Monday Reflection – December 13, 2021
God’s Faithful Covenant

Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame. Psalm 74:21

While one is not sure as to when Psalm 74 was written, it is clear that the writer Asaph is pleading with God to remember His destroyed sanctuary. Some scholars believe that the Psalm was written following the destruction of the temple by the Babylonians. Some argue that it is even later, following the desecration of the temple in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes. Some say that the Asaph of David and Solomon’s time composed this Psalm on the occasion or the memory of the destruction of the tabernacle in Shiloh (1 Samuel 4). Whichever it is, what is clear is that Psalm 74 is a plea and a prayer in great sorrow from the destruction of the sanctuary.

In the midst of this prayer, Asaph asks God to remember and respect His covenant. This everlasting covenant that was established with Abraham is intended to be everlasting covenant for all generations. How can God forget or disregard so sacred a promise He made? But, can He? Absolutely not! I imagine that Asaph and his people were so overwhelmed by the sight of the destroyed temple that he wonders where is God. I imagine that the negative effects of the reality and the impact on him and his people socially, spiritually, psychologically and mentally was so grave that he at least wondered, maybe doubted, whether God has reneged on His promise. In this context, we hear Asaph’s plea in today’s Watchword, “Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame.”

Admittedly friends, when life gets too much for us to deal with, we may at times wonder about God’s power and faithfulness. We question God’s presence, plan and purposes. When time seems to be running out, we question God’s will and timeliness. Today’s New Testament text provides hope, “Elizabeth’s neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her” Luke 1:58. We recall that both Elizabeth and Zechariah were old and she had passed child bearing age. Like all other families, they desired children, especially a son, for which they had prayed for a long time. God answered their prayers and they were priviledged to be parents to John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Christ.  

In a world where life gets difficult, God remains faithful. In a world, where we are handed sorrow and joy, pain and gladness, mountains and valleys, rugged and plain paths, God’s promise remains sure. In a world where disaster and destruction, sickness and death are a part of life, God’s abiding presence and sustaining grace are always available. In a dangerous world, full of the haunts of cruelty, God’s people can rely on God’s covenant promise. In a world where the value of our money is declining and the prices of goods are ever increasing, God’s providence is assured. In a world where Covid-19 seems here to stay, God’s delivering power is at work. Let’s anchor our hope in God, through Jesus Christ.

We join Tate and Brady in declaring:
Through all the changing scenes of life,
  In trouble and in joy,
The praises of my God shall still
  My heart and tongue employ.

Jermaine Gibson

Saturday Reflection – 11 December 2021

“Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 1 Corinthians 1:20

How is it, that as Christians, we are able to hold on to such hope, to possess such peace, to be filled with such joy and to emanate such love, that no matter the circumstances that we face, no matter the realities that surround us, there is still life and light wherever we go, and with whomever we engage on a daily basis. More than that, the deep and genuine hope, and peace, joy, and love that is found within us, that flows through us to those around us, is not seasonal or conditional, but is representative of the lasting hope, the incomprehensible peace, the strengthening joy, and the unconditional love that we have received freely from the Father.

This may be mind-boggling, and not an easily accepted notion by those who have not yet come to know Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour, and may even be cast aside as foolishness, disingenuous, or fanaticism. As the Apostle Paul confronts the church on the mystery of the power of God, we are reminded that our own understanding is limited and cannot match up to our Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent God. This truth reminds us that instead of trying to work out the mystery of God, we ought to cultivate simple faith, the faith of a child, without which we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

In this season of advent, which is a time of preparation, we are often confronted with the mystery of the first coming of Christ, born in Bethlehem of Judea, “…born a child and yet a king.” And even as we hear and reflect on the Nativity of Christ each Christmas, we believe by faith, that Christ left heaven, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, was born of the Virgin Mary, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This mystery of the Incarnation, we accept by faith, and just that belief strengthens us, by reminding and offering to us hope, peace, joy, and love, wrapped up in the greatest gift that could ever be given, with which anyone who would freely accept would find life, and life more abundantly. The season of advent also strengthens our resolve, as we wait patiently for the second coming of Christ. As we reminded of the words of the prophets, and everything falling into place at the birth of the Saviour, in like manner, having read the Scriptures, accepted the gift of salvation, and being led by the Holy Spirit, we actively prepare, by our lip – in spreading the good news, and living a life that reflects the one who came to save us. That when the Lord should put in his appearance “…not just a Saviour, but a reigning king…” we will all be numbered among the saints that will go marching in.

