his people by an everlasting covenant. This covenant he ratifies by the blood of Christ, guarantees by his own 'steadfast love which endureth forever', and renews to us each time we come to the Holy Communion, which is a solemn covenant sign. With these foundations of faith we really have no excuse for our faithlessness. Edward Mote, a Baptist pastor in Horsham, Sussex, for twenty-six years in the middle of the last century, had clearly grasped these truths. One of his best hymns, which Bishop E. H. Bickersteth once called a 'grand hymn of faith', he entitled ' The Immutable basis of a Sinner's Hope'. You will see that this basis is compounded of the righteousness, death, name or character, grace, covenant and promises of Jesus Christ. With such a sixfold foundation, what is there to fear.

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
no merit of my own I claim,
but wholly trust in Jesus' name.

Refrain: On Christ the solid rock I stand -
all other ground is sinking sand.

When weary in this earthly race,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every wild and stormy gale
my anchor holds and will not fail.

Refrain....

His vow, his covenant and blood
are my defence against the flood;
when earthly hopes are swept away
he will uphold me on that day.

Refrain.....

When the last trumpet's voice shall sound,
O may I then in him be found!
clothed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before his throne.

On Christ the solid rock, I stand -
all other ground is sinking sand

Clearly that's what Messrs. Straun-Khan, Schwarzenegger and the " doomsday prophet" are experiencing, even if they they don't consciously accept it - that ' all other ground is sinking sand'. In fact that's a message to the entire human race which began since God Created the world and then Redeemed it from Sin and destruction, by the Blood of Christ on Calvary, that all other ground apart from Christ is 'sinking sand'. It is a message to the Tiger Wood's of this world, the Michael Jackson's, the Elvis Priestley's, the Lady Gaga's , the Beyonce's, the JayLo's, the Mavado's, the Vybes Kartel's and all who would believe the hype that success and power and fame can " see them" through this world. It is a message that Barack Obama, and David Cameron and Prince William and Princess Kate - the bright young stars of this world would do very well to learn , before unforeseen events overtake them. No doubt many of our local political - real and aspiring, young and the more mature - and business leaders could well learn a lesson from this hymn also. For the benefit of our nation and for the healing of their souls, lest they too are " overtaken" by circumstances that never even entered their minds.
Interestingly, and I have stopped believing in coincidence a long time ago, in respect of the " solemn covenant sign " that Holy Communion represents, and about which Stott writes in the introduction to the hymn, in recent times , and today was no exception, I have been led to reflect deeply on the following hymn before participating in Holy Communion each Sunday. And a verse of which I sent to persons this morning by text and by BBM.

Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face;
here faith would touch and handle things unseen;
here grasp with firmer hand the eternal grace,
and all my weariness upon thee lean.

Here would I feed upon the bread of God;
here drink with thee the royal wine of heaven;
here would I lay aside each early load;
here taste afresh he calm of sin forgiven.

I have no help but thine; nor do I need
another arm save thine to lean upon:
it is enough, my Lord, enough indeed,
my strength is in thy might, thy might alone.

Many, many times, having committed, especially the last verse, to memory, I've had reason to draw upon the strength of that solemn assurance in my personal struggles with sin, the devil and ill health, with always God God rescuing me from every situation. In much the same way that " Great is thy faithfulness ....and " there is shadow of turning with thee" has provided the same reassurance as has many many Psalms - " Thy word and thy Name has thou exalted above all things O Lord". Praise God indeed.

Finally a meditation by C. S. Lewis ( one the world's great theologians and an author, and who was once an atheist) on this very topical issue of the God coming again. A message that we all need to heed. Especially those who have built their lives, their reputations, their assurances on the " sinking sand" that this world and it's allurements have to offer. Acquiring the kind of knowledge, choosing the kind of path, placing their hopes on that which runs contrary to one of the great commands in the Bible, and which message still continues week after week to consume all my attention:

" Trust in the Lord with your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5

WHEN THE AUTHOR WALKS ON THE STAGE
C. S. Lewis
Verse: Joel 2:11

I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what will it be like when he does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on his side than, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else - something it ever entered your head to conceive - comes crashing in ; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late than to choose your side. There is no use saying you will choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. it will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it.
Amen

Preventable physical death and intentional spiritual death in Christ. A world of difference

2011-05-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

Actually Bin Laden and the Muslims are the least of America's and Western world's problems. It is not that they are not real issues, as to disrupt air travel in the way that the terrorists have been able to do, and to kill many American and other personnel in Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan and Iraq is no small matter. However in the larger scheme of things, in terms of death and trauma, terrorism ranks far down the list. David Ward, the head of the FIA foundation - an organization funded to the tune of 300USD million dollars by the racing car industry worldwide - visited with us in Jamaica two weeks ago to be our guest speaker at our function to help the UN launch its worldwide Decade of Action for Road Safety 2010-2011. And at dinner one night, he made the point that after 9/11, many Americans shifted their mode of travel from flying to driving, with the result that the deaths from road crashes increased significantly, thus contributing to the frightening data driving the action by the UN. 3000 deaths per day - compared with the total of 3000 lost in one day from 9/11 - from road traffic injuries worldwide, resulting in in excess of 1.4 million deaths and 50 million injuries annually. Interestingly, the most recent report put out by The Commission for Global Road Safety, for which he is also the Executive Director - clearly a man who knows how to multi-task- makes the point that the four main Global Killers in 2008 were HIV/AIDS ( approx 2.4 m/year); Road traffic injuries ( 1.4m/yr); Tuberculosis (1.3m/year) and Malaria ( just under 1m/year). And of all of them only road traffic injuries was projected to show an increase in 2015. So preventable death is a constant companion with us in this journey called life, but serves no useful purpose, and in fact causes much anxiety and suffering for those left behind. And further, economies suffer too, as in all four of the cases cited above, growth and development of nations are retarded as a direct consequence.

This is in sharp contrast to death in the spiritual world, as the Lord pointed out to me, and reminded me time and time again this week. In fact, the foundation of the Christian teaching is that death to self is a prerequisite for spiritual growth and maturity. There is just no other way.
The message began with a reading from one of the most important teachings, in my view, on doctrine in the Bible.
Colossians 2 & 3 - edited. NIV

" So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.........

Since, then you have been raised with Christ, set your heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God........
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed which is idolatry. because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. but now you must rid yourself of all such things as these: anger , rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator........Therefore as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. let the word of God dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or in deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to god the father through him.

