By His Spirit

PRIVATE PRACTICE PRECEEDS PUBLIC PERFORMANCE!

nospam@example.com (Rev. Mikie Roberts) — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:23:49 -0700

Life is a PUBLIC PERFORMANCE!
In this PERFORMANCE we all have a role to play.
Some PERFORM as moms, dads, grand-parents, aunts, uncles.
Others PERFORM as husband, wife, fiancée, boy friend, girl friend.
Many PERFORM as leaders, employees, managers, students, teachers.

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Life-giving Spirit of God.

nospam@example.com (Rev. Bevon White) — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:37:36 -0700

I will put my spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord. Ezekiel 37: 14

Chapter 37: 1 – 14 of Ezekiel records the prophet’s vision of the valley of dry bones. In verses 11 – 14 we get the meaning of this vision, declared by the Lord. It is a vision for the people of God, offering hope in what they may have seen as a hopeless situation. In Chapter 36: 25 – 37, we hear God’s plan to cleanse Israel from their sinfulness which has landed them into exile, God’s act of cleansing will cause Israel to remember the role they played in being where they were. God, however would not stop at cleansing them and forgiving their sins. God would renew them by giving them a new heart and finally by placing the Holy Spirit within them. It is the Holy Spirit that would truly revive them, even though God’s action would begin before that. But that was not all. This new life would be lived out in their homeland, the place God intended them to be.

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GOD'S CONCERN!

nospam@example.com (Rev. Mikie Roberts) — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:42:48 -0700

There is no human being alive today who is not in some way CONCERNED about something. Parents are CONCERNED about all aspects of their children’s life – health, education, happiness and their future. Employees are CONCERNED about ensuring that they still have a job with all of the job losses taking place. Teachers are CONCERNED about the success of their students and likewise students are CONCERNED about their grades. Pastors are CONCERNED about the membership of their congregations and how ministry is going. Businesses are CONCERNED about an economy that doesn’t seem to be growing as fast as they’d like. As human beings, so many times our CONCERNS seem to be driven by our fears. But today I invite us to consider that in the same way we are CONCERNED about the details of our daily lives, GOD is just as CONCERNED about us. Our FF for today is GOD’S CONCERN.

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Get It Right!

nospam@example.com (Rev. Bevon White) — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:38:50 -0700

Hear the word of the Lord, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God in the land.” Hosea 4: 1

When we read the prophets we sometimes get the idea that they were like whining parents, always at Israel about the same thing. We all can identify with that to a certain extent whether as parents or as children. There is always the drive to get it right. Parents keep at the children to get it right and will keep harping on the same thing until there is a sense of satisfaction that it has been done satisfactorily. This is how we know as parents that our children are ready to face similar situations. If they get it right at home, there is no need to worry (too much) when they are away.

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UNDER GOD'S CONTROL!

nospam@example.com (Rev. Mikie Roberts) — Fri, 04 May 2012 05:43:38 -0700

Not too long ago while driving I came across a vehicle that had caught fire. By the time I was passing the fire had been brought UNDER CONTROL and the firemen were doing their best to clear the road. First responders to any emergency immediately have to assess the situation with the aim of bringing the matter immediately UNDER CONTROL. For a police in riot gear, that may mean trying to CONTROL a crowd of protestors. For a paramedic, that means trying to stop a bleeding wound. When a situation has been brought UNDER CONTROL then there is a power shift of sorts. So the fire officer gets the upper hand over the fire. The police have some clout over an unruly crowd. The paramedic is now in a position to monitor the one who is injured and determine what steps to take to save a life. With that in mind our FF for today calls us to ponder it means for us to be UNDER GOD’S CONTROL. That’s our FF for today UNDER GOD’S CONTROL!

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God Has a Plan.

nospam@example.com (Rev. Bevon White) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:02:55 -0700

Let us continue to bear up the family of Rev. Cleveland Edwards who was called home to glory. Remember also Rev. Montieth and Bishop Foster who continue to receive medical care.

My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings. Isaiah 32: 18.

Today’s text is in the closing section of a warning to those who choose to live carelessly. There can be but one result to such lifestyles, that is, the hardships that follows forsaking God. This is the story of the people of God. They worshipped and lived faithfully and everything went well for them as a people. Then they became careless in their service to God and fellow humans and things changed for the worse. This was God’s way of using hardships to bring them back to the right way of living. God’s judgment would always change and be replaced with God’s mercy when the people repented. God would pour out God’s spirit of righteousness and justice bringing back harmony to the community.

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ROOTS!

nospam@example.com (Rev. Mikie Roberts) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:50:30 -0700

There was a local proverb which I heard repeatedly as a child growing up. It was ‘plantain suker follow the ROOT’. If perchance you have no idea what a plantain is just think of a big ripe banana that is usually fried before it’s eaten. The young plantain trees are called suker (not too sure about the spelling but at least that’s what we call them). The significance of the above local proverb is that the young plantain tree actually buds from the ROOT of the adult tree. Because of this then the ‘suker’ can’t be any different from the original. In other words it produces after our its kind. The ROOT is not only the place where the tree is connected to the ground. The ROOT also gives us a clue about what can be expected. It is the source. It speaks of the now and points to the untold future. How different would our perspective be in life if we would but focus a bit more at the ROOT of things? So for our FF for today I invite us to shift our gaze and consider the ROOTS. That one word is our FF – ROOTS!

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Loving Elder Care.

nospam@example.com (Rev. Bevon White) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:28:04 -0700

Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent.
Psalm 71: 9

Lots of the Psalms are prayers for specific needs. Today’s text is part of a ‘prayer for lifelong protection and help’ [NRSV]. Importantly, it is the prayer of an elderly person in distress. There is trust in God that even when all else forsake, God will remain faithful. In verse 7 we get the impression that there is an affliction that causes the person to be seen as less than he/she was, thus there is persecution. It is when the Psalmist is down that many are now finding the power to accuse him/her. The Psalmist however remains confident in God’s ability to see him/her through, as God has done all of his/her life. Somehow this Psalm reminds me of an article I read recently by my OT professor, Dr. Debra Appler, in which she looks at the treatment of David as a case for elder abuse. The mighty king is now old and ‘in his old age he found it difficult to stay warm at night, so a beauty contest was held. The winner got to sleep with the king to keep him warm, but the chroniclers are quick to point out that "he knew her not" (1 Kings 1:4).’ No longer virile, the king is, by tradition, not fit to rule and a series of events begin that cost him the life of his son, has him running to escape war with the same son, and has Solomon being given the throne in a questionