This late night reflection on a message from Oswald Chambers got me thinking. A lot! About the state of the church and our call to be salt and light in a broken #violenceinschools #gaza #protestersonUSAcampuses #samesexmarriage in Methodist churches in the USA #wrongaddesses and #Ukraine and #Haiti world. This as we celebrate Jesus. What Vision does the church in Jamaica and in the USA have?
MAY 9
Reaching Beyond Our Grasp
Where there is no revelation [or prophetic vision], the people cast off restraint… PROVERBS 29:18
There is a difference between holding on to a principle and having a vision. A principle does not come from moral inspiration, but a vision does. People who are totally consumed with idealistic principles rarely do anything. A person’s own idea of God and His attributes may actually be used to justify and rationalize his deliberate neglect of his duty. Jonah tried to excuse his disobedience by saying to God, “…I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm” (Jonah 4:2). I too may have the right idea of God and His attributes, but that may be the very reason why I do not do my duty. But wherever there is vision, there is also a life of honesty and integrity, because the vision gives me the moral incentive.
Our own idealistic principles may actually lull us into ruin. Examine yourself spiritually to see if you have vision, or only principles.
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?
“Where there is no revelation [or prophetic vision]….” Once we lose sight of God, we begin to be reckless. We cast off certain restraints from activities we know are wrong. We set prayer aside as well and cease having God’s vision in the little things of life. We simply begin to act on our own initiative. If we are eating only out of our own hand, and doing things solely on our own initiative without expecting God to come in, we are on a downward path. We have lost the vision. Is our attitude today an attitude that flows from our vision of God? Are we expecting God to do greater things than He has ever done before? Is there a freshness and a vitality in our spiritual outlook?
Gaza mourns …without ceasing!Nothing in my hand I bring……
“The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.”
Judges 6:1 NIV
“When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.””
Judges 6:7-10 NIV
“The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’”
Judges 7:2 NIV
Yesterday, during my #lumchtimedevotions the Lord led me to read about Gideon. But not just about Gideon. Also about the fickleness “ prone to wander, Lord I know it, from the God I love” ( says the hymn writer) of the love that Israel had for, not just the Living God, but the God who “ rescued them from the hands of all their oppressors”.
Then this morning, as I prayed the first of three early morning prayers by Jacob Boheme, I was reminded that it was not my own strength and good fortune that kept me safe during the long dark hours of the night. But God Himself! And yet again. And again. For a very long time as I am big man now.
ON WAKING
Living Lord, you have watched over me, and put your hand on my head, during the long dark hours of night.
Your holy angels have protected me from all harm and pain. To you Lord I owe life itself. Continue to watch over me and bless me during the hours of day.
Comment: Then the thought came to me that it must be a big challenge to be a politician and a Christian. For the natural tendency, politically sensible, and the received wisdom of the age, is for the them to claim paternity for every good thing that happens in the nation and in the lives of their constituents. And in fact if they can declare “ never done before in the history of this country”, all the better – presumably in the eyes of the voters. Of course that kind of mindset runs completely contrary to the message from Gideon’s encounter with the Lord. That whatever happens, and not only in difficult circumstances, but in good times also “ Give God the glory”.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost! But it didn’t end there. For the same temptation can and who knows has affected the ordained and the leaders, the Bishops and Overseers.
“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.”
Acts 20:28 NIV
I close with two thoughts . One from the third prayer by Jacob Boheme. At the very end!
ON GOING TO WORK
……………….Above all, remind me constantly that I have nothing except what you give me, and can do nothing except what you enable me to do.
The other, a well known and often quoted, shared in this context, verse of a great hymn:
Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace:
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Savior, or I die.
Lord we beseech thee to renew thy church beginning with those who know they bring nothing to the table but depend solely on your grace and mercy; Lord we beseech thee, you only who know the state of our hearts, to renew the church so that the church may renew the nation where “ Jah Kingdom goes to waste”. And his momma cries
Listen carefully to the words of the song, one of my favorites, along with Etana’s #wrongaddress on how and why young men grow up in the ghetto, unattended by care and love, die violently. Because we as a nation and as church are too strong and wise, and don’t understand the power of evil. In the ghetto! And in “ polite company “. And so The Philistines, The Median of this age, are upon us, and we too like the children of Israel need to humble ourselves and cry out to the God who has delivered us before, and will do so again. Cry out for mercy. With a broken and contrite heart O God you will not despise. From top to bottom in the church. As we celebrate Jesus! And stop looking for Samson! The received wisdom of this age.
