Monday Reflection – November 09, 2020
The Relentless God!

I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that did not call on my name. Isaiah 65:1

When we reflect on the mayhem, violence, mass shootings and wars that are taking place in our world, we struggle many times to comprehend it all. We ask why? How? How come? We wrestle to come up with a plausible reason or answer. In the search for answers, we many times blame someone or some system. We blame homes, communities, friends, a broken mental health system etc. We point several fingers. Even when it comes down to situations in our personal lives, we are quick to cast blame elsewhere.  

The Israelites who returned from exile in Babylon faced precisely this problem: how can we explain the immense suffering endured by the people of God? Second Isaiah (chapters 40-55), addressed to the Israelites near the end of the exile, expresses confidence in God’s command of history and the eventual restoration of the nation. Despite the people’s suffering, Isaiah promises a God who will continue to bless Israel. These promises, however, are not fulfilled, at least not yet. The small groups of exiles who returned to Judah after Persia’s defeat of Babylon in 539 faced hardship, famine, political in-fighting, and economic oppression. How do they account for this continued suffering, even after the promised return to their homeland has occurred? Isaiah chapters 56-66 declare that it is God’s punishment for the people’s unfaithfulness.

Today’s Watchword depicts a God who longs to be sought by God’s people but who is continually shunted aside. God’s voice even sounds plaintive here; “Here I am, here I am,” God cries, to a nation that turns away. Specifically, the people have turned to the practice of pagan rituals. The people’s disobedience and infidelity have made them repugnant to God. The continued suffering of the Israelites is just punishment for their sin. It is the people themselves who are responsible for their suffering. Yet God will not punish all; a remnant, a chosen few, will be redeemed, who will receive all that had been promised to Israel.

Even though the people have rejected God, Yahweh offers hope. Isaiah visions the new heavens and a new earth that God is about to create (vs. 17). Also, Yahweh will rejoice in Jerusalem,
and delight in His people; No more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress (vs 19). There is further hope in verse 24: Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.

What’s the lesson here for all of us?
ü  We must accept responsibility for our actions

ü  God will justly meet out punishment to us when we reject him and follow after other gods

ü  The faithful will be rewarded

ü  No matter how far we have drifted, God relentlessly pursues us desiring to lead us back home

ü  There is hope and the promise of security and eternity for those who submit themselves to the Lordship and leadership of God. Amen

Jermaine Gibson

Saturday Reflection – 07 November 2020

“As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to you.” Jonah 2:7

The story of Jonah is a very popular one. Jonah had been called by God to go to Nineveh and preach a message of repentance. Jonah however disobeyed God, for he thought the Ninevites were not deserving of God’s mercy and ran to Tarshish. It was on the boat travelling to Tarshish that a violent storm brewed on the seas. In response, Jonah told the other men to throw him overboard and he was swallowed by a big fish. Then the storm had calmed. Jonah spent three days in the belly of the fish, of which he stayed in continual prayer to God.

Jonah considers his sin, and the consequences brought on by his action of disobedience. As he prays, he thinks, just as we many times do, that there is no means of redemption. But Jonah, in his moment of trouble and distress, turns himself to the throne of grace, and throws himself on the mercies of God. The good thing, many times said, that God is not like man, we serve a forgiving and merciful God. Hear Jonah in verses 3 -7 “You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; how shall I look again upon your holy temple?’ The waters closed in over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O Lord my God. As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.”

Jonah had seen the error of his ways, and with a repentant heart, right where he was, he committed himself to turn back to the Lord. And in his contrition, as he life ebbs away, he prays depending on God’s grace to be meted to him. This experience reminds us, that God desires our obedience, and we ought to trust the leading and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is a call to look beyond our limited sight and thought, surrendering to our omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God. As the now people of God, self must be slain, that God would be glorified. The prophet Jonah limited the mercy of God and refused to allow the people of Nineveh to turn from their sin to righteousness. We must open ourselves, to be used by God – and according to God’s will and purpose. It is interesting that in determining that the Ninevites did not deserve God’s grace, he disobeyed God and therein sinned. And now Jonah needed God’s grace. As sinners saved by grace, we must never judgemental but always open to lead others to the cross, that they may experience God’s grace.