Can you imagine how different things might have been, if the head of the IMF, taken off a plane at JFK airport, stunningly accused of reportedly sexually assaulting a maid in a swanky New York Hotel, and reputedly a front runner for the President of France, had been brought up with word of God according to St. Paul's letter to the Colossians.? Can you imagine if Christians worldwide, in Africa which reportedly has the fastest growing Christian population; in America where huge swathes of the country are still populated by Christians despite the growing influence of secularism; in Europe where God has largely been relegated to a "backseat'; in China which has a huge potential for growth in the Christian population; in Russia where the faith is making a come back after years of repressive rule by the Communists; if in all these parts of the world, Christians were to take this call to die to self seriously, and " set our hearts on things above", how different the world could be. In a short time!

Diseases such as Tuberculosis and Malaria might still remain a challenge, and even that's debatable, as if justice and equity were to prevail, flowing from a resurgence of a true Christian ethic, funds would be made available to fight these diseases, as they are driven primarily by povery. But HIV/AIDS and road traffic injuries are driven by a poverty of the mind and not just physical privation. A situation which could be easily reversed by an adoption of the Christian ethic of avoiding sexual immorality and loving your neighbour as yourself. So we would not drink and drive, we would cut our speed, we would wear the protective devices and thus assist in significantly reducing road traffic injuries.

But the problem is not that simple, as the Lord reminded me again, and instructed me to use the passage as the opening prayer ( his request when we meet) as we met with our Prime Minister and Chairman of our local road safety council, last week to discuss road safety issues.

" Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the his mighty power. Put on the full armor of god so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the spiritual realms.
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of of righteousness in place, and with your shoes fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish al the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of of the Spirit which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With that in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

So do we wish to know whay many more Christians are not dying to self, and living according to the Spirit of the Son of God living with them, as St Paul encouraged and exhorted us to do?

" I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith by the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2: 20 KJV.

Do we wish to know why the kingdom of God - Righteousness and holiness in the power of the Holy Spirit - is not manifestly advancing and effecting change in societies around the world, as much as it ought to be, despite great numbers of people being Baptized in America, in Africa, in Latin America and in the Caribbean? Two reasons. One is that there is a serious lack of understanding of the need to die to self, and what that entails in the spiritual world. Secondly, on account of a gross underestimation of the struggle that is taking place in the spiritual realm, and accordingly the unfortunately triumphalism that exists in certain Christian circles, not realizing just how vulnerable we are and how weak we are unless we daily, minutely, put on the full armor of God. So we face two problems. The wrath of God on account of our refusal to die to self. The wrath of Satan through lack of knowledge. And so people die on our roads, terrorists flourish, poverty claims the lives of millions, immorality ushers in death, rage spawns mayhem and grief and results in funerals across the land, malice and greed destroy a nation's conscience, and sin saps the energy and vitality of many churches - which though having a reputation for being alive are very much dead in many instances, according to the word of God written to the church in Sardis in the Book of the revelations.

What's the solution? Deep Christian love, for God and for neighbour, as the Lord woke me up early this morning to remind, rebuke and instruct me. For if we die to self, and serve with all our heart, worship regularly, give to the poor, fight valiantly against evil, baptize thousands, sing lustily, conduct much praise and worship, and have not love, it counts for nothing in the kingdom of God. That the lesson from 1 Corinthians 13. A love that is not arrogant, not rude, not self seeking, that always protects, always hopes, always trusts always perseveres. A love that helps us to love those who do not love us, who hate us and persecute us. A love that can help us to love those who don't think like us, people of diferent religions, people of diferent cultures, peple of different races, people who don't love Jesus as we do. A love that can rescue the Bin Ladens of this world, the Dons of Jamaica, our political opponents, our estranged spouse, those who assault and rape women, those of no account in the eyes of many. The prostitutes, the homosexuals, the tax offenders, the cheats, the murderers - all for whom Christ died so that men may have life and and have it more abundantly - the subject of the gospel reading for the Anglican church today in John 10.

Finally the issue of self love. Which, according to Francois Fenelon " must be uprooted, and the love of God take its place in our hearts before we can see ourselves as we are". And that is the problem, about which I will write in another messge. As Felenon writes with some discernment: "..... the less we love ourselves, the more considerate we are of others". How do we uproot this self love? The Bible says we cannot. Only God in Christ can. That why the verse of " The Old Rugged Cross" still has so much appeal after all these years.

"Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to your Cross I cling.
Naked, look to you for dress,
Helpless, come to you for grace.
Foul, I to the fountain fly,'
Wash me Savior, lest I die.
Amen.

Bin Laden's death and God's mercy

2011-05-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

Where were you on September 11, 2000 when Bin Laden's terrorists first crashed the hijacked planes into the twin Towers of the WTC, and then into the Pentagon? I was at a traffic light in my country, and about to turn onto a road which would lead me to Mandela Highway and then on to work some forty five minutes away, when BBC reported the first crash. And at which time, no one had absolutely any idea of the true nature of what was happening. Until when the second plane crashed, live on television, then the world understood that we were witnessing a terrorist attack on the USA. So I called home immediately and told my wife to turn on the TV, and then tried to get my two children on the cell phone, both of whom were living in Florida. But by then all communications had been shut down in the US. So for many agonizing hours there was no contact, and when I arrived at work, for the first time in over twenty years, everyone who was there joined in prayer. For loved ones, for the USA and for the world. Eventually, with much sadness we were to find out that a young man who we knew well, a son of a friend, died in one of the towers.

Fast forward to last week's spectacular raid on Bin Laden home in Pakistan and the news that he had been killed. What was your reaction? Was it the kind of open joy that many on US TV showed? Did you feel like joining the throng celebrating at the White House? Was it the open skepticism that greeted the news in some parts of the Arab world, and in some cases cries of revenge? Did you, like some who were interviewed on radio wonder about his human rights, and whether or not the US had the right or the need to kill him? Frankly I greeted the news with a sigh of relief, and with a sense that justice had been done, after living through the consequences of the mayhem that was unleashed on the world on that fateful day. As one who does not believe in the death penalty, I was not happy that another human being had been killed, but was relieved that, at least his death removed one major terrorist from planning further mayhem and murder across the world. Others may well succeed in doing so, but a clear message was sent - that the US will hunt you down relentlessly, and will find you. And that's a powerful message. The other one is something my wife and I discussed the next day, is that with the advance in the kind of technology available today, there is no longer any such thing as private conversation, either at home in one's living room, or on a cell phone.

So what did the Lord say to me this week in my reflections and reading of His Word which would assist us to better understand what really happened between 9/11 2000 and 5/1 2011?