In obedience
Shalom
LWJ
Woke up this morning and going about doing my early morning chores, and thinking about last night’s message, especially “ this ship has sailed”, when this Word came to mind:
“ Not that I have obtained it as yet”. And then the entire passage written by Paul whose “ I want to know Christ”, desire to know nothing but Christ and him crucified is forever etched in our memory, came to mind:
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:10-14 NIV
The challenge for us, in this liberal theology age, everything is everything age, which is message from the both this passage and the message last night from Oswald Chambers, is to have a sound doctrine of Christ. To desire to know Christ above all else. Above doing good works for him. Above building the church. Above rescuing the perishing . Above solving social justice issues. Above even wanting others to know Him. For none of the above can be achieved if we have not, as Oswald Chambers declared in the message last night, and as Scriptures urges us, died to self. And love him passionately and solely above all others in our lives. The context of “ hate even mother and father”. And the meaning of “ seek ye first the kingdom of God…and all other things will be added ( by God) unto thee).
I close with the words of the hymn which undergirded this ministry from day one. And which words came to mind as I contemplated why would anyone have this passion for Christ and Him crucified! And the hymn writer answers “ How I can I not love him “?
1. My God I love thee not because
I hope for heaven thereby,
nor yet because who love thee not
are lost eternally.
2 Thou, O my Jesus, thou didst me
upon the cross embrace;
for me didst bear the nails and spears,
and manifold disgrace,
3 and griefs and torments numberless,
and sweat and agony; yea, death itself – and all for me
who was thine enemy ( lost in sin..born in iniquity…of Adam…my words)
4. Then, why, O Blessed Jesu Christ,
should I not love thee well……
The hymn writer continues ( #138 in our Anglican CPWI hymnbook) for another two and a half verses, and ends dramatically, with the reality that he loves his dearest Lord, solely because this God-man is “ my God” , and has proven by his death on Calvary to be “ my most loving King”.
And that’s why we ought to, and the only true way, to love Jesus. To love God. Because he died for me, “ whilst I was yet his enemy”. And was deserving of all his righteous wrath! Praise God. Hallelujah!
Then, and only then will he send me, with authority and with power and with love, to bring Him glory by seeking the lost, binding up the wounded, speaking truth to power, to do mercy and to love justice. For and to the stranger , the orphan, and the widows of this dying and broken world. In Gaza! Haiti! And Jamaica land we cry for.
And to celebrate his love and mercy and grace
As I read Oswald Chambers’ devotional guide tonight, it came home to me that if we don’t understand these things then “ the ship has sailed “ for us as Christians. And only grace and mercy and forgiveness if we repent of any vestige of trying to DIY, can help. And return us to be in good favor with God. Regardless of our position in the church!
Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it… LUKE 14:28
Our Lord was not referring here to a cost which we have to count, but to a cost which He has already counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal, and hatred, the unfathomable agony He experienced in Gethsemane, and the assault upon Him at Calvary— the central point upon which all of time and eternity turn. Jesus Christ has counted the cost. In the final analysis, people are not going to laugh at Him and say, “This man began to build and was not able to finish” (Luke 14:30).
The conditions of discipleship given to us by our Lord in verses 26, 27, and 33 mean that the men and women He is going to use in His mighty building enterprises are those in whom He has done everything. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple ” (Luke 14:26). This verse teaches us that the only men and women our Lord will use in His building enterprises are those who love Him personally, passionately, and with great devotion— those who have a love for Him that goes far beyond any of the closest relationships on earth. The conditions are strict, but they are glorious.
All that we build is going to be inspected by God. When God inspects us with His searching and refining fire, will He detect that we have built enterprises of our own on the foundation of Jesus? (see 1 Corinthians 3:10-15). We are living in a time of tremendous enterprises, a time when we are trying to work for God, and that is where the trap is. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus, as the Master Builder, takes us over so that He may direct and control us completely for His enterprises and His building plans; and no one has any right to demand where he will be put to work.]
Then” Prone to wander….from the God I love”, came into my mind. Uninvited! And then one thing led to another and to this:
Lord renew thy church beginning with me; Lord renew thy church that the church may renew the nation(s) filled with people who are wandering aimlessly without you, even though they seem to be on the face of it, heading in the right direction.