The final thought from Jonah’s experience relates a loving and merciful God who will continually hear the cry of the penitent and will answer their prayer. It is not God’s will that anyone should perish, and so he stands to dispense his grace to anyone who would return to the Lord, our God. Many times, we may feel irreparably separated from God. And there, like Jonah, when our life ebbs away, we may be able to look up and approach the throne of grace. Jonah had sinned for he was disobedience, and the consequences of his disobedience were meted out, but in his penitence, he experienced God’s grace that is greater than all our sin. We are imperfect human beings, and when we fall, we need only in true contrition and repentance, to confess our sins, and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Until next week,
Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold,
Threaten the soul with infinite loss;
Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold,
Points to the refuge, the mighty cross.

Refrain:
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin!

Amen.

Dominic J. Blair

Wednesday Reflection, November 4, 2020

Sing Out!

Zephaniah 3:14-15
Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgements against you.

Hello friends, today marks one year since I was asked to join in sharing in this particular ministry and whilst It hasn’t entirely been smooth sailing this past year, The Lord remains faithful and ever in Control.

Today, I’d like to draw your attention to one of the many instances in which the children of Israel went astray; forsaking their God as well as their responsibility to Him.

Zephaniah 3 begins with a warning against sin then an encouragement to seek mercy and finally, promises of the favor and prosperity that would come.

Charles Spurgeon cited, “faulty as the church is, the Lord rejoices in her. While we mourn, as well as we may, yet we do not sorrow as those that are without hope; for God does not sorrow, his heart is glad, and he is said to rejoice with joy- a highly emphatic expression.”

Brothers and sisters, are you or I any different from or more worthy of grace than the children of Israel? Did the generation of sorrow, disobedience and despair die with our fore parents? If you are like me, a sinner saved by grace, who is daily bombarded by the things of this world; then hear God say to you, to me to us, ‘sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgements against you.

Indeed, Jesus dropped the charges! Do not allow your heart, circumstances or anyone to condemn you because of your former ways. The Lord has taken away the judgements against you. Understand that God is with you, He is in your midst with power to save, He takes joy in you, He gives you rest in His love and He sings over you.

What blessed consolation we have today! Today’s new testament text, 1 John 2:2 reminds us, ‘Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Until next week, remember, may the Joy of the Lord be your strength

Kerone Lamoth

Monday Reflection – November 02, 2020
No Good

They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one. Psalm 14:3

To better appreciate today’s Watchword, let’s hear the two preceding verses: “Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is no one who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.”

David outrightly rejects those who deny the existence of God and declare that they are fools, because they reject God. David says this because of the plain evidence that there is a God: evidence in both creation and human conscience. The fact that some people insist on denying the existence of God does not erase God from the universe; it instead speaks to their own standing as fools. The God-denying person is a fool because he/she denies what is plainly evident, especially because the universe reveals the creator God, the designer God, the relational God, and the governing God of morality. What is worse is when such a person denies God in his/her heart.

David then considers the result of denying God. It leads people into corruption and abominable works. There is a marked difference in moral behaviour between those who take God seriously and those who do not. More than that, as David considers the sin of the God-denier, he looks out over the landscape of humanity and concluded that there is no one who does good. It is not that there is no human good in this world, but that fallen man is so fallen that he does not by instinct do good, and even the good he may do is tinged with evil. And while we may wish to forget about God, God never forgets about us. He is always observing, looking down from heaven upon the children of men. 

Continuing in this same vein, David says in today’s Watchword, “They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.” When God looks, he finds that we have turned away from him, grown sour, and have become perverse and corrupt. David observes and remembers that humans are truly, profoundly, deeply fallen. David’s use of “there is no one who does good” suddenly broadens the scope beyond the atheist to include us. We may not be atheists, but we all have gone astray, and are perverse. 

What a picture of our condition as humans! Charles Spurgeon says, “Save only where grace reigns, there is none that doeth good; humanity, fallen and debased, is a desert without an oasis, a night without a star, a dunghill without a jewel, a hell without a bottom.” Yet, today’s New Testament lesson of Romans 3:24 offers hope – We are justified by God’s grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 

May we graciously receive God’s gifts of redemption, salvation and justification and live each day bearing the image of Christ. 

Jermaine Gibson