Who ‘ run tings’? Not McCain, Trump, Angela Merkel, only God!

Over the past couple of weeks, #BrandJamaica has been ” trending” extraordinarily well on the international scene.

Scene 1: CNN anchor employs a popular ‘ Jamaican saying’, to make a point during a major discussion on health care reform in the USA. That Senator McCain’s decision to vote against the Republican bill to replace ‘Obama Care’, showed who ‘ run tings’ in America.

we run tings; tings nuh run we

Check out @marciaforbes’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/marciaforbes/status/911609646883930112?s=09

This was such a huge moment that it had folks on Twitter tweeting about it for hours.

Scene 2: German elections. Although Angela Merkel’s party retained its position as the most popular one, the margin of victory was disappointing for its followers. And alarm bells went off as the ultra right, read Nazi party, gains huge numbers. To the point where they have a presence in the Bundestsag! The German Parliament. For the first time. Consequently there is speculation about a ‘ Jamaica coalition ‘. Parties, including Angela Merkel’s, whose flags are black, green and gold, coming together to form the government.

Clearly the Jamaica flag and its colours is a ‘ hot item’, internationally. Thanks to #UsainBolt and #Realshellyann and others. Plus the music. Plus the #Reggaeboyz.

https://www.cgdev.org/blog/german-elections-what-merkels-jamaica-coalition-might-mean-global-development

And so I tweeted:

First CNN and our dialect. Now Germany and the colours of our flag #JamaicaCoalition. We big and broad bout yah https://t.co/1sl3oEdLsX

Scene 3: One which provoked the Gleaner cartoonist to respond ‘ impishly’.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/cartoon/friday-september-29-2017

Extract from Gleaner Article

As American president Donald Trump squares off with athletes and their silent protest during the playing of the national anthem, the world’s fastest man, our very own Usain Bolt was thrown into the mix. The president tweeted a clip of our superstar pausing mid interview as the American anthem was being played. The president tweeted, “Even Usain Bolt from Jamaica, one of the greatest runners and athletes of all time showed RESPECT for our national anthem.” Of course Jamaicans didn’t take too kindly to the mention and social media blew up with cries to keep us out of the mix up.

Then, in the middle of all this excitement about Jamaica, our dialect, our flag, and our sports heroes, a sobering Word.

About who really ‘ run tings’! Not John McCain. Not Angela Merkel. Not Usain Bolt. And definitely not Donald Trump. And soooo not the Gleaner. Nor Nationwide News. Nor The Jamaica Observer. Nor CNN.
Not the present Cabinet of the ruling JLP, nor in the future, if it so happens, the recently announced shadow cabinet of the Opposition PNP.

About who ‘ run tings’, even, and especially when the ‘ chips are down’. When ‘ dutty tuff’. When ‘ yu corner dark’. Literally! And there appears to be no hope.

Perhaps the story began when I read this section of the OT reading for Sunday in my Anglican church.

“The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?” But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses.

They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” Then Moses cried out to the Lord , “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.”

So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Exodus 17:1‭-‬7 NIV
http://bible.com/111/exo.17.1-7.NIV

So we know that, irrespective of how dark things might look, a faithful God is, ‘ standing right there with us ‘. For He is Sovereign. And ‘ Ah Him run tings’. Always! No matter how bad the situation might appear.

Including a destroyed nation #Barbuda #Dominica #PuertoRico….out there in the middle of the Ocean. A big Ocean.
Cancer – the dreaded disease. And even death of a loved one. Relationship issues. Financial worries. A nation which continues to be plagued by Murder – ” why would they kill a 13 year old “, asked a bereaved mother this week.
Marginalization of our young men #Unattachedyouths Teenagers selling sex for money! Bikers ‘ running red lights’ with impunity. Political tribalism! Black men and police brutality on the USA. #BlackLivesMatter. Triggering #Takeaknee.

And the story which began with the Word of God, ended with an inspired Word. Found on opening my devotional guide randomly!

WISDOM AND REVELATION

Chris Tiegreen

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. Ephesians 1:18

The Word

We live in a world of darkness, and we get lost in it often. Plenty of voices offer to help us out too – there’s no shortage of people who will offer advice and speculate on the right decisions to make. Navigating a landscape of diverse philosophies and beliefs can be very confusing.