First I was led to read a reflection on Mercy by Chris Tiegen during that fateful week, when Bin Laden's life was coming to an end and he had no idea whatsoever. In the same way that those who perished on 9/11 had no warning or inkling of death speeding on its way. Actually there were two meditations on the same verse, but one touched more than the other.

THE MERCY DILEMMA

" Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy". Matthew 5:7

IN WORD Have you noticed something odd about how we respond when people offend us? Have you ever really thought about our natural reaction? Our first gut feeling in such cases is to respond in kind, to return ill will for ill will, to rise to the same level in spite with which we've been tested.

We know the options that are available to us. We could respond with equal offense; we could choose simply not to care; or we could respond with a demonstration of mercy. But almost invariably, our first reaction is to meet evil with evil. We are offended first, and then we have to talk ourselves into a gracious attitude and a merciful response. It is never the other way around, where we first feel merciful and wonder why we aren't more offended. the natural self has its preferences, and this is one of its strongest. the options are before us, but the impulses know only one.

Somehow, we must reverse the the impulses. We must learn to think of mercy first. How can we do that? How can we alter something that is so ingrained, so unyielding a part of our sinful nature? How can mercy become more natural to us than our sense of vengeance?

IN DEED The key is to ask the question that's really underneath the others: How can we be more like God? Moses asked for a glimpse of God, and as God passed by, he defined Himself as " the compassionate and gracious god, slow to anger, abounding in love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin" ( exodus 34: 6-7). That's the core of who he is. that's what we're really asking here; how can we be more like that?

We have two options: We can try to reform the sinful human nature, or we can ask God for his nature. the former approach has never in history proven successful. You have probably already seen that for yourself, so give it up. Our only remaining option is to ask God. He offers us His nature. We must ask and believe he will give it. He always does.

Spare a thought for President Obama, a confessed Christian. And others who have to make tough decisions about terrorists on the run, and who have the potential and the desire to kill and maim thousands and to disrupt the western way of life. This is no easy task. And many are already accusing him, right here in Jamaica, much less in America or the Arab world, of cynically manipulating in his favor, public opinion, ahead of a challenging election period. The reality is that, without following the example set by Christ on the cross - dying for us while we were still sinners, still his enemies, still violent offenders - the supreme example of mercy and grace, we cannot claim to be his disciples. At least not with any justification. And it is not just just Bin Laden there or " Dudus" here. It may be a less challenging, but equally important situation, concerning a spouse, a child, a neighbour, a co-worker, a political opponent, where we may be quite justified in taking a certain course of action. But which action has nothing to do with mercy and cannot therefore be condoned. That why the book of James (3:13. NIV ) declares that " Mercy triumphs over judgment".

The reality is that the Muslim faith, as far as I know, does not place any such constraints on the actions of its members, and certainly has not transmitted that message by example. The Christian West however, carries this burden, even with leaders who are not manifestly Christian, but the weight of history and our culture demands that we not fall into the same cycle of vengeance that the Muslim world, at least in recent times, seems to have embraced. We watch and pray to see how the potentially dangerous situation in Egypt will play out over the next few weeks as Christians and Muslims seem to be at " war".

I'll close with the words of a hymn on which I've spent much time this week meditating. And which message speaks about the need to be constant in prayer and reflection, each day, each hour, about the goodness, faithfulness, mystery and mercy of God.

New every morning is the love
our wakening and uprising prove;
through sleep and darkness safely brought,
restored to life and power and thought.

New mercies, each returning day,
hover around us while we pray;
new perils past, new sins forgiven,
new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.

If on our daily course we our mind
be set to hallow all we find,
new treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.

The trivial round, the common task,
will furnish all we need to ask,
room to deny ourselves, a road
to bring us daily nearer God.
Only O lord, in thy dear love
fit us for perfect rest above;
and help us this and every day,
to live more nearly as we pray.

Amen

William and Kate, Bin Laden and Prayer

2011-05-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

My wife got up at 4:00 am to watch it. I had to go to work, so 6:00 am was good for me. Spent a few minutes looking at it on TV, but devotions, exercises and getting ready for work were greater priorities. But there was no mistaking the impact that this wedding of of the year (and of many many decades) had on me and quite a few billion people across the world. Kate's dress, William's " you look lovely" whisper, Pippa Middleton, the flawless reading by the brother, the richness of the Anglican worship, the awesome nature of Westminster Abbey, the royal party, the kisses, the wedding car, the one million faithful some of whom camped out for days to get a prime position, all made for a memorable occasion indeed. So I caught everything when I came home the evening, and even some of what my wife missed, on Yahoo news - Pippa's evening gown for example. For a while the entire world was caught up with this specular event.
So, in the midst of all this media frenzy, what did my Lord say to me this week. First that, at the end of the day, what really took place was that Kings and Queens, Princes, Princesses and commoners attended a ceremony in a church built to honor and to allow praise to flow to our Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly that what shall it benefit a man, or woman or future King or Queen to gain the whole world - literally - and lose their soul. So it was good that the two young people got married, but it will be even better if they, like Joshua and his house, choose to serve the Lord.
In addition the Lord led me to read and reflect deeply on a meditation that captures the essence of life - to pray without ceasing lest you fall into temptation - the temptation to believe that life is all about Camelot, Hollywood, Buckingham Palace, Usain Bolt, Bob Marley's music, Kate Middleton's dress or even Osama Bin Laden's death which is the breaking news on CNN as I write and about which President Obama is about to speak, or whatever else the media would have us focus on. NO, life is really about communicating with God in prayer. And which reflection led me to write the following e-mail to my church.

Read this meditation several times, and each time I can identify with it in my own experiences with trials. But more importantly, it strengthens my resolve to regard, even more highly, what our Lord told his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before He died; " Pray without ceasing lest you fall into temptation". And which exhortation, I believe, is the essence of what He taught in " Our Lord's Prayer". " Lead us not into temptation......". The temptation to go without praying for anytime. In fact to be constantly in touch with the only One who can protect us from evil, cure us of all ills, and save our souls from sinning. All three of which issues are ever with us - without ceasing.

POURING OUT YOUR COMPLAINT

Martin Luther

Verse Isaiah 30:19

"O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you."

You must learn to pray and not sit alone or lie about, hanging your head and shaking it, brooding over your thoughts, worrying about how you can escape and looking at nothing but yourself and and your sad and painful condition. Get up, you lazy villain, then fall upon your knees, lift up your eyes and hands towards heaven, take a Psalm or the Lord's Prayer, and pour out your trouble with tears before God, lamenting and calling upon him.....