This was the message of the angels to the shepherds, on that first advent of Christ, “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” (St. Luke 2:10-11) For us as Christians, this good news has changed our lives forever, and this is our message to the world. It is not about comprehending the mysteries of God, but to take God at His word, and to yield to the call of the Holy Spirit. We may find ourselves distracted by contemplating, by adducing, and experimenting to come to scientific conclusions that we miss the great and powerful mystery of the Saviour’s first advent, who came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. We may be cultured to accept a Christmas tale that we reject when we get older, as we understand that it is not feasible, and only a Children’s fable. Not so, with the Nativity of Christ. If we continue to see it as a narrative, then we will overlook and sooner than later, forget that it actually happened and lose sight of its purpose and meaning “For Jews demand signs (attesting miracles), and Greeks pursue [worldly] wisdom and philosophy, but we preach Christ crucified, [a message which is] to Jews a stumbling block [that provokes their opposition], and to Gentiles foolishness [just utter nonsense], but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles), Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1: 22-24, AMP) The truth is the world’s wisdom has only led to strife, confusion, pain and destruction, but in the Lord, His choicest blessings, a living hope, and an eternal inheritance!

Until next week, as we continue to reflect in this Advent season, may we ask God to renew our faith in Christ that we may believe, live, and be energized to spread the good news, that all may come to see, experience and know God’s choicest blessings, both bountifully and beautifully exhibited in the Lord’s Advent. Amen.

Dominic J. Blair

Thursday Reflection, December 9, 2021

Patiently wait for the Lord’s return

Be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Luke 12:36

Greeting friends,

Not many of us like waiting in long lines in the bank or waiting over an hour for our food to arrive at a restaurant. Not many of us like waiting for people that we expect, but there is no sign of them arriving. Waiting sometimes is not our best quality, but here in our text it is a feature we must develop and work on.

Jesus speaking to His disciples encouraged them to be as watchful servants waiting for their master’s return. When their master returns from the wedding banquet they will be there to open the door. Then the master will reward them. Jesus went on further to say, “Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives.”

Friends as we look at the text there are two point I want to make:

1) Patiently wait on the Lord’s return

Jesus is coming back and when He does it will be to separate the sheep from the goat, the wheat from the tares or simply put the good from the bad or those who have been faithful to him from those who haven’t. As stated earlier, sometimes patience is not our strongest feature, but here we are called to wait. We do not know when the Lord will return, but we must wait for it.

Now waiting doesn’t entail doing nothing. For if we are expecting someone to visit us we make preparations for that visit. If the house is to be cleaned, or sheets changed or food purchased we do so in preparation for that visitor. This brings me to my second point.

2) Work until Jesus’s return

Because we know Christ is coming back, we must make preparations for His return and that entails doing His work. As servants we do not do as we like. Instead we do what has been assigned to us by the master, in this case, Jesus. We prepare for His return by doing the work that has been assigned to us. So that when he returns unexpectedly He will find us doing the work that He gave us to do.

Friends, Jesus will return. I am confident of this. But when He will return, I have no clue. However, until He returns let us be patient and not get complacent. Let us prepare for His return by doing the work that has been assigned to us. So that when He return He will find us faithful and reward us accordingly.

Let us wait patiently for His return

Shalom

Christopher Euphfa

Wednesday Reflection, December 8, 2021

Greetings, brothers and sisters! The story is told of a man who was told to take a particular set of people to a particular place. He was responsible for all their needs and wants (and boy did these people ask for alot) but this man, although he first doubted his capabilities, grew into his role and relied on God to lead him in order for him to be able to lead these people.

If you guessed correctly, then yes, the man was Moses. And so, we also now have no doubt who said people were. We know the children of Israel to be a stubborn and rebellious lot. God Himself referred to them as ‘stiff-necked’ and over and over their attitude led them to disobey Moses, God’s representative and also their own advocate which led them to sin against God.

In one particular instance, Moses went up to Mount Sinai to meet with the Lord on the people’s behalf but the people thought he took too long to return, they became impatient and craved a ‘quick fix’. They asked Aaron to make them gods. Aaron instructed them to bring all their golden jewellery to him, he took them and made a golden calf. The calf was then presented to Israel as the new god and the people quickly took their offerings, made sacrifices and worshipped the image.

God was angry, but Moses pleaded with Him. Reminded him of His enemies and the purpose for delivering them from pharoah’s enslavement and the promise God made to Abraham, Isaac and to Israel to multiply their descendants. The Lord relented. Moses went back to the people and was enraged by what he saw. He chastised both Aaron and the people but still wanting to advocate on their behalf, Moses went back to the Lord.

In today’s watchword, Exodus 32:31,32, “then Moses returned to the Lord and said, they have made themselves gods of gold. But now, please forgive their sin.”

Throughout scripture, it is clear that consequences for sin comes in stages and varies in degrees of severity, providing opportunity for repentance. Moses knew that although the nation on Israel was not destroyed, the matter of consequences from their sin with the golden calf was not yet settled. His showed intent to offer himself as a sacrifice for the people.

Friends, Hebrews 3:12-13 reminds us to ‘take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another everyday. I want to encourage someone today, that although the answer/directive you await may seem to be delayed, believe God, trust God, serve God as you await the response.

In the same way Moses advocated for the people, Jesus Christ advocates for us even now. Wait on the Lord and trust in the power of His might.

Amen

God is alive and active in the world

God issued a warning to Israel. They were to remember that they were called to be separate from the other nations around them. The practice of sacrificing to idols and following horoscope was not their custom or way. Those customs followed by other nations of the world were false. God called Israel to understand that the gods of the other nations were made by human hands and were therefore susceptible to being destroyed by the same human action that made them. If they were man-made, then they are powerless, unable to do anything supernatural like Israel’s God, like our God. Today’s watchword is a call to recognition of the power of God to create and sustain life. The Lord made the earth by his power, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. Jeremiah 10: 12

Unlike the gods of the Babylonians, Israel’s God was alive and active in the world. This movement of God began with the creation of the world. The text is a reminder that the world did not just appear out of nowhere. Genesis tells us that God spoke and it came to be. The world was intricately designed by God and has been kept by God’s grace and power throughout the years. This speaks of God being alive and active in the world. The continuous action of procreation, growth and development in the world is evidence of God’s presence. The intricacy of the earth’s and indeed the universe’s design speaks of divine intelligence at work and not a random coming together.

To say that God is alive and active is to know that God is with us in the world today. This is seen in the prophetic voice of Isaiah 7: 14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel. Matthew 1: 23 translates Immanuel to mean ‘God with us’. If God is with us in the world, his presence is not an unconcerned or impassive one, but a living, active presence. What does that presence mean for us? In Hebrews 4: 15 Paul speaks of Jesus: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Through Jesus, God has showed us how to be true to Him. Let us trust that the God who creates, who sustains and who came in Jesus Christ bringing redemption to humanity, knows what we are experiencing and is alive and active in His continued work to sustain His creation. He will do what none other can for He alone is God. Amen.

Monday Reflection – December 06, 2021
Meeting with God

God called to Moses, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” Exodus 3:5

God sometimes meet us in the obvious and exhilarating experiences of life. Isaiah can testify to this, for it was while in the temple, in the presence of the holy angels singing of God’s holiness, that God meets him. Yet, God sometimes meet us in the ordinary events of our lives, but calls us into His extraordinary plan for our lives. God meets Moses in something as mundane as a bush, but quickly reveals to him that God Himself is not mundane. God is holy, and so is His presence.

Dennis Olson notes that, after being chased out of Egypt and away from his Hebrew people, Moses is out shepherding sheep for his Midianite father-in-law. Out in the wilderness, Moses stumbles upon “the mountain of God” known as Mount Horeb. In the ancient world, mountaintops were the traditional dwelling places for the divine. There, at the mountain, Moses encounters an unquenchable burning bush. Fire is a common biblical symbol of God’s presence. The fiery bush is an icon of the divine, a window into God’s presence that both reveals and hides. In part, the ever-burning shrub out in the wilderness signals God’s merciful accommodation. God comes down from the mountain of God to meet Moses in the bush. At the same time, the inextinguishable flame is a sign of God’s awesome and powerful holiness, a fiery holiness that is both dangerous and attractive, frightening and comforting, untamed but reassuring.