That’s why one of the greatest requests we can pray for each other, as St. Paul did for the Ephesians, is for a spirit of wisdom
and revelation ( vs 17). Or as he colorfully puts it, ” that the eyes of your hearts may be enlightened “.

And Paul seems to have some pretty specific ideas about what our hearts need to be enlightened with.
We need to know the hope of our calling, the riches of our inheritance, and the power that is available to those who believe. If those things are firmly established in our hearts, we won’t find ourselves lost in darkness very often.

Think about it: if we are certain of our hope and know what God has called us to do; if we understand what we have already begun to inherit; and if we realize the amazing power of God working for on our behalf; then discouragement and confusion become a lot less prevalent in our lives. ….

This is a perspective-altering prayer.
When the trials of our lives loom large in our vision, we become fearful and depressed. But when we lift our sights to the truths that are greater and even more real than our circumstances, we can overcome anything.

In Deed.

If any situation oppresses you today, lift your eyes higher. Get a clear picture of the hope, the inheritance, and the power of God, and live and pray as though they are more real than anything else in your life.

Hope can see heaven through the thickest clouds – Thomas Benton Brooks.

Comments: None needed. Except ” Lord I believe; help thou mine unbelief “ – Holy Scripture. ( Mark 9:24 KJV)

” …….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” – A morning prayer

” ....My gracious master and my God,
assist me to proclaim
and spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of the name ” – a verse from the hymn, ” O for a thousand tongues to sing my dear Redeemer’s praise.
Peace.

Hurricane Maria and Sin. Big bad serial killers. God have mercy.

They tried their best to insert a light note! ” What do you do with a girl called Maria”? Invoking memories of one of the all time favourite movies; Sound of Music.

But it was not happening. For Huriicane Maria was, is, ‘ whatever ‘, a killer. A serial killer. A big, bad, serial killer. And a destroyer!

30 deaths so far in the Caribbean, and counting. Including 15 deaths in what one article termed, ‘ the obliterated Dominica’. That’s her resume!

And in the same article from Hurricane News from the #WeatherChannel:

“Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said at least 13 people have died on the island or in nearby waters due to the hurricane. He told The Weather Channel they were attempting to reach the most remote areas of the island by helicopter, as travel has been crippled by debris and downed power lines on Puerto Rico’s roads.”

As we speak Maria is lashing, again, the already devastated Turks and Caicos Islands. Is this the new normal some are asking as the Region reels from the presence, back to back, of two Category Five weather systems!

All of this while others debate the accuracy and usefulness of this bit of data put out on Twitter ( thank you Earl Moxam) by a ‘ weather expert.

Atlantic Category 5 hurricanes (33 in total):
1851-1900: 0
1901-1930: 2
1931-1960: 8
1961-1990: 10
1991-2017: 13
https://t.co/iRmKlhXvDd

So lots of questions in the air. Will some islands in the Caribbean be abandoned? Can the insurance fund set to help countries in the Region recover from catastrophic events survive? Can, my country, any other country for that matter, survive a direct hit from a CAT 5 Hurricane. Bearing in my that ” Wild Gilbert”, which occasioned so much havoc, and misery, for months, was a CAT 3. And if we survive this year, can we live again after another one the year after? Will all of us just pack up and go and live in Guyana; 80, 000 square miles with 780, 000 people?

All of this happening this week as I was led to ponder deeply on the most catastrophic event ever to take place in the entire world. The entry of Sin. A killer. A serial killer. A big, bad serial killer. Of millions. And a destroyer of cataclysmic proportions. An unwanted guest in the affairs of man. And a new normal since The Fall in the Garden of Eden. The reason why names like Auschwitz, Pol Pot, Rwanda, The Atlantic Slave Trade, Hiroshima, Vietnam, Osama bin Laden, Stalin, Julius Caesar and Judas are famous.

But unlike Maria, Sin does not announce itself in a dramatic fashion. But gets into the hearts of mankind. And ” from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts “….attempted murder in the middle of Papine square last night ( breaking news on Nationwide Radio), ISIS beheading and burning people alive, immorality, greed, theft,….all of which separate us from a Holy and Loving God, and were it not for Jesus, would consign us to ‘ everlasting damnation’. Eternal life without God!