The lifting up of hands, prayer, and the mentioning of trouble are sacrifices most pleasing to God. He desires it, and it is his will, that you should pour our your trouble before him, and not let it lie upon yourself, dragging it about with you and being chafed and tortured by it, so that in the end you will make two, or ten or a hundred calamities out of one. He wills that you should be too weak to bear and overcome such trouble, in order that you may learn to find strength in him, and that he may be praised through his strength in you. Behold, this is how Christians are made.

A couple of points.

1. This exhortation may seem a bit harsh to folks going through dire troubles, especially terminal illnesses. But remember that the advice comes from the same Martin Luther who God used powerfully to usher in the Reformation - sola fida, sola Scriptura.

By faith alone and only by Scripture - the word of God. Arguably the most important event in contemporary christian history, outside of the events which ushered in the existence of the early church. And who himself suffered much.

2. The exhortation really reaches its climax in its wisdom in the final two sentences. So, its all about our understanding how weak we are and thus when strengthened through prayer, God's holy name is praised. That's in fact the only thing we are called to do - to give Him all the honor and praise. Both of which issues sometimes escape us, if we are not vigilant - realizing how weak we are, and resolving to give Him all the praise. In fact a recall of a passage from 2 . Cor. 1: 8-9 may well be useful here.

" We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.'

3. Finally....that's how Christians are made .... through believing prayer in the midst of the severest of trials. As only that kind of faith can help to renew our church, and our country so desperately in need of God's Power and Love. So for the sake of God's Name and His honor, and the honor of His Son and our Saviour Jesus Christ the crucified, risen and ascended One, for the renewal of our church, and for the rescuing of our country, let us resolve to pray without ceasing. Amen

One of the great challenges in these modern and media controlled times, is for people, especially Christians, to blank out the world around us and listen and speak to God. Otherwise we find ourselves at the mercy of forces beyond our control and guidance from our Lord through His Holy Spirit is left for times of crisis - and when it is often too late. This need for constant prayer came home to me very pointedly yesterday when on alighting from my car parked in the supermarket parking lot, my ears were assaulted with the most sexually explicit music and lyrics that I had ever heard in all my life. Coming from right across the road in a inner city " ghetto " area! And which partying, in the late afternoon featured a bevy of dance hall ladies in full flight, and beside them were little children, boys and girls, not just watching, but " doing their own thing " also. While all this is happening, polite society is debating the new budget put out by the government, the middle class has its own grand carnival party on a Sunday, and the numbers in the mainstream churches continue to decline. So the Lord reminds us that the only real power we have to rescue a society, and a world, in deep decline, is to appreciate our weakness and cry out, literally, for His help. For only God can help us when children, the next generation, are being " dragged up" in the midst of such degenerate behaviour. And which "low life ", sadly not confined to where the poor and marginalized and often the-do-not know-better live, can only serve to perpetuate the worse aspects of human nature, and which anti-social actions have made us infamous as a nation of murder and crime and violence.
These then are indeed, the best of times for some, but also, the worse of times for others. And only God in Christ Jesus can bring peace in the hearts of human beings. Whether in London England, Kingston Jamaica, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, or Libya. And that relationship is built on the quality of our prayer life. Thank God for the many who have been faithful in believing prayer. That's why Dudus is no longer in control in Jamaica. That's why Bin Laden's time is up. That's the only way to rescue William and Kate from a superficial life of pomp and pageantry. That's the only way my country is going to be rescued from poverty, injustice, murder, corruption and gross immorality.
Finally a Word - about Prayer - which helped me along a lot these past days.

" For though we live in this world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets up itself against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought and make it captive to Christ." 2 Cor.10:3-5 NIV
Amen.

An Easter Message

2011-04-25T19:20:00.001-07:00

On my way to church for the three hour service on Good Friday, the news on a local radio station, RJR, summed up the mood and state of my country, at one level."Police discovered that a man who was caught having sex with a minor was one of their own colleagues: Police maintaining a presence in the Central Village area ( near to the old capital Spanish Town ) as intelligence gathered indicate that rival gang members were about to launch an attack on each other following the shooting death of one member of one of the gangs: President of the Jamaica Teachers Association calls on the Minister of Education to publicly retract a statement attributed to him which was unfair, incorrect and ungracious. Plus also weighing heavily on my mind was the shooting death of his one time partner, her child and her alleged lover, by another seemingly deranged policeman and who then also killed himself in yet another orgy of violence in my country.
Yesterday, however, on Easter Sunday, late in the evening, another story unfolded. This time on the sister television station, TVJ, the feature was on another event which summed up the state and mood of my country at another level. The CARIFTA GAMES ( involving the cream of the young athletes in the Caribbean) were on and the Jamaicans were " burning up the track". Winning all the relay events when the experts had predicted that the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago would have won some.

And in the midst of all of these experiences, a nation, at least some of us, paused to reflect on why Jesus died, was raised from the dead, and will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. The single most important thing, on reflection, that the Lord has continued to teach me, at one level, is the pervasiveness and power of evil, and that the only power to overcome that evil was unleashed on Easter morning. And at another level, is the unfathomable love of God our Creator and Redeemer, and whose love for mankind, all of whom He created in His own image and likeness, but which image has been marred by the Sin of Adam, and which love that passeth all human understanding, was manifest at its highest level on the Cross of Calvary. Simply amazing!
The reality then, contrary to what is unleashed daily in the printed and electronic news, is that the evil that has invaded the hearts and minds of some policemen, some entertainers, some politicians, "dons", some journalists, some pastors who are " wolves in sheep clothing", some schoolchildren, some professionals and some business people, and whose collective actions have served to place my country in a "deep dark hole ", can only be successfully overcome by the love which poured out in the Blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ on the first Good Friday. And which Power was unleashed on the first Easter Sunday.

It is within this context then, that the Lord led me to reflect deeply on the following revelations and to send them by e-mail this weekend and even this morning during my devotions.

ON THE NIGHT OF GOOD FRIDAY

I read something last night that left quite an impression on me, and, therefore, write to share it with you my brothers and sisters in Christ as we continue to be in vigil with our crucified Christ. It's a quotation from John Stott's epic and famous book , " The Cross of Christ", in which he treats with several key issues, including; Approaching the Cross; The Heart of the Cross; The Achievement of the Cross; Living under the Cross. And makes three interesting points in one particular chapter in the first section, which if taken seriously by all of us, could make a huge difference in our spirituality at STAPC and lead us into greater maturity in the faith.