Parents and child in church – best thing they could do for her
Yesterday, the Rector mentioned Majesty Gardens, and the St. Thomas Mission in his sermon – one of the outreach projects of STAPC. It was my turn, and privilege and appointment, to lead the service there and to preach. After the sermon I asked Andre – our resident musician – to play a song for us. And he did! Much to the delight and the worship experience of troubled souls living in that inner city #wrongaddress community. Falling in love with Jesus. He’s the best thing that ever happened to me. And so I am moved to share the song above with you my sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, and to share the structure of the message – didn’t stick to the script – I gave yesterday as we celebrate Child’s Month.
MESSAGE STRUCTURE
The Gospel
John 15:9-17
Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
Comment: Jesus says “ I am the truth, the way and the life”. And the Christian faith includes bringing up your children in the love and fear of God. Jesus in fact was very explicit in declaring that little children should be fought to know him. This morning then we examine briefly the Theme for child’s month “ nurturing children for holistic development”. Which in essence means that we as parents and guardians have to look beyond the basics of reading writing and arithmetic. Beyond PEP. Beyond Champs and Manning Cup Football. Beyond preparation for the job market. It really means in the Christian context introducing your children to Godly ways, early. To show respect to the older ones. To practice cleanliness and tidiness. To be honest and to be always fair to others. To be kind to others and to always strive for excellence.
But if children are to learn Godly ways, since they learn what they see, and that good manners are caught and not just taught, then parents have to know God. They have to demonstrate and engage in regular prayer. Reading the Word of God regularly “ Thy Word O Lord have I stored up in my heart that I may not sin against thee”. Attend church regularly and bring the children with them. Be kind to their neighbors. Daddy has to show the children that he loves mommy. Be forgiving . Don’t spoil the child…and spare the rod.
Finally if parents are to learn Godly ways and contribute to “nurturing children for holistic development” , then the church, the Body of Christ to which the parents and children belong, ought to be a teaching church. A preaching church. A singing church. A praying church. A church that engages in evangelism and social justice issues: assisting the poor, fighting for justice for the powerless and disadvantaged,
And those in the church who are called by God to teach, need to practice, of first priority, the presence of Godin their lives. This according to Brother Lawrence :
CONTINUE IN HIS PRESENCE ( From my Classics Devotional Bible
Brother Lawrence ( 1605 – 1691…..Nicholas Herman spent 18 years in the French army…..and later when he was 50 years old, he joined the Carmelite order. There he became known as Brother Lawrence. He never sought to advance beyond the service of a lay brother, and served as a cook for 30 years. Despite his life of Catholic religious service, the orthodox mystical spirituality of Brother Lawrence has been received more widely in Protestant churches than in the Roman Catholic. Some of his simple writings including The Practice of the Presence of God, have been published.
Verse: Proverbs 8:30 …..Then I was the craftsman at his side, I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence.
There is no greater 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, also 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 received 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.
I didn’t sing this song, below, which came into my heart whilst preparing. But as I write this morning, about the best thing that ever happened to me, knowing Jesus, and Brother Lawrence’s call on our lives, the reality is that “ you did not choose me, I choose you”, is the essence of the song below. A response we are called to make if we are to properly guide our children in the ways of the Lord and rescue our country and children. From evil!
1 Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
calling for you and for me;
see, on the portals he’s waiting and watching,
watching for you and for me.
Refrain:
Come home, come home;
you who are weary come home;
earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
calling, O sinner, come home!
2 Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not his mercies,
mercies for you and for me? [Refrain]
3 Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,
passing from you and from me;
shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,
coming for you and for me. [Refrain]
4 O for the wonderful love he has promised,
promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, he has mercy and pardon,
pardon for you and for me. [Refrain]
”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 each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”“ Jeremiah 17:9-10 NIV
Yesterday, during my #lunchtimedevotions, the Word above came to me as I opened my Bible randomly and read what was already highlighted in green – from many years ago. And so it’s all about whether or not our hearts are clean before a holy God. This as “ the heart is deceitful and beyond cure, and beyond all understanding”.
Later on I would read in the New York Times about this:
Texas state troopers with protesters at the University of Texas at Austin on Wednesday.Credit…Jay Janner/USA Today Network, via Reuters
This story was reported on the ground from campuses in Austin, Los Angeles, Boston, Rhode Island, San Antonio and New York.