For this killer has come to ” steal, and kill and destroy “. Forever! But, thank God for Jesus, who has come, ” that we may have life, and life more abundantly “. Forever!

No doubt that’s why I was led to spend time reflecting deeply on Psalm 51 this week. A Psalm which is best read after meditating on the profound words of a popular hymn:

” Jesus sought me when a stranger
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue, me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

Oh, how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let the goodness like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee;
prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love,
here’s my heart, oh, take and seal it,
seal it for the courts above

From the hymn ” Come, thou doubt of every blessing “.

For the reality which has haunted mankind since The Fall, A Category 100 disaster, which ‘ fly de gate’, and let in Sin, is that we are all ‘ prone to wander ‘, from our Creator God.

That’s why Jesus had to ‘ interpose his precious blood’. And that’s why the Psalmist begins with the eternal cry of humanity:

” Have mercy on me, O God “.

Why! Because we cannot, in and by ourselves, overcome the Sin that causes us to offend God. To be prone to wander from the ‘ fold of God ‘. Can’t manage.

It’s a cri de coeur, a cry from the heart, from one, who before the advent of the Indwelling of The Holy Spirit vs. The Presence, knew his transgressions. For the reality is that, it is only when the Spirit indwells us that we are truly aware of the enormity of Sin. Otherwise we seek to minimise or discount entirely, its effects on human behavior:

” When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regards to sin and righteousness and judgment…..”
John 16:8

And so we join with the Psalmist:

” Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight”.

Murder, most foul. Triggering #ZOSO. Disobedient ( to their patents) children.
A burning issue which triggered this Tweet:

Can you imagine if all parents received training – preparing for parenthood, childcare & development, continuing parental development etc?💡✨

And my responses:

We are trying to reinvent the wheel with neither the obedience nor the Word. Not possible. https://t.co/Mt3nnt03H4

Part of your training growing up in the church being obedient to God’s Word…. why Jamaica was a more peaceful place in the 50’s and 60’s.

Greed….scammimg. Greed….rapacious capitalism. Part of the reason, along with politically savy, but economically devastating ( #WorsethanaCAT5) decisions, why the late great Professor Beckford’s ” Persistent Poverty ” is still a rallying call.

Then the Psalmist reveals the true extent of our helplessness ” Jesus sought me when a stranger “, and expressed his thoughts in one of the most important verses in the Bible

“Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me”

Followed by a verse which had me singing ( in my heart) 😀 in my office today during my #lunchtimedevotions:

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean, wash me and I will be whiter than snow.

And immediately:

Are you washed, are you washed, ate 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. So, deep in my soul, I sang, and recalled how, one day, a Pentecostal patient sang for me, and almost ‘ took off the roof’.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right Spirit in me…..only through Christ, has been a constant companion with me in prayer. But that which touched my heart in a special way, this time around of reading this Psalm, is the revelation that:

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart , O God, you will not despise.

For the fact is, that you cannot honestly cry out ” Have mercy “, unless we are truly sorry. Deep in our souls! That we have sinned against the Lord! That we are so ‘ prone to wander ‘. Even after God rescued His people with His might power at the Red Sea. Only to read in the Old Testament reading for this Sunday in my church, how the Israelis ‘ grumbled ‘ against the Lord.

So too, have we, as a nation, rescued by the influence of the Word of God, from Slavery, in our day, have, ‘ wandered from the God we love’. And embraced Lotto, a body to die for, our favourite politician or talk show host, or Don ‘ we will die for Dudus’, or Addie a.k.a Vybes Kartel, and the ‘prosperity gospel’, which is no gospel at all.

And so the profound words from the Epistle appointed for Sunday, either escapes us, or we are determined to deny that reality:

” For he ( God) has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well…..” Philippians 1: 30.

This willingness to suffer, to share with Christ, helps us to develop a broken and contrite heart, when we understand, only in part, a very small part, of what He went through for us, on Calvary. ” Interposed his precious blood. And is therefore a key part of the Christian journey, and the Salvation story.