CHAPTER 3 LOOKING BELOW THE SURFACE

In conclusion, the cross enforces three truths - about ourselves, about God and about Jesus Christ.

First, our sin must be extremely horrible. Nothing reveals the gravity of sin like the cross. For ultimately what sent Christ there was neither the greed of Judas, nor the envy of the priests, nor the vacillating cowardice of Pilate, but our own greed, envy, cowardice and other sins, and Christ's resolve in love and mercy to bear their judgment and so put them away. It is impossible for us to face Christ's cross with integrity and not feel ashamed of ourselves. Apathy, selfishness and complacency blossoms everywhere in the world except at the cross. There these noxious weeds shrivel and die. They are seen for the tatty, poisonous things they are. For if there was no by which the righteous God could righteously forgive our unrighteousness, except that he should bear it himself in Christ, it must be serious indeed. it is only when we see this that, stripped of our self-righteousness and self-satisfaction, we are ready to put our trust in Jesus Christ as the Saviour we urgently need.

Secondly, God's love must be wonderful beyond comprehension. God could quite justly have abandoned us to our fate. He could have left us alone to reap the fruit of our wrongdoing and to perish in our sins. It is what we deserved. But he did not. Because he loved us, he came after us in Christ. He pursued us even to the desolate anguish of the cross, where he bore our sin, guilt, judgment and death. it takes a hard stony heart to remain unmoved by love like that. It is more than love. its proper name is 'grace', which is love undeserving.

Thirdly, Christ's salvation must be a free gift. He 'purchased 'it for us at the high price of his own life-blood. So what is there left for us to pay. Nothing! Since he claimed that all was now 'finished', there is nothing for us to contribute. Not of course that we now have a licence to sin and can always count on God forgiveness. On the contrary, the same cross of Christ, which is the ground of a free salvation, is also the most powerful incentive to a holy life. But this new life follows. First we have to humble ourselves at the foot of the cross, confess that we have sinned and deserve nothing at his hand but judgment, thank him that he loved us and died for us, and receive from him a full and free forgiveness. Against this self-humbling our ingrained pride rebels. We resent the idea that we cannot earn - or even contribute to - our own salvation. So we stumble, as Paul put it, over the stumbling block of the cross.

ON SATURDAY NIGHT

Tonight I was led to read, again, 2 Cor. 4:10.
" We always carry around in our body the death Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body".

Please pray for me, as I was led to this passage, once again, tonight, after reading a part of John Stott's The Cross of Christ, and the ( generally accepted) assertion that the Cross is central to the Christian faith. I am sure that there is a powerful revelation, beyond what we can discern at the moment, and which deeper understanding will greatly assist our witness at STAPC. Verses 11-12 offer a further explanation but one gets the feeling there is something more in terms of how we need to apply this text to our lives as leaders and as part of the body of Christ.
Peace

ON EASTER MORNING

On this Blessed Easter morn the Lord pointed me to an answer. Maybe there are more, but this is certainly one, and it goes to the heart of the Christian experience. The suffering servant and the blessings that flow to others. That's why we carry around in us the death of Christ, so that the life of Christ may be revealed in us. As Christ's comfort only flows through suffering. Directly from His own and through those reconciled to Him. There is no other way. And anyone who advances that kind of theology is guilty of that for which Peter was chastened. Of representing the view of Satan. That is the essence of taking up one's cross, daily, and from which, self-denial, many of us recoil. Again and again, practicing a kind of half-way Christianity, until the Lord really gets a hold of us. In one way or another." Those who I love I rebuke and discipline, so be earnest and repent". And each one is disciplined in a different way. We should pray for discernment to know the difference between discipline and trials and persecution. And in any case they maybe one and the same.

" Praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the same comfort we ourselves have received from God for just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort."
2 Cor. 1:3-7. NIV

Praise God who always, always responds to the prayers of the faithful.
Happy Easter to you all.
In Christ.
Lucien

THIS MORNING

You however, are not controlled by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give new life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers ( and sisters), we have an obligation - but it is not to the sinful nature, to live by it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God."
Romans 8:9-14 NIV

Finally I pray in keeping with the meditation I read last night before going to bed. And which meditation hopefully will change my own approach to witnessing about the love of Christ.

OSWALD CHAMBERS

THE WARNING AGAINST WANTONING APRIL 24

" Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirit are subject to you" Luke 10:20

As Chrisyian workers, wordliness in not our snare, sin is not our snare, but spiritual wantoning is, viz., taking the pattern and print of the religious age we live in, making eyes at spiritual sucess. Never court anything other than the approval of God, go " without the camp bearing His reproach". Jesus told his disciples not to rejoice in successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us rejoice. We have this commercial view - so many souls saved and sanctified, thank God, now it is alright. Our work begins where God's grace has laid the foundation; we are not to save souls but to disciple them. salvation and sanctification are the workof God's sovereign grace; our work as disciples is to disciple lives until they are wholly yielded to God. One life wholly devoted to God is of more value to God than one hundred lives simply awakened by His Spirit.....

Unless the worker lives a life hidden with Christ in God, he is apt to become an irritating dictator instead of an indwelling disciple. Many of us are dictators, we dictate to people and to meetings. jesus never dictates to us in that way. Whenever Our Lord talked about discipleship, He always prefaced it with an " IF", never with an emphatic assertion - " You must". Discipleship carries and option with it.

May the peace that comes with the risen Christ remain and work in and through all of us, for His glory, and for the renewing of our respective countries. Our homeland, and wherever in the world we find oursleves at this point in time. Pray for the city where you are now living, for if it prospers you too will prosper. The Word of the Lord according to Jeremiah 29:7 NIV .Amen