Published April 24, 2024Updated April 25, 2024, 1:29 a.m. ET
A wave of pro-Palestinian protests spread and intensified on Wednesday as students gathered on campuses around the country, in some cases facing off with the police, in a widening showdown over campus speech and the war in Gaza.
University administrators from Texas to California moved to clear protesters and prevent encampments from taking hold on their own campuses as they have at Columbia University, deploying police in tense new confrontations that already have led to dozens of arrests.
At the same time, new protests continued erupting in places like Pittsburgh and San Antonio. Students expressed solidarity with their fellow students at Columbia, and with a pro-Palestinian movement that appeared to be galvanized by the pushback on other campuses and the looming end of the academic year.
Protesters on several campuses said their demands included divestment by their universities from companies connected to the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, disclosure of those and other investments and a recognition of the continuing right to protest without punishment.
Comment: The challenge , the existential challenge that students, and at one time many of us were in that mode, protesters, and adult also, face is that what they wish to change, the heart, is beyond their cure. And beyond their understanding. For how can you fathom the mindset that would lead to #GenocideinGaza. And #GenocideinGermany during world war 11, when Hitler exterminated 6 million Jews. Or Pol Pot regime in Cambodia, or Stalin’s reign of terror in Russia when millions died. Or Biafra. Or South Africa. And over 1000 murdered every year in Jamaica for years.
No! The problem of changing the hearts of men and women, sinful humanity, is not the gift of protesters, nor “progressive rulers”, but in what the Benedictus announces:
“ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel: for he hath visited and redeemed his people:
And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us: in the house of his servant David. A promise made to the one who God described as “ one after his own heart”. The one who cried out, after #Bathsheba :
”Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.“ Psalms 51:10, 17 NIV
And the Living God, creator of Heaven and earth, Gaza, and Israel, Jamaica and Haiti, who saw the heart of David, forgave him of his terrible and egregious sin. But like all the other great men of God had to :
”These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.“ Hebrews 11:39-40 NIV.
Only together with us in Christ Jesus.
That’s the background for the Report of the Lord for today.
One 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.”“ 1 Corinthians 1:18-19 NIV
”For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and 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 human wisdom, but on God’s power.“ 1 Corinthians 2:2-5 NIV
And the second report rests on this first one. That:
”He must become greater; I must become less.”“ John 3:30 NIV
This as those who err, those who are disobedient, those who are tempted to preach “ Jesus and the Cross, plus other things”, those who find meaning and power in anything beyond the cross of Christ, are those who have become in their minds, whether consciously or subconsciously, greater, and Christ has become, in their preaching and in their livity, less and less. Despite their claim to believe in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One God.
And so that kind of Christianity has no power to fight against evil. And change the hearts of broken humanity. And so the land mourns as the children in Gaza, and all over the world suffer and die. Because of unchanged hearts. Thank God for Jesus, we have a remnant in the world, through whom God will effect his power to change the world. According to his purpose and timing ! And then one fine day, cometh The Judgement.
Until then those who preach and live Christ and Him Crucified, as first priority, and seek to become less , and allow the Christ in them to become greater, “ Christ in you the hope of glory”, and not seek glory for themselves , God will use those who repent of their sinful ways, whose hearts God alone sees, and “ change my heart O God, make it truly thine”. For his glory and honor. And use them to heal Gaza, and Israel, and Jamaica and Haiti.
Good and gracious God we beseech to renew thy church with those whose hearts have been washed and purified by the cleansing blood of the Lamb of God, even Jesus Christ and him crucified. Lord renew thy church that the church may renew the nation(s) where hearts which are evil cause pain and grief and no peace.
In the coming days, Congress may advance a bill to ban TikTok or force its sale to an American company. Politicians in both parties call the app a threat to national security. But its reach is felt most acutely in our culture. Since it first arrived in the United States in 2018 (after merging with another app), its 15-second gulps of entertainment have become a fixture in the lives of tens of millions of Americans — including those who’ve never opened the app.
The engine that powers this juggernaut is TikTok’s recommendation algorithm, which figures out what users like and populates a customized feed of addictive videos. It’s called the For You Page, or FYP. It was not built to connect people with friends, the way Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat were. It was built to entertain.
…….A few schools have removed bathroom mirrors because so many students were leaving class to film TikTok videos there. These clips constitute “a TikTok genre, dating back at least five years, in which students use school bathrooms as film sets for dance routines, lip-syncing clips or critiques of unclean lavatories,” my colleague Natasha Singer, who covers tech use in schools, writes. School bathrooms have also become “arenas to stage, film and post videos of bullying, physical assaults on schoolmates and acts of vandalism.”