May we then be granted the grace to understand these things, so that we may be empowered to point the embattled people of Dominica and Puerto Rico and other areas of devastation to place their Hope in Christ. By our acts of mercy and compassion. By our words of comfort. And by the sharing of the Gospel.

For it is true, that :

God gives strength to the weary, and increases the power of weak. Isaiah 40: 29

Even, and especially in the face of Category Five weather systems. And the devastation of human souls occasioned by Sin!

But first we must repent of our sinful nature, acknowledge our helplessness, our weak state, and cry out like the Psalmist:

Have mercy on all of us O Lord!

And then the Blessed Assurances, not questions, not doubts, will follow.

” But now, this is what the Lord says –
he who created you O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel;
Fear not, for I have redeemed yoy:
I have summonded you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you ( in Barbuda, on Dominica….for I went through suffering and death for you on Calvary).
When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you ( even in death in Houston, or from cancer, or a motor vehicle crash, I will rescue you… because of Calvary).
When you walk through the fire, ( like Daniel) the flames will not set you ablaze). Isaiah 43: 1-2 NIV

For what the serial killer, and deceiver and destroyer, Sin, the firepower of the enemy, the devil, tells us, is that this life is the only one. So, eat, drink and enjoy. ” Go back to Egypt”. For life in this desert is rough. Plenty hurricanes out there.

Big lie! Thank God for Jesus, who has come, to show God’s love, for all mankind, for all have sinned, and will perish, eternally, unless we are ‘ washed in the Blood of the Lamb. And thus assured of Eternal Life with our Creator God. The Gospel Truth.
Mercy! And compassion. In a time when CAT 5 Hurricanes show no mercy. And no compassion.

God and Irma and Harvey: Redemptive Power vs Destructive

Physics was not my favourite subject in high school. English, Geography and History were the winners. And French too! But in order to get into med school, Physics was a must. At a high level! So, I dutifully learnt about Joules; a package of energy.

According to a very interesting article in the Washington Post, which caught my attention ( where else but Twitter) Irma had 112 terrajoules. A whole heap of energy….in plain Jamaica talk. And this is only the energy in a thin slice of the Hurricane measured about 10 Metres off the ground. The energy in the entire height of the system would be much bigger.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/how-big-is-hurricane-irma/?utm_term=.387a081d7e26

By comparison Katrina ( 2005) carried 118 terrajoules. And Andrew (1992) which caused so much devastation in South Florida only carried 15 terrajoules. Sandy which caused so much problems in New Jersey carried a massive 330 terrajoules on account of its huge windfield. Whilst Harvey, Houston destroyer, carried 28 terrajoules of energy.

Storms and Hurricanes, and even smaller weather systems are therefore awesome generators of energy, with the potential to cause much damage. No one is safe. Not even in super rich America. You cannot defend yourself against #Irma. It is unstoppable and irresistible. You either batten down, make other preparations, and pray. Or flee. To a distant State. Like New York. Definitely not Georgia.

You can imagine then, the thoughts that went through my mind this week, as I read the following passage from the book of Hebrews.
About ‘ storm’ and ‘ consuming fire’. As God Almighty is indeed an Awesome God. And therefore He is to be feared. And His Name Glorified in all the Earth. Which, according to the Bible, is the whole point of the mighty power He demonstrated in parting the Red Sea and rescuing His people from the evil that Pharoah represented.

” And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him, and in Moses his servant”.
Exodus 14:31. The Old Testament reading in the worldwide Anglican Church for this Sunday.

THE WORD OF GOD

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded:

“If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”

The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.

You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?

At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”

Hebrews 12:18‭-‬29 NIV
http://bible.com/111/heb.12.18-29.NIV

So, in our journey with God as humankind, we move from experiencing Him in terrifying indescribable ‘joules of power’, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant. In fact the Bible tells us that God lives in ‘ approachable light’! And that anyone who ‘ saw Him’, would die.

This kind of description of God ought really to give us pause, when we consider that with a wave of the hand and a command, Jesus ‘ stilled the storm’. Be still! And it obeyed Him. No wonder the disciples were afraid. Of Jesus! Perhaps more than the storm which had threatened to destroy them.

Perhaps the message from the various storms of life, is that we ought to fear God. Him, Who alone can help us to overcome. At the Red Sea when Pharoah and his armies approach! In Farm, Clarendon, as bullets continue to fly, whilst awaiting the declaration on the next #ZOSO! And alone broken and totally overwhelmed with the news of marital infidelity!

It is the kind of revelation which helps us to begin to understand St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians church, and his famous prayer which ended like this:

THE WORD OF GOD

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20‭-‬21 NIV
http://bible.com/111/eph.3.20-21.NIV

A passage of Scripture to which I was led one morning this week in my #Earlymorningdevotions
How? Opening Chris Tiegreen’s The One Year Wonder of the Cross Devotional!

And having read, I invite you to consider deeply, in this time of #ZOSO , the chilling murder of a young female doctor, the devastation occasioned by #Irma and #Harvey, floods in Sierra Leone, and myriads of other problems that confront humanity, that we have not begun to ‘ scratch the surface ‘ of the Power of The Almighty God.

CHRIS TIEGREEN

All of God
Verse: ….that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:29

IN WORD

It sounds arrogant to some, simply impossible to others. How can human beings be filled with all the fullness of God? After all, God is infinite; we aren’t. The human can contain some of the divine, but surely Paul is overstating a promise by using words like ‘ all’, and ‘ fullness’.

Maybe he means we can be filled to our capacity with God, assuming that our capacity has a limit. Or maybe he means that our lives can overflow with God, though it is our smallness and God’s greatness that creates the overflow.

But literally ‘ filled to the measure of all the fullness of God’s? Those words no mortal can live up to. That’s far too much to expect.

But the words of Scripture aren’t aren’t accidental. The Spirit who inspired them had something specific in mind with Paul’s words. Our minds stretch to figure out what it is,……..the claim is astounding. We’re left with the sense that life in Christ is way over our heads…..

IN DEED

However much you have grown in your relationship with God, however long you have walked with Him, realize that you have barely scratched the surface. You were designed to host His Spirit within you – that’s a relationship without an imposed limit. There’s no ending point, no constraint. However full of Him you are, He offers more. Accept it. Never be satisfied with ‘ enough ‘, of Him.

Comment: As I write I recall wondering from time to time, why the difference between Peter’s ” Silver and gold have I none, but in the Name of Jesus, get up and walk “, and our feeble prayers in this age.

Why isn’t the Power of God manifestly ‘ flowing out ” of believers in this wicked Jamaica where over a thousand persons have been brutally murdered to date?

The answer, that a song writer, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and on which words I have pondered on repeatedly, offers, is :

Yet, I may love Thee too, O Lord Almighty as Thou art;
For Thou hast stooped to ask of me
The love of my poor heart.

A verse of one of the greatest hymns of the church. And words, just came into my head, which are so contextually relevant to this reflection on God and Hurricanes.

THE HYMN

My God, how wonderful Thou art,
Thy majesty, how bright;
How beautiful Thy mercy seat
In depths of burning light!

How dread are Thy eternal years,
O everlasting Lord,
By prostrate spirits day and night
Incessantly adored!

How wonderful, how beautiful,
The sight of Thee must be;
Thy endless wisdom, boundless power,
And glorious purity!

O how I fear Thee, living God,
With deep and tender fear;
And worship Thee with trembling hope,
And penitential tears!

Yet, I may love Thee, too, O Lord,
Almighty as Thou art;
For Thou hast stooped to ask of me
The love of my poor heart!

No earthly father loves like Thee,
No mother, e’er so mild,
Bears and forbears as Thou hast done,
With me, Thy sinful child.

Father of Jesus, love’s Reward!
What rapture it will be
Prostrate before Thy throne to lie,
And gaze, and gaze on Thee!

For, how God has ordained it, the close relationship between sinful man and an Awesome and Holy God, begins with an acceptance of Christ’s Redemptive Act of love on Calvary.

That this Almighty and Powerful and Holy God, made Himself weak, emptied Himself of all Power, ‘ and stooped to ask of sinful man ‘ our love for His Son. The Crucified One. The One who was , “slaughtered and with His Blood, ransomed for God, saints from every tribe and nation”; according to the book of Revelation.
O glory Alleluiah. O praise His Holy Name.