The old rugged, the clansman gang and The Passion of Christ on Good Friday

2011-04-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

Thank God I live in a country where, at least for most Christians, this week, we can and we will, celebrate the most momentous week in the history of mankind. It's a time to place all things, events, and concerns in their proper perspective. Last week, for example, during an interview on a popular news programme, Beyond The Headlines, hosted by RJR's Dionne Jackson-Miller, our Commissioner of Police, Owen Ellington, spoke candidly about the tremendous amount of murders attributable to one particular criminal gang over the years - The Clansman gang. And whose infamous leader was killed in a shoot-out with the security forces a few years ago, and now recently, another leader, accused of causing much mayhem, was sentenced to fifteen years in jail much to the relief of many Jamaicans and people who live in the old capital where this gang has its headquarters. This interview was shared within the context of a reported 40% fall in the murder rate so far for this year. Many Jamaicans, however, attribute this welcome news, to the dismantling of the operations of "Dudus" Coke's Tivoli empire during the incursion into that area last May, consequent on the attempt to have hm extradited to the USA. All of this, in my view points to the reality of how the extraordinary wickedness of a few highly influential and organized criminals can wreak havoc in a society, thus undermining our ability to grow economically, live morally uplifting lives and raise our children in peace and harmony. In other words, people are forced to live in bondage, almost in slavery - hence the need for women and children to demonstrate on their behalf or face " punitive" action - to the whims and fancies and dictates of these criminals. Why? Why Lord, many cry out. Why have you abandoned us to these agents of Satan - interestingly, the very name (alias) of one of the gang members killed in a shoot-out with the police recently. In the same way many have cried out, why Lord, why have you abandoned us to the injustice of poor schooling, or injustice in our community, poor roads, disease, uncaring " capitalists" and corrupt government officials, dysfunctional families, HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, evil desires in our hearts, many anxieties, and worse of all death. Why Lord? Why!
Two thousand years, on a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross. And on that Cross, God in Christ, answered, forever, every cry of the human heart, even to the depths of hell itself. That's why we celebrate Good Friday, and then the glorious Resurrection of Easter, when with incomparable power, Jesus was raised from the dead, and with him the entire suffering human race, to a new life where righteousness, justice and truth abounds. But first, as the meditation I read this week, reveals, to benefit from and accept this gift of ( new) eternal life, one has to be in a covenant relationship with God. And that begins with believing in the Name ( death, resurrection and commands - according to Oswald Chambers) of Jesus.

THE BLESSINGS OF HIS COVENANT
OSWALD CHAMBERS
Verse: 2 Samuel 7:28.

It is the will of God that human beings should get into a right standing with him, and his covenants are designed for this purpose. Why doesn't God save me? He has accomplished and provided for my salvation, but I have not yet entered into a relationship with him. Why doesn't God do everything we ask? he has done it. The point is -- will I step into that covenant relationship? All the great blessings of God are finished and complete, bu they are not mine until I enter a relationship with him on the basis of his covenant.
Waiting for God to act is fleshly unbelief. It means that I have no faith in him. I wait for him to do something in me so I may trust in that. But God won't do it, because that's not the basis of the God-and-man relationship. Man must go beyond the physical body and feelings to his covenant with god, just as God goes beyond Himself in reaching out with His covenant to man. It is a question of faith in God - a very rare thing. We only have faith in our feelings. I don't believe God until he puts something tangible in my hand, so that I know that i have it. Then I say, " Now I believe." There is no faith exhibited in that. God says, " look to me and be saved........" ( Isaiah 45: 22).
When I have really transacted business with God on the basis of his covenant, letting everything else go, there is no sense of personal achievement - no human ingredient in it at all. Instead, there is a complete overwhelming sense of having being brought into union with God, and my life is transformed and radiates peace and joy.

The sad reality is that once again, this week, when this precious gift is once again celebrated and offered, many will find it interesting, even intriguing, but few will trust and obey, and enter into this wonderful relationship with an Almighty God, who, out of love for all mankind, died on the cross so that all who suffer and are in need, may find peace. What a different place my country would be if only we would trust in the God of Jacob, the God of Samuel, the God of Daniel and the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the message the songwriter left in my head this week as I reflected on the following hymn.

When we walk with the Lord
In the light of His Word ,
What a glory he sheds on our way!
He abides with us still,
And with all would trust and obey!

Trust and obey!
For there is no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise,
Not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt not a fear,
Not a sigh nor a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey!

Refrain

Trust and obey.....

Not a burden we bear,
Not a sorrow we share,
But our toil he doth richly repay;
Not a grief nor a loss,
Not a frown nor a cross,
But is blessed if we trust and obey!

Refrain

But we never can prove
The delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favour He shows,
And the joy he bestows,
Are for those who will trust and obey

Refrain

Then in fellowship sweet
We will sit at His feet,
Or we'll walk by His side in the way;
What he says we will do,
Where He sends we will go,
Never fear, only trust and obey!

Finally, the Lord led me to a meditation by Chris Tiegen on The Cross, and to a proper perspective on Sin. The only basis on which we can understand the mystery of the Christ's death. And which mystery led the songwriter to exult:

'Tis mystery all! The immortal dies:
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the first-born seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine!
'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
Let angels minds inquire no more......

GOOD AND THE CROSS

" This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured for many for the forgiveness of sins." Matthew 26:28

IN WORD God's response to our sin pulls no punches. It is a graver assessment than we have thought! The righteous God of Israel, who spent thousands of years of Old testament history condemning disobedience and idolatry, finally unleashes His full wrath for the human rebellion - on His perfect Son. The observers in the hevenlies - angels, demons, and anyone else who sees god more clearly than we do - must have staggered at the sight. the enemy had tirelessly worked for centuries corrupting the creation, and the creation willfully went along with his treason. All the while, God stored up His anger. Yet when God's judgment came, He had already sent an innocent Deliverer to stand in front of the Judge's fury.
The Cross is God's wrath made plain. It is also God's love made plain. NO man-made religion can claim such a God. All other deities are either so angry that they can't be appeased, or so innocuous that they are meaningless. Nowhere else in the universe - even in fertile imaginations - have justice and grace been reconciled so completely.

IN DEED No Human being could have come up with this plan. No human religion could have laid down a centuries-old sacrificial system to so perfectly foreshadow what would be fulfilled in one individual - the same individual who also happened to deliver the most profound teachings that the world has ever heard. No, the blood of the covenant poured out at the Cross comes from the hand of God - in judgment and love.
Meditate on the judgment of God. It was harsh and heavy. it is a true assessment of our offense. Meditate also on the grace of God. It is a love far above our understanding that pays so high a price for so unworthy a purchase. meditate and marvel at the staggering plan of God.

