5.6 millions views of  this video has been done on YouTube. Yesterday, I would imagine that thousands of people wore black to register publicly, the fact that we in Jamaica, led by the Church, were in mourning for the deaths of our children generally. And in particular the death of young 8 year old Danielle Rowe, whose neck was slashed by yet unknown assaillants, resulting in her death. So what is to be done. Mourn Today and Act Tomorrow sounds like a plan. But is that what the Eternal Father who we ask to bless our land, requires? Is that the reason why the video has been viewed 5.6 million times and counting. No! What the Creator of heaven and earth, and the Sea and all that is in it ( who gives us fried fish and festival and delicious..  sweety come  brush me, millie mangoes…and East Indian, that folks travel from abroad to come and eat, even those who have ” sugar”.. Diabetes) says, is ” Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts, be acceptable to him..  be Pleasin. 

Meditate on this:

Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!

Deuteronomy 5:29 NIV

Don’t forget the ” forever”! The challenge for mankind over the years, within and without the church, mercy, is that we don’t really believe what the Creator God says. Even though we love his gifts of mangoes and ” Sugar loaf pineapple”. And jerk pork!

What we believe is Google. Talk de truth. Even more than the doctor. A mi fi tell you! And what’s on YouTube and the Headlines in the Newspapers and CNN.

You remember when Jesus came down from the mountain top, after He was Transfigured ( His glory revealed) and entered the the demon possesed valley. What happened next in Half-Way-Tree or in Tines Square in New York? A father begged for his child to be released from being attacked by a demon. And the ” early church ” could not help. So he turned to Jesus and his child was healed. Instantly. But first we learnt then, and now, that ” everything is possible for he who believes”. And that if you don’t really believe,  help is on the way, once you cry out like the suffering father did: ” I believe. Help thou mine unbelief.”

Such a cry from the heart is what is needed in this nation. Within and without the Church! Mercy, for we have made out God to  be a liar by our unbelief in his Word. 

Instead what is pleasing to us, are the songs we sing at party conferences, the cheers at Champs and Manning Cup and Premier League Football. The songs we sing at Weddy Wednesdays and whatever Thursdays, and Passa Passa Fridays and Round Robin weekend sessions. 

The news we are interested to hear is all about who will win the next election. Here and in America.  Whether or not the once mighty West Indies ( how the mighty have fallen) will make it out of the preliminares. And whether or not Donald Trump will go to jail? 

How can we so blatantly and repeatedly disbelieve the One who died on Calvary to grant us victory over Sin and Evil and the fear of death? In a word. Sin! So yes, we mourn today and act tomorrow as best as we can. However the challenge we face in this era, in this demon possesed valley, is the same which confronted the children of Israel centuries ago….the more things change the more they remain the same…don’t. Listen carefully to this centuries old but very current message:

He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.

2 Chronicles 20:15 NIV

This as the reality is that there is a vast army of evil, a vast army of people in Jamaica who do not believe in the Word of God, even though they claim ” Father God gave me this”, and  declare ” God bless Jamaica or America”. And it is  the collective action of unbelievers, what has been done and left undone, and not only the shottas on motorbikes, or in cars, which has resulted in Cry, Cry, for our beloved Jamaica. The battle against powers and principalities that wage war against the Word of God, is the Lord’s and not ours. And therefore only with Him and in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit, a gift from Risen Christ our Savior, can we successfully wage war against evil, and Sin, including the Sin of unbelief in the Word of God, and rescue our children. Othwerise we ” labor in vain “. 