So, yes, the unbridled, untamed power of Irma and Harvey, and Katrina, wreaked havoc across the Caribbean and North America. In same way that other powerful and destructive forces unleashed by mankind #Hiroshima #9/11 have caused untold grief and pain.

But thank God for Jesus, He who has ultimate Power over all Creation, lives in us, by faith in the Crucified One through the Holy Spirit. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God.

The challenge for Christians, is to continually die to self, so that this Mighty Power may flow out us. To spread abroad the transforming Love of God for our neighbors. And to fight valiantly against evil.

For, truly, only when we are weak, will God’s power become perfect in us. The people in God’s Church today are far too strong. They think they can, by themselves, defeat evil. And prosper. May God have mercy and forgive us of such a misunderstanding of, and disobedience to, His Word.
” O for grace to love thee more”.

God is Sovereign and Faithful in the midst of the Storm #Irma

I normally write on a Friday night. Or Saturday morning. But does it matter. This morning, however, when the storms of life threaten some, and have left others battered and bruised, the Lord woke me up to read, and to write.

I cannot begin to imagine what the people of Barbuda, or St. Martin, or BVI, are going through at this time after the devastation occasioned by the passing of one of the most powerful weather systems in history, Hurricane Irma.

I don’t know what will happen if this monstrous hurricane targets directly, as the computer models suggests, the Florida peninsula, where my dearest and my best reside. But God knows!

And God He knows that there are many others ‘ storms ‘ which have devastated the lives of people known by me. Or whose situation has been made known to me by others. Sudden death! From ‘natural’causes. And from the hands of wicked gunmen. Bad news from the doctor. From this doctor. From other doctors. Life turns a corner. Suddenly! And relationships are shattered. Or badly affected.

Just spoke to a good Christian friend whose son did not wake up one morning. While I was reading, the Lord reminded me to call him. Asked him how he was doing. “Only Jesus’, he replied. And with this sure knowledge, he declared that he was ,’ more blessed than stressed’.

So I told him the central message that the Lord revealed to me through His Word. The Lord woke me up at 4:45. Not the usual 4: 00 am message. But does it matter.

That: ” God is light and in Him there is no darkness”.

And the Spirit reminded me that the words of a wonderful hymn point to the fact that in God there is no darkness, ” no shadow of turning with thee “, Great is thy faithfulness.

This is the all we need to know in this ‘ wild and stormy gale’, we call life. That we serve a God who is the ‘ Light of the world ‘. And that through Him all things were made. And without him not one thing was made. Including life. Precious life. And hurricanes.

So He is Sovereign over every disaster, every trial, every sudden turn in our lives. Today. Yesterday. And to come tomorrow.

More importantly we know that this Sovereign God, this Light in whom there is no darkness, cares. Even to death in a Cross. By His Son. Who suffered and died. And rose again. So that in Him, we too might experience and shine forth. The same Light, in whom there is no darkness.

It can’t therefore be coincidence that, just yesterday, I read a series of reflections by Chris Tiegreen on 1 Peter. 2.

1. That we are THE HOLY ONES

You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.

The new community in Christ has a new identity. We aren’t just people who have made a religious decision or aligned ourselves with a social movement.

We aren’t an organisation or an institution. We are a people hand selected by God to be like Him – to be different, to be holy…..

We are characterized by our society as a subculture or social sector……we have to understand that the life we live is humanity fulfilled, a completion of what was lacking , and a restoration of what was lost with the first sin. We are unlike any other human being. We are born again of God’s Spirit.

2. We are THE GRATEFUL ONE’S

….that you may declare the praises if him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

3. We are THE MERCIFUL ONES

4. THE DIFFERENT ONES

5. THE VISIBLE ONES

And so this is what the Lord led me to read as I woke up and opened by Bible randomly.

THE WORD OF GOD

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was 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 all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1‭-‬5 NIV
http://bible.com/111/jhn.1.1-5.NIV

And as I read John’s Gospel, words from his Epistle cane to mind.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
1 John 1:1‭-‬5 NIV
http://bible.com/111/1jn.1.1-5.NIV

Then in my Classics Devotional Bible, nestled in the words of 1 John 2, I ‘ happened’ on this wonderful message of encouragement.
That though the storms of life bear down on us, our God reigns.

BE STILL, MY HEART!

John Newton ( 1725 – 1807….a former slave ship owner who became a priest….experienced conversion during a storm….author of Amazing Grace.

Verse: Hebrews 10: 32…..But recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with suffering.

THE POEM

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

Did trouble yet befall,
And he refuse to hear thy call?
And has he not his promise passed,
That thou shall overcome at last?

He who has helped me hitherto
Will help me all my journey through,
And give me daily cause to raise
New Ebenezers to his praise.

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

Bob Marley, #ZOSO, and The Cross of Christ

“Tribal war inna Babylon”. Lyrics from the late Robert Nesta Marley O.M. a.k.a. Bob Marley.

Not sure if it’s, ‘ tribal’, alone ( at one point it was tribal politics) but there’s war going on in Jamaica. And the kind of wickedness and callousness for which ancient Babylon was once famous, in now on full display in Jamaica.

Involving gangs! Yes. Triggering reprisals! Yes. Heartless young men who fear neither God, nor man, nor the police force, the soldiers maybe, have become killing machines.

Babies. Youngsters. Women. Old people. Individuals or groups. “Quako”, or his ‘shut’…family. Doesn’t matter. Bang, bang. You’re dead. And they seem to have unlimited ammunition and a constant supply of high powered automatic weapons. Firing for up to two hours non stop, according to some reports.

These are ‘ bad niggers’. Evil! And out of control. Where do they get so much ammunition. So many guns! And the kind of weapon! Which mother grew them? How did we get here as a people? What is the ‘ end game’. Is there a godfather’? Or (s). Who is to stop them? More questions than answers.

With in excess of 1000 murders for the year so far, the Goverment has begun to implement Zones of special Operations. Popularly known as #ZOSO.

A policy which empowers the security forces to Clear an area of criminal elements, Hold the area…stabilize it, and then Build a new kind of community. Socially and Economically. Maybe even Morally!

All with the help of many different agencies of government. The goal is to have zero murders in that area within a specified time period.

This move constitutes is a societal ‘ push back’ against evil. Against mayhem. Against gang warfare. And against years of neglect, of certain communities, in some instances.
Will it work? Only God knows. Time will tell.

I hope for my country’s sake it will make a difference. For, like so many others, and much more than me, the violence has come close.
Hence this post on Facebook this week. An excerpt!

FACEBOOK

“It’s a difficult night for me, and for the nation, to be placing a focus on freedom, when a young patient, 27 years old, became another statistic last night. Probably #1007!

Brutally murdered by gunmen, this clean living young man, has left behind a totally confused and numb mother.

But democracy being the best of what mankind has constructed, we continue to probe its antecedents. Freedom!

And mourn the fact that, for far too many grieving mothers, this has become, not only an illusive dream, but a veritable nightmare.

“O Jesus, somebody, wake me up please”. Not the exact words, but the essence of the sentiments expressed by a mother tonight.
As the only Freedom she now enjoys, is the freedom to shed tears.
Personal freedom is being trampled upon, sovereignal freedom is being exercised and civic freedom paralysed.

Can #ZOSO help to restore personal freedom? Reign in sovereignal freedom, and encourage civic freedom! Only time will tell.
Thank God for Spiritual Freedom. “If the Son shall set you free, you are free indeed”…. ..”

The challenge always for a child of God, called to be His ministers of reconciliation, anywhere Babylon – a zone, a ‘ system’ of oppression and injustice, of wickedness and of downtrodden people – exists, is how do we help. How do we make a difference, in this, what Martin Luther King Jr, calls ‘ the midnight hour ‘.

A time of confusion, when the best thing the church can offer, ‘ is that no midnight lasts forever’.

The great paradox is that, as the Lord led me to reflect on deeply this week, we have to become weak, not Prime Ministerial strong, not Jamaica Defence Force strong, not ‘ muscular’, if God’s mighty Power is to become perfect in us. And so help to bring an end to the madness, the ‘ midnight’, the ‘ eclipse’, which has overtaken my country. In broad daylight!