I pray God, that as the Christian church celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus this week, it may serve to lift Him up, and so release the power of the Holy Spirit, who alone can convict people of sin. Who alone can set captives free. Who alone can bring peace to the souls of suffering humanity. And who alone can turn even the most vicious killer, the most corrupt individual, the most deadly disease and all the fear of death, into children of God and into opportunities to celebrate and to give thanks. All because of that rugged cross on a hill far away. Amen

Nothing in my hand I bring, simly to your cross I cling: The only solution for murder and mayhem

2011-04-10T20:28:00.001-07:00

This week Thursday was not a good one for my country. We woke to the news that a horrific crash had resulted in the death of three young girls from a prominent high school in central Jamaica, Holmwood Technical. An institution which was still celebrating victory at the Inter-secondary High School Championships for girls and boys, arguably, one of, if not the most competitive in the entire world. Further, that a policeman, in a fit of rage, had shot and killed four members of his wife's family, seriously injured his wife and then killed himself! Then just tonight, it was reported that yet another teenage girl (two others committed suicide recently ) had killed herself. This has, therefore, not been a good week for my country. And unless we can find a reason and remedy for these tragic deaths, the reality is that, unfortunately, more shall follow. Not just here in Jamaica, but in Brazil, in Afghanistan, in Palestine, in the Ivory Coast, and wherever humans live and have their being. So what is to be done?

This week, in response to the deep longing of my heart about the state of my nation, the Lord sent a message about the need for His people, whom He left in the world to be minsters of reconciliation, and to be salt and light in the midst of the pain and grief, to depend on Him totally. But for this to happen we must have a change of attitude towards Him and to all our neighbours.Those we love and especially those who persecute and abuse us. As a major part of the problem in Jamaica is that we have warring factions in our communities, in our families, in the entertainment industry and worse of all, as a series of editorials in the Daily Gleaner has highlighted this week, warring factions and " gangs" in our politics. Thus sending the wrong signals to a whole new generation of youths and fostering a culture of violence, impatience, indifference to the plight of your neighbour, and a vulgar pursuit of pleasure and gain regardless of the constraints of existing moral and social norms and values. And so a nation suffers, and wonders what is to be done. This then is what the Lord said in respect of those who are called by his Name, but it would do well for others to listen and obey.

This is how it started:
My own reflections : You have to need God. And need Him desperately. Otherwise the Christian journey does not lead to maturity, but remains being sustained by " milk", and not solid food. We are all placed in situations where there is a need: for rescue from evil - trials or frank persecution; from the temptations of the lust for worldly things; from the unholy and sinful thoughts that " come out of the hearts of men and women". We only mature if these situations move us to acknowledge our complete helplessness and need for rescue by the Atonement wrought by God in Christ on the Cross of Calvary.

God's Word. " I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better". Ephesians 1:17 NIV

And continued:

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to your cross I cling.
Naked, come to you for dress;
Helpless, look to you for grace.
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me Savior, lest I die.

Verse from an old hymn.

Then a call to trust and assurance of comfort:

" I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you". John 14:18 NIV

Then a powerful Word that speaks to our need to rely completely on God and His mighty power that raised Jesus from the dead. And that there is no situation from which we cannot be rescued, especially when we are literally at " our wits end".

" I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead.....". Ephesians 1:18-20. NIV.

And:
" We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we may not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
2 Cor. 1:8-9 NIV

Finally a word about how we should respond to the " misusing of God's grace". ( Words from a hymn :And now O Father, mindful of thy love). Which is what Lent is all about. And more importantly, not about.

" Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done." 2 Cor. 7:10-11 NIV.

And the climax for the salvation of our nation, bleeding literally and metaphorically, on account of rebellion against God.

" Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died" - part of the gospel for today.
Lord, if that policeman, that gunman, that corrupt politician, that outrageous dance hall artiste, that misguided talk show host, that......had turned to Jesus, and relied completely on God, my country would not be in this state.

" You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven....If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Matthew 5:43-46. NIV

Jamaica, and indeed the world, will only be rescued, when we learn to be " imitators of God" and " live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God". ( Eph. 5:1-2 NIV) .

I give myself away, that you can use me. I give myself away.... Words from a contemporary hymn.

As like us, non- believers are desperately in need of God. Thank God for Jesus, by grace, through revelation by God's Word, we know that we need Him every hour.
Pray God, then, that we may share Christ's love with those who don't. Even "the vilest offender". In our home, family, community and nation. Wherever! For God raises the dead. These " dry bones" ( the OT reading for today) can indeed live. Forgive us Lord for we have sinned exceedingly in thought, word and deed. In what we have done and in what we have left undone. We have not loved........ Amen. That is how the message ended.

Finally, an e-mail message sent a to few selected individuals whose ability to influence the state of affairs in my country is not inconsequential. But I would suggest a worthwhile read for all of us, believers and non-believers, who wish to see meaniful change in our country.

"When you were slaves to sin, you were set free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:20-23 NIV

The reality is that all human beings are faced with the above mentioned choice, and will reap the benefits or consequences. What a great benefit would redound to the people of Jamaica were more of us minded to make the right choice! For it is the choices that we have made as a nation which are coming to haunt us now. In our homes. On the roads. Over the airwaves. And in our parliament.
Question is, are we ashamed, and willing to declare and show godly sorrow which leads to repentance and peace? Or are we just concerned, and not really desperately in need of an Almighty God who can do abundantly more than we can ask or imagine. God responds to one - the humble - with grace, but opposes the other - the proud. Good Friday will be celebrated next week. It's a good time for making choices. Amen

An explanation for Murder, Sin and tragedy in the world; and the sufficiency of the shed Blood of Christ to protect us from evil

2011-04-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

From Kingston, Jamaica to Gaddafi's Libya, to the struggles in Bahrain and Syria, to the longstanding challenges between Pakistan and India to the unrest in Northern Russia which occasionally spills over into the capital city Moscow, people all over the world are looking for peace. And none more so than us here in Jamaica, as a nation experienced, yet again, the tragedy of a student from a prominent high school being killed because of his cell phone. As despite a welcome drop in the murder rate thus far this year, far too many parents and communities continue to grieve over the sudden loss of a child or an adult.
So, this week the Lord spoke a Word about Sin and repentance , belief and faith. All of which require serious contemplation if we are ever going to have peace in our land. The revival of righteousness and holiness for which many have been, and continue to pray.

This first meditation, was not the the start of the revelation - about revival - but it is certainly a critical part of it. And it needs to be understood within the context that, all good thoughts and desires come from God, and the fact that, according to God's holy Word, the " heart" which is inherited from Adam, is desperately wicked. That's why repentance, an acknowledgment of our wickedness before a Holy God, though humbling, is so vital in repairing the broken relationship between the Creator and mankind. The sadness is not so much that those outside the church do not feel this need to repent, but more so that many within the church have become so spiritually arrogant and lukewarm, and perhaps so much like the Pharisees of old, that David's cry , " Create in me a new heart", is no longer a priority for them.