As I opened my iPad to write about what the Lord woke me up at 4:am, exactly, Thursday morning, this article, this very relevant article came up on my screen.
”As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul’s heart, and all these signs were fulfilled that day. When he and his servant arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he joined in their prophesying. When all those who had formerly known him saw him prophesying with the prophets, they asked each other, “What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?”“ 1 Samuel 10:9-11 NIV
A story about how Saul became king, and why Saul became King, and how God rejected Saul in due course. A story about how the children of Israel rejected God and asked for a King – just like the other nations. A story which began in the most ordinary way – a search for donkeys – and which ended up with the revelation that only God can change the hearts of raging, fighting schoolboys. Only God can change hearts. And as we know from the Good Friday and Easter experience “ Christ is Risen indeed”, God in his infinite mercy chose to change hearts in and through the shed blood of His only Son Jesus Christ.
And as I read this remarkable story in the “ dead of night”, into my heart, came this song:
Change my heart O God, make it be like yours:
Change my heart O God , may I be like you
Until I did a search and found the correct lyrics:
…this is what I pray. This is what the church ought to pray. For changed hearts. In the schools – students and teachers. In communities. In homes. In the parliament. In the media. And O God especially in the church. and not just in Jamaica but also in the USA, where once something is popular the whole thing is exported all over the world. And so Tic Tok with all its allure is very current among schoolchildren here in Jamaica – that’s why we have videos of the six days of fighting. And no idea why! Except the reality that hearts need to be changed in this warring country. In warring Israel. In warring Gaza. In warring Iran. In warring Haiti. By soldiers of the defense of the Gospel of Jesus. which is what I was led to read about last night:
WILLIAM BOOTH
“In 1878, thirteen years after the Mission was founded, something happened that would profoundly alter how the organization was known – and how it saw itself. Booth was dictating a letter when his son Bramwell – then twenty two – overheard his father refer to the Mission as a “ volunteer army”.
Bramwell instantly retorted, “ Volunteer! I’m no volunteer. I’m a regular.
William saw the point and instructed his assistant to cross out the word volunteer and substitute the word salvation instead. The line thus read, “ The Christian Mission is a Salvation Army”.
And so when Helen Baylor sings about soldiers of the defense of the Gospel, we as church need to see ourselves as a Salvation Army, spreading and living out the Good News that ( only) Jesus saves. Schoolboys. Teachers. Schoolgirls. And all Tic Tok users. For the glory of God and for the rescuing of the “ entire human race”.
Lord renew that church beginning with me; Lord renew thy church that the church may renew he nation(s) where the quest for entertainment and all costs has caused people to reject he true and Living God of mercy. I was a good girl once. And now I loose. On Tic Toc. In Kingston jamaica.
In obedience
Shalom
LWJ
”It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.“
Romans 9:16 NIV
Last night, after hearing news that one of my young patients, 21, years old, information shared by a grieving mother, had been murdered (over 30 shots) , this Word above was my “ song in the night”. Received according to Oswald Chambers, “ in the flesh and blood of life”.
The context of course was :
”What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.“
Romans 9:14-18 NIV……..God’s mighty act of deliverance of the children of Israel through Moses from Pharaoh, but the Biblical Truth is the same, “ yesterday, today, and forevermore”. That God in Christ Jesus reveals that he is a God of mercy.
Which is the same message I received after listening to a sermon last week by the visiting Primate of Scotland, Bishop Mark. A sermon which included Peter’s encounter with Jesus after the resurrection. And how Peter responded three times ( after having denied him three times) to Jesus’ question “ Do you love me’? And the answer I received was that Peter did not love Jesus only because he had been forgiven of having denied the Christ three times, but listen to this, which is what he actually wrote in his first letter – which I was led to read:
”Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.“
1 Peter 1:1-2 NIV
Note “chosen”, ( the name of a popular series …started watching it but lost interest. after a while ) according to God’s foreknowledge, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood. There is more,much more, but we do not need to go any further to understand the mind of Peter. But perhaps we should, I am being urged:
”Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.“
1 Peter 1:3-6 NIV
Here we come to understand why Peter was committed to “ feed my sheep” and take care of my lambs. Because of the great mercy of God the Father in and through the crucified Jesus; through the resurrected Jesus.
So throughout history, God has been a God of mercy. We need to hold fast to this Truth, in the midst of “ War and Peace”, whatever may come in our lives and in the lives of the church through which Body of Christ, we ought to declare like William Boothe of Salvation Army fame, “ God shall have all of Lucien Jones….all of Vivienne Jones….all of Howard Gregory….all of Georgia Cecile Jervis….all of all of us. To the glory of the God of Jacob. Why? Because by the shed blood of Christ Jesus “ we were bought by the price of blood “, we are no longer our own. But belong completely to the God who in his mercy rescued us from Sin and death and all evil.
Then, and only then, shall Justice, whether reparative or otherwise, one of the themes of Bishop Howard’s Synod charge:
”But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!“
Amos 5:24 NIV…roll on like a river in this country. And in Gaza! And in Haiti. Then and only then will the Anglican and other churches become “ salt and light “ in this nation where “murderers and thieves abound”, because we first, in response to the mercy of God on our lives, commit to bring news of this mercy, this mighty salvation by God in Christ, to all whom we meet.
And so we pray the prayer of the former Decade of Evangelism, which is still waiting to happen:
Lord renew thy church beginning with me; Lord renew thy church that the church may renew the nation(s). With thy mercy!
In obedience
Shalom
LWJ
The First Lesson
Acts 3:12-19
Peter addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.
“And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.”
Cape Coast Castle, Ghana
Comment: I speak to you my fellow Jamaicans, in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Have you so easily forgotten that our forefathers were slaves, transported from Africa, taken past “ the door of no return’, in slaves ships to the “ New World”. And during which journey, Nina Simone’s haunting song “ I’d rather be a dead and and buried in my grave and go home to my Lord and be free”, inspired this challenging song by The Gospel Singers……
….and reminds us how many slaves jumped overboard and perished rather than be transported to hell.
Have you so easily forgotten what our former slave forebears when freed by the mighty hand of God, when given “ free villages” by the Baptists in the North, when taught about Jesus in south by the Moravians, taught their children about Puppa Jesus and Massa God” tek de case”. Placed their trust in the living God, and sang “ trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey”.
And so our society became by the grace of God, a Christian society, whose values and attitudes which reflected our belief in a saving God, defined the nation. A people who feared God. A people who gave thanks to God for Jesus in their “livity” and who once celebrated Good Friday and Easter with piety and thanksgiving.
Why then my people have you so easily forgotten what God has done for us, and turned our backs on the mighty salvation wrought for us, on Good Friday at a spiritual level, and which knowledge about freedom inspired our quest for independence. Why have we rejected the values of our forefathers and created broken cisterns, in the society and O Jesus, in the very church, that can hold no water.
”“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.“
Jeremiah 2:13 NIV
Sought to establish a way of life that ignores the Cross of Christ, sought to free ourselves, as church from “ living under the Cross”, and so behave like others who “ don’t even know how to blush”.
O God you know how many of our people joined in open rebellion to a call to be holy as you are holy, participated in the bacchanal on Sunday, celebrating baadness and rejoicing over the earnings of big bucks for the nation. 5 Billion. But with what effects on the morals of the young and impressionable? And then as a society suffering from the effects of murder most foul, and madness and death on our roads, we wonder about the “ hearts of men gone cold”. For out of the hearts of men come all kinds of evil thoughts!
Went for my early morning walk, and others thoughts came to mind, but this one more than all others, for “ the kingdom of God is not about talk, but about power”.
”Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.“
Revelation 2:4-5 NIV
For like church, so the society, as we are the “ salt of the earth “, we have forgotten that of first importance Jesus died for our sins. That’s why we ( ought to ) love him, above all else. For the truth is that Jesus did not come, of first importance, as a crusader for Justice, as a defender of human rights, as a beacon of hope in the struggle to mitigate Climate Change, and to fight for and preserve democracy. Jesus came to call sinners to repentance,of first importance.