No doubt the Lord was ‘ preparing’ this message when He inspired me to to write to my church this week:

THE EMAIL

The goal of every Christian : “ I am crucified in Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and have Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 KJV.

In my ClassicsDevotional Bible:

“It is through accepting the circumstances that come to us in life that self is crucified” – Hannah Hurnard

The journey to the goal ordained by God:

” To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

But he said to me, “ My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. 2 Corinthians 12: 7-9.

How did I arrive at this? Job last night; my song in the night. ” …..appeal for mercy.”

Job this morning. At the end when God restores his fortunes; ” .. for all the evil the that the Lord had brought on him”.

Both discovered by opening my Bible randomly. And in that manner the Lord spoke. So that we may truly become ambassadors of Christ, and ministers of God’s reconciling love in this #Clarendonbleeding country.

Peace.

LWJ

Comment:

I believe a large part of the reason why the Church has become relatively ineffectual in waging war ‘ inna Babylon ‘, is that too many of us have become ‘ too strong’. Too wise. Too street smart! And too important. In the eyes of man! An accusation Jesus leveled against Peter in the Gospel Reading for this Sunday in my church.

” Get thee behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human beings. ( Matthew 16: 22-28).

This after Peter tried to persuade Jesus from ‘ becoming weak’, on the Cross of Calvary. So that the Mighty Power of God might be become manifest over all the Earth.

If we Christians, are ever going to assist our nation in this fight against evil, all hands have to be on deck. And the only power that we have, is the power of The Holy Spirit, which is made perfect in the ‘ crucified life’ of the Baptised.
For the Word of God declares that:

“ It is not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit”.

So, let us humble ourselves and learn to declare like St. Paul :

“ 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. 12:10.

Maybe we are watching too much Netflix. Too many Superman, Batman, and American Army Seal Movies. Listening to too many spiritual ‘ superstars ‘ – T. D. Jakes and Joel Osteen. And declaring ourselves or accepting the ‘ accolade’ of being prayer warriors.
Forgetting the Word that says:

” 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 is not by man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy”. Romans 9: 14 – 16. A passage which haunted my soul this week.

Maybe we are hankering too much for the return of the ‘ cerebral ‘ Barack Obama. Or the ‘ visionary ‘, Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Or the lyrics of Bob Marley and #DeservesmorethananOMMissLou.
And not paying enough attention to the Word of God which inspired one of the great prayers of all time.

” 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.”

I pray, that as this tribal war, like a vampire, continues to ” suck the blood ” of our people, we may repent of our foolish ways, and look to Almighty God for mercy. For the same Power which raised Jesus from the dead, is avaible through those who ‘ die to self’, and
become weak.

And as I conclude this very challenging passage comes into my mind:

“ 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”. 1 Cor. 1: 18

That’s why Jesus labeled Peter’s objection to Him ‘ going to Jerusalem to die on the Cross ‘, Satanic. As the only hope for mankind and our sinful and wicked ways, which has created so many Babylons across the world, is not the ‘ muscular’ operations led by the security forces. Or whomsoever! As useful, and urgently desired, as they maybe, in certain situations.

For the real and present danger is not just wicked gunmen, in and by themselves. But the ‘ system’, The Fall of Mankind, which allowed Sin to enter into the hearts of all of us.

Thus producing the kind of evil thoughts and desires which separated us from a Holy God. And from each other! Spawning murder, domestic violence, break down of family life, disobedient children, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, political tribal warfare, gang wars, systems which promote greed and entitlement and yawning chasms between rich and poor, slavery, racism and the like. And the emergence of ‘ toilet’ language on TV (J) ….somebody is testing the waters.

None which can be solved by creating Zones of special Operations! But only by accepting the free gift of the grace of God offered by Him who became weak on Calvary. Suffered and died. Fully God and fully man. Christ our Redeemer.

So that the Mighty Power of God, Salvation, freedom from Sin and Death and Evil, in this life and the next, might become available to all. All who will humble themselves, deny self, and submit to the Lordship of Christ.

In Salem. In Farm. And in Rockfort.
In the Parliament. In the Security forces. On Twitter. On Facebook. Everywhere. Peace.