ANSELM'S CONFESSION ( 1033-109)
Anselm was a former Archbishop of Canterbury

Verse 1 John 1.9

I am frightened of living Lord.
My whole life seems sinful or sterile.
Any fruits I bear are either false or rotten.
Nothing I do seems pleasing to you.
I am a barren tree that deserves
To be chopped down, cut and burnt.
I bear only the sharp and bitter thorns of sin.
If only those thorns could prick me into repentance.
Inside me my conscience burns.
I dare not show myself, yet I have nowhere to hide.
What will happen to me?
Where can I find safety?
Who will protect me from your wrath?
Lord, you are my judge in whose hands I tremble.
Yet you are also the one who can save me.
Though I fear you, i trust you.
Though I want to flee from you, i flee towards you.
Jesus, Jesus, forget the sin by which I have provoked you,
And see only the misery which invokes you.
Most kind Lord,
Confirm in me all that belongs to you,
And cast away all that is alien to you.

So if not just a Bishop, but an Archbishop, could cry out to God, like King David did, how much more should we spend time this Lent, repenting for our presumptuousness before a Holy God.

The second meditation, from CHRIST TIEGEN describes an essential part of the Christian journey, about which we need to be forewarned, but is also a topic about which many don't like to hear. That not only are we in a constant battle with our own sinful nature, but that the evil one, the Devil is also constantly warring for our souls and inflicting harm on the unsuspecting, the spiritually naive and the unprotected.

THE EVIL PERSONALITY
" I know where you live - where Satan has his throne". Rev. 2:13

IN WORD Jesus' words to the Perganum church may have referred to the city as Satan's central power base. Even so, we know that the words also apply to us. Satan is not omnipresent like God, so we don't know exactly where that finite creature is at the moment. But we do know that we live where he has his throne. he runs rampant on this planet. John confirmed it in one of his letters. " The whole world is under the control of the evil one ( 1 John 5:19).
If you have been a child of God for long, if your home has been the body of Christ for any time at all, you know: Evil is not a force to explain; it is far more personal than that. Let the philosophers and the theologians wrestle with the " problem of evil". We wrestle with the evil one. We are not harassed by a concept. " Our struggle is.....against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" ( Ephesians 6:12). We don't engage in a philosophy of evil; we fight against evil personalities.

IN DEED This is a frightening task, but it's our only way to victory. Forsake all though of evil simply as a force in the world. Never depersonalize it. Recognize that there is a relentless, malicious intelligence behind all the pain you see. Some of Satan's minions know you by name. Jesus' ministry made that clear. He never cast out a problem; he cast out spirits. He held conversations with them and called them by name. You can't do that with an abstract principle.
How does that help us in our daily struggles? It brings us face-to-face with reality. When the Bible tells us to overcome evil with good, it is not speaking about abstracts. it means that we are to overcome the evil one with the Good One. We have a Warrior, a Victor, a conquering King. Read revelation and see. And when all hell breaks loose against you, rely completely on Him.

I could be tempted to end the message here, as the above is sufficient. It explains the wickedness abroad in my country. The murders. The rapes. The cause of so much adultery and fornication in the society, both of which are destroying family life - a major social challenge being fought without a clear understanding of the overarching problem. The desire for and the promotion of " bleaching" in my country of mostly negro people. The elevation of some entertainers, talk show hosts and newspaper columnists, out of whose hearts and lips and minds come all kind of outrageous lyrics, comments and conversations, to positions of " authority" and influence in this nation. The elevation of " Dons" who rule with unspeakable cruelty in their communities, to positions of great influence over the body politic, for many years now, and not just in recent times, is no ordinary feat carried out by an evil force, but by the evil one himself. The increasing "marginalization" of the views of the people of God, the church, by the "onward rush" of secular thought, is no common achievement in a country of " Puppa Jesus", and " Massa God" - the God of slave forebears, and on whom they relied in times of ( constant ) trouble. Yes, we could warn our people of the role of the evil one and leave it there. But there is more.
Prompted by the " revelation" of Archbishop Anselm's confession last night, and realizing that my obedience in observing a Holy Lent was faltering, with repentance, I turned away from the excitement of so much sports on television, and opened my Bible. And read the entire book of Hebrews. Which is all about faith and belief in the sufficiency of Christ and His Atonement by His Blood on the Cross of Calvary to lead us into a new relationship, a new covenant with God. Peace with God and a revival of righteousness and holiness and justice. Which then placed this other meditation by CHRIS TIEGEN in context.

FAITH THEN SIGHT

" Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God". John 11:40

IN WORD One of the foundational dynamics of the kingdom of god is this principle of faith, then sight. How often we try to reverse that order! Our natural inclination - and probably that of Martha in this passage, as she n mourns the death of her brother Lazarus - is to say we'll believe when we see the glory of God. But throughout Jesus' ministry, He is emphatic about that we have it backward. We'll see the glory of God when we believe.
It's the way of the flesh that says, " I'll believe it when I see it. " Jesus says, " you'll see it when you believe it. " It's one of the hardest principles for the Christian to grasp. The work of almighty sovereign God, is often actually dependent on the level of our faith. it isn't that we limit Him; it;s that He has limited Himself. His modus operandi in this world is to act in response to our faith. As incredible as it seems, the biblical witness is that our belief prompts His intervention. And without belief, he often does not intervene.

IN DEED Do you find yourself in a difficult situation. Believe God and you will see His glory. That does not mean that we lay out a plan for Him and then complain when He meets our needs another way. Faith does not dictate God's method of intervention. But it certainly invites His act of intervention - in His His way and in His time.
This will mean believing that god has specifically allowed your crisis in the first place. Jesus let Lazarus die - on purpose! He said His friend's sickness was for the glory of God to be revealed ( v.4), and he intentionally stayed where he was for two days after hearing of Lazarus' illness(v.6). When the crisis comes, do we complain that god was not watching over us, or do we watch for His glory? Our inward response might have more impact than we think. Jesus is clear: " if you believed, you would see the glory of God."

So do wish to have peace in our countries? The first step is to acknowledge that we carry with us the Sin of Adam, and thus we need to repent of our many sins which war against our souls. Then we need to understand that the evil one is right there in the midst of all of this fighting against us, the children of God with all kinds of temptations. And inciting those who do not belong to God to engage in all kinds of unspeakable evil. Finally, we need to believe in the sufficiency of the shed Blood of Christ to rescue us from the madness of the flesh, the evil one and the world, all of which are trying to keep us from a renewed relationship with God. Lent is thus a wonderful time to contemplate all these things, and to seek the power of God to bring a revival of righteousness and peace to our souls, our families, our communities, our church and to our respective countries. Amen