”On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”“
Mark 2:17 NIV
When William Wilberforce famously declared that “ God Almighty has set before me two Great Objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners, he did so only after regaining his “Methodist faith”. The evangelical faith that people like John Wesley and others set in motion by preaching Christ and him crucified in 18th century Britain. Similarly when the young William Boothe of The Salvation Army fame, declared that “ God shall have all there is of William Boothe”, he did so after coming to true faith in the crucified Christ. The point is that the great benefits of Christianity “ the inalienable rights of all mankind”, are derived from God’s mighty salvation for “ all who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. Broken humanity whose imageo dei, “ made in the likeness and image of God” was not destroyed, but marred in the Fall in the Garden of Eden, thus producing “ Adam’s helpless race”, out of whose hearts flowed all kinds of desires for bacchanal and murder and injustice and the reasons for climate change. And “ such men and women” can only seek justice and love mercy and walk humbly with God, if they first repent and turn to God and become a new creation by the shed blood of Jesus. Our first love! Otherwise we are behaving like Don Quixote – chasing windmills and talking a good talk. With no power ! This as power to change the hearts and souls of men comes only by living under the cross of Christ.
May the God of Jacob have mercy on all who have forgotten their first love, Christ the crucified, risen, ascended and soon coming again as judge, watch for him and not the eclipse, for the living and the dead. Renew us and empower us to call sinners to repentance of first priority. And then all other things will follow!
In obedience
Shalom
LWJ
PS- from the blog on Saturday
I heard the former head of the electoral commission and legendary educator, Professor Errol Miller, recalling, this week, his understanding, in a address to the JTA on the occasion of their Diamond Anniversary, of the priority that ordinary Jamaicans had for their children. Over and above passing any exams: Good manners; don’t steal, and don’t judge ( throw stones). Carried live on Nationwide News. Too many parents, who no longer fear God, as our forefathers did, have thrown those values through the window, and so many in this age have become wild and loose. And therefore not acting for the good of the nation.
The Gospel
Luke 24:36b-48
Jesus himself stood among the disciples and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things
Comment: Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations.
Consider also, in addition to the Gospel reading for next week, this Word from the Epistle:
The Epistle
1 John 3:1-7
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Comment : See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God
What love, that we should be called children of God? That Christ was revealed to take away sins – Gospel truth.
And as I considered such love, this song came to into my heart, without any help on my part. Only God! It’s been years since I encountered that song. Quite a minute.
1. Such love, pure as the whitest snow; such love weeps for the shame I know; such love, paying the debt I owe; O Jesus, such love.
2. Such love, stilling my restlessness; such love, filling my emptiness; such love, showing me holiness; O Jesus, such love.
3. Such love, springs from eternity; such love streaming through history; such love, fountain of life to me; O Jesus, such love.
The point here is that we have no liberty to speak about the love of God without any reference to the cost that it took for us to fully comprehend that kind of love -agape. A sacrificial love.
Which is the point Paul was getting at many years ago, and his prophetic words, which is why I have been led to write in this fashion this morning, are eerily, being, well, prophetic in this age, when some Christians would have us understand God’s unconditional love, God’s amazing love, without any reference to Sin.
THE WORD OF GOD
”“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.“
Acts 20:22-24 NIV
Comment : what task? “the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” And which grace is God’s unmerited love, grace, in dying for us, in Jesus Christ for our sins- of first priority.
”For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,“
1 Corinthians 15:3 NIV
Paul continues:
”“Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.“
Acts 20:25-27 NIV
Comment : in order to understand fully what Paul meant by being “ innocent of the blood of anyone you, we have to go all the ay back to Ezekiel:
”“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.“
Ezekiel 3:17-18 NIV
So Paul could declare himself “ innocent of the blood of all of you”, because “ I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God”. And what did Jesus say:
”For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”“
John 6:38-40 NIV
Paul continues:
”Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.“
Acts 20:28-32 NIV
Finally all of this finds relevance in one of the most important passages of Scripture:
”And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human 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 in weakness with great fear and 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 human wisdom, but on God’s power.“
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 NIV
but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.“
Our faith may not rest on human wisdom but on God’s power. And which is why the Lord woke me up last night to read this :
”Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”“
CARNIVALYOUNG GIRL AT CHURCH IN MAJESTIC GARDENS
Luke 11:5-13 NIV
Good and gracious Lord, in faith, and in obedience, I pray that we who know about your love in and through the death of your Son Jesus Christ for our many, many sins, may be filled more and more, day by day, by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, so that we can, as a matter of first priority, call people to repentance and to escape from this evil generation, lest we be found, on the last day, to be guilty of the blood of anyone. And then all other things we know Lord will be granted unto us, in and through “ power from on high”. “ To love mercy, to do justice and to walk humbly with you O God. Amen.
danielgodsurelywilldeliver 