God instructs Moses to remove the sandals from his feet. The gesture is an ancient practice when entering a holy place of8 divine presence. It is a gesture that honors the holiness of this ground, this mountain and this God. However, removing his sandals has a second significance in light of Moses’ status as an alien residing in a foreign land. The Hebrews had rejected Moses as one of their own, and the Egyptian Pharaoh sought to kill him. The Midianites see Moses as a foreigner. Taking off one’s sandals is a gesture in many traditional cultures that is associated with entering a home. Thus, here at the foot of the mountain of God, Moses the “alien,” has at last found a true “home.” Moses finds his true home not with humans but with God, the God of his ancestors.

God’s warning to Moses to not come closer served to indicate to him that he was standing on holy ground. Later, God’s people could not come near God’s presence on the mountain; likewise, only priests could enter the sanctuary, and almost no one could enter the holiest place in the tabernacle. Yet, we should remind ourselves that at Christ’s crucifixion the curtain of the temple was torn from top to bottom, signaling that we have free, equal and unlimited access to the presence of God. We remind ourselves too that God desires to make His home among us.

God is holy and must be approached with reverence. God is holy, and must be approached with our best signs of respect. God meets with us to reveal some measure of Himself, and His divine plan and purposes for our lives. God meets with us to burn away the dross that threaten to destroy us and prevent His perfect will for our lives to be fulfilled. God meets with us so we can find our true home with Him. God’s meets with us through His Son Jesus Christ, whose first Advent we reflect on in this Season. Let’s favorably receive God’s invitation and meet with Him.  

Jermaine Gibson

Saturday Reflection – 04 December 2021

“Israel will be saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation; you will never be put to shame or disgraced, to ages everlasting.” Isaiah 45:17 NIV

As we continue on our journey through the Advent season, preparing ourselves to celebrate the Nativity of our Lord, and prepare ourselves for His second coming, we cannot overlook the state of the world, in which we find ourselves, for it is when we pause for a moment, and reflect on this world, that we will recognize even more, the need of our Messiah, a need which will stir us to action to ensure that as His ambassadors, we are actively and enthusiastically spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. The prophets echoed the message of the coming Messiah to bring light and hope to all God’s people, in a time when they felt desolate, disgraced, and distanced from God. This message of redemption is meant to remind the people that all is not lost, and though we may not see God’s hand in all the circumstances, the master potter continues to fashion us, even as His hands remain on the steering wheel.

And so, the prophet in his announcement declares that their salvation would come from the Lord, whose salvation would be effective and lasting. That the Messiah who would come into the world, who show us the way to life everlasting, would lead us in that way, and who by His eventual sacrifice, would be able to conquer the effects and consequences of sin, death, and the grave. Christ would save all God’s people from their sin, and lead us to newness of life, and in the way everlasting.

It is interesting then, that we find ourselves in similar circumstances like the society when the prophet proclaimed today’s watchword. Many find themselves similarly desolate, disgraced, and distanced from God. And we can clearly observe the immorality and wickedness in the world. It is in this context today, that the prophetic message proclaimed by Isaiah holds true. For Christ can save us with an effective and lasting salvation, powerful enough to cleanse the vilest sinner, to conquer the strongest temptation and sin, will give us peace and set us free. We, who are God’s people, are reminded in this season of preparation, that Christ came to reclaim us from darkness and to restore us to light. We remember the proclamation made by Christ that He came to seek and save the lost.

We prepare then, for His coming, by igniting hope in the hearts and minds of people everywhere, that our Saviour is able to reclaim and restore us. That hope even reminds us how lost and condemned we were, and places and newfound or greater sense of gratitude in our hearts as believers, and reinforces the need for evangelism, bearing the message that even “the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus, a pardon receives.” We prepare for his coming by tuning our hearts and minds on the Saviour who has come to save the world, on the first from sin, and on the second, to take His beloved, that where He is, we are forever. Too often, the distractions surrounding Christmastime, block our vision, and consume our minds, that we fail to see the Christ, the reason for the season. We are too busy buying and packaging gifts, baking, and preparing food, and planning festivities, that we often forget to take time to worship our Incarnate Lord, who reclaimed and restored us, too busy to actively and enthusiastically spread the good news in this season of cheer and goodwill. And these are important and beneficial to our holiday, but without Christ as the center, in the place of prominence both by our words and actions, then we will never really understand and appreciate the true meaning of the season, and experience the depth of peace given to us by the Saviour. May our minds instead be turned to Christ, who will freely save, transform, and set free.

Until next week, let us take the time this Christmas, to reflect on the true reason for the season, and may be stirred to worship and service to the Saviour who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light. Amen.

Dominic J. Blair