This week in my journey with Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, and as we all mourned the death of young and precious Danielle Rowe, and many others, the Holy Spirit made it clear to me, as He has done over the centuries, that Jamaica can only be rescued by the mighty power of God. And not by the Police, nor the Political directorate, declaring that ” no stone will be left unturned ” to find who killed Danielle, or the soldier, or the lady brutally murdered downtown. Cannot be rescued by more and better perimeter fencing around schools, or more adherence to protocols concerning how children are picked up after schools. All good things, but in the context of the evil forces which have been let loose in our nation, these things constitute ” chariots and horses “, who some trust in, but we who know God, ” will trust in the name of our Lord”. The One Who is a warrior, and refuge and a very present help on times of trouble.
How do we know this? Listen to the words of the video above. That ” I am a living testimony that God can save anybody”. Even the ” vilest offender”, like Dudus and Kartel! And all the bleached out faces of serial killers who put up posts on social media, proudly and menacingly holding up M 16 and Glocks and 9’s. Until judgement comes, all too quickly as we know. But yet another one is born in circumstances which produce more killers, like a never ending production line, which we saw at Victoria Jubilee Hospital as interns.

This is the eternal message of the Christian faith, that God in Christ can save anybody, if we only put our trust in him. So many of us, and me first, can attest to the reality that ” there goeth I but for the grace of God”. That’s why we love the Lord Jesus with all our heart. That’s why we lift up his name and sing with conviction, ” I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back now. No turning back!”. This because:

” The Lord is a great God, the great King above all God’s. In his hands are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, in his hands formed the dry land. Come let us bow down in worship, let us kneel down before the Lord our God…..Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts”. ( Psalm 95:3-8 NIV).

That’s why, although we support all efforts to mitigate the climate change making not the days hotter, but the nights too ( JPS laughing all the way to the bank), we place that global concern, and the hurricane season also, in the hands of the Man who can walk on water. We place all our children into the hands of the One who healed Jairius’ daughter. We place all families and marriages and relationships into the hands of the One who can heal a broken heart.
The great challenge for mankind, in this Chat GPT generation, and bloggers and vloggers who are redefining how we consume news, and carry out complex repetitive tasks, where fake news can spread like wildfire and cause sometimes irreparable damage, is that of the four soils in which Jesus sowed the Word of God, only one bore fruit. Please watch this sermon in the video below ( the first one).

https://vimeo.com/showcase/9737779.

The conclusion that Presbyterian Pastor of Old Cutler Presbyterian Church in Miami where my daughter’s family worships, is that many people will reject the Word of God. That some will be forever seeing but not perceiving and hearing but not understanding. And my own observation is such a phenomenon is happening in the very church!
The reality then is that although God can change anybody, unless we place our trust in Him and Him alone, then even some church people in the USA and elsewhere will ” always be of two opinions” , and try to follow God and Trump. At the same time. It can’t work. Follow the party, and the party leader in Jamaica at all cost, and yet sing ” I must have my Savior with me, for I dare not walk alone”. Preach the Gospel of Christ Crucified and yet have your ministry undermined by desires for expensive things, even a helicopter and cars, and ask the congregation to ” sow a seed” to provide you with these things. Madness!
Read the Gospel carefully. Listen again to the fact that Jesus has compassion on the harrased and helpless. Matthew 9 & 10.

And has summoned his church and given the true church authority over ” unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and sickness”. In an age, in every age, where ” brother will betray brother to death, a father his child….hmm!…and children will rise up against parents and put them to death ( even on Father’s day if Satan so provokes those who don’t trust in God).
What God in Christ is calling us, the faithful church, is to demonstrate the Holy Ghost power ” moving just like a magnet”, in and through us, who are living testimonies that God can save anybody. And that the mighty power of God only flows through us, to the glory of God, when we place all our trust in Him. To rescue the perishing, to care for the dying, bind up the wounded, seek the stray, heal the sick, and fight valiantly against the evil which has taken up residence in this nation. In high and low places. May God have mercy on this disobedient nation.

I shared this Pentecostal type song with my Anglican church this week.  But all of us ” who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”, can relate to this appeal, to ” The One in the middle”, save me. A prayer of one of  the two thieves who were crucified ( but for vastly different reasons) with Jesus on Calvary. Have you ever wondered why God ” who so loved the world”, arranged for two thieves to be on Calvary with Christ?  Think about this: They represent people who  live in Cherry Gardens and Beverley Hills. People who hail from Jungle and Tel Aviv. People who come  are on WhatsApp chat groups, and are our friends on Facebook. People who have  blue ticks on Twitter and have millions of followers and those with  very few. People who lurk in other people’s Instagram page, and those who get all their information from YouTube. People who live in A/C 24/7 in the USA, and people who suffer from real drought in Africa. People who fret even  when any heavy rain fall, much less hurricane, and people who think that like the famous Titanic, their house is impregnable. Plus they have a generator and a pantry full of emergency food. While people who live in the ghetto can only buy food for a day. Mostly!
And yet all are in the same boat! All need the man in the middle to ” save us”. Save us becoming  evil men and women who would try to abduct a young girl, slash her throat and leave her to die like a dog on the road. Thank God a ” Good Samaritan “, sent by Jesus ” in the middle” to save her. Save us from ourselves, we who believe that ” we are good”, and don’t really need God. We are bright and self-sufficient people, making even AI and robots and wi-fi ( so that children no longer need to ramp outside and get all hot and sweaty, but instead stay inside in the cool and watch TicTok TicTok TicTok).  Until disaster strikes, and  we ask everyone to pray for us.
Save us from believing that if we have money, and the more the better, life is good. Forgetting the Word that warns: ” For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it” 1 Timothy 5:7. Believe that it is only those who don’t have money or who cannot think critically, only those people need a God. Like the helper and the ones who work in ” Kentucky”, who sing in their Pentecostal church that ” Things already better”. Save us from believing that if we have political power, or aspire to have political power, all we need to do is to say every so often, ” God bless Jamaica “,  ” God bless America”, and the church people will vote for us, and the religious who only go to church for weddings and funerals.
The challenge for our society is that we don’t believe,  and don’t  care to understand,  and don’t accept what the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and in whose image and likeness we were all made, even Donald Trump,  says that,   ” out of the hearts of men and women come all kinds of evil”. All of which evil intent, is abhorrent to a holy and pure God who lives in ” unapproachable light”. And therefore Sin is Sin in the eyes of the God of Jacob. Whether it results in a young girl almost losing her life, or what happens in the privacy of your home in Cherry Gardens or in Majestic Gardens. That nobody knows about. Except the One in the middle who alone can save us from evil. One thief, representing those who repent and receive a place in paradise, today, asked for mercy. The other,  representing those of us who are self-centered and self-sufficient, had an opportunity ( Whoever believes in him is not condemned,  but whoever does not believe in him stands condemned already because he has not believed in God’s one and only Son….and extended reading of the popular John 3:16) but choose Barabbas. Essentially!  Again. Because what we learn from history is that we don’t in fact learn from history. And so once again ” Today if you hear the voice of God do not harden your hearts ” .. an edited version of Hebrew 3:7-8.
Otherwise as a nation and as a society we have only the wrong choice we have made, not to appeal as one thief did, to the man in the middle to save us, when another child is abused and left for dead. All of us are free to make our choices in life, and suffer the consequences, but as for me and my house, we will forever pray to The Man in the middle to save us. From all evil! For the Word of God warns us that ” The devil has come to steal and kill and to destroy”.  And that the Man in the middle, praise God alleluia, has come to grant us  life and life abundantly and eternally. Why then would you choose death and destruction and watch helplessly as our children are destroyed. Tick tok. Tik tok. Time is running out. And even now the man in the middle is calling. Softly and quietly. Not like Ravers and Cham! Come home, come home all ye who are weary. Tired of the killing and raping and tiefing and corruption. Jesus is calling. Today!

After writing this blog above news came of Danielle’s death.

The 8 yr old girl who was abducted and her throat slashed has died. Danielle Rowe was in critical condition up to last evening and in need of blood.
Despite several efforts to save the young girl, she passed this morning sometime after three. pic.twitter.com/xxHWrErPUo

— CVM Television (@CVMTV) June 10, 2023

I went to bed last night after watching this video above. ” I sought the Lord and He answered me, and delivered me from every sin… O taste and see that the Lord is good”.

God is good? Everytime comes the answer! In the church, but not ” on the street”. Not when the ” Tyre hits the road”. Even for some Christians!  Not when ” trouble that don’t set like rain comes”. We often  turn to ” our own understanding “, rather than really, trust God. Even though we say we do. 

Where am I going with this? The evil that entered the heart of that young man who murdered the very upstanding member of the community near Browns Town. The death of the 90 year old senior Justice of the Peace a couple of nights ago. Came on TV last night. A wicked act if ever there was one. And so the question comes, ” can people like that be rescued”? Redeemed even? And by extension can Jamaica be rescued from this evil? And not only looting and shooting, but robbing and stabbing. Plus loving and stabbing. It’s just non stop murder.

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I read a meditation this week entitled ” The Staggering Question”, by famed theologian and author, Oswald Chambers. The text was: He said to me, ” Son of Man, can these bones live”. Ezekiel 37: 3.

And this is how Chambers started”

” Can a sinner be turned into a saint? Can a twisted life be made right? There is only one appropriate answer – ” O Lord God,You know” ( Ezekiel 37:3). Never forget  ahead with your religious common sense and say, ” Oh, yes, with just a little more Bible reading, devotions  and prayer, I see how it can be done….Behold, O My people, I will open your graves..( Ezekiel 37:12). When God wants to show you what human nature is like separated from Himself, He shows it to you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has ever given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God ( and He will only do this when His Spirit us at work in you), then you will know that in reality there is no criminal half as bad as yourself could be without His grace. My ” grave ” has been opened by God and  ” I know that in me ( that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells”( Romans 7:18. God’s Spirit reveals to His children what human nature is like apart from me.”

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So back to the question, ” can this evil young man be redeemed, and can Jamaica be rescued from evil”. Which in essence is like asking ” Is God good all the time”? Can the God who rescued a sinner like me – there goeth I but for  the grace of God – rescue that young man. Rescue  murderous Jamaica and mass killing America, and racist football hooligans in Europe? That really depends on God and God alone. But our prayers like #BlackLives matter! What do we carry to the Lord in prayer? About national concerns and not only personal issues. For what do we seek the Lord  an answer? To change from having King Charles as our head of State, to being  Republic! That God would strike the evil gunmen dead. All of them! And allow us to ” hang them high”. For a Revival in the church, or a less ambitious prayer, for some more members, and more committed pastors. For better governance from our elected officials. For Justice for those living in #wrongaddresses where life is tough, and hard and frustrations flow over on to the streets, and into the schools.

Can God really fix Jamaica so that not only tourists will come here in droves, but our people living abroad will return, those intending to   ” gone a border”, will stay, and Kartel remain in prison without any cell phones and conjugal privileges? 

How you see it, depends on what God has revealed to you, about yourself before His grace and mercy in Christ and Him Crucified on Calvary, Risen from the dead on Easter, thus granting the believer New and Unending Life, and Ascended back to Heaven, and gifting us with the power of the Holy Spirit, became a welcome reality in your life. Has God really ” opened your grave”? Or were you always a good person, who God only loved, but there was no need for Him to die for you?

And if the God of our Lord Jesus Christ died for you, whilst you were still a sinner, in fact his enemy, like the wicked young man, ” murderer” sings Buju Banton, can He not rescue Dudus et al. But only a very good and all powerful and forgiving God knows. Have we really ” tasted and seen ” that this God is good. Or are we like other trusting in ” horses and chariots” to rescue Jamaica. I sought the Lord, and He delivered me from all my Sin. O for grace to love and trust you O God who ” opens graves”. Of all sinners who trust Him. Even on the Cross of Calvary. Remember me when you come into Paradise. And even sinners who we take to God in prayer! So the question is not, literally, even though an ad on TV ” what is in your wallet”, before and after the recent pay increases, but for whom are you praying? And to Whom! A God who is good sometimes or all the time. Regardless of how or when He answers, and He always does, answer believing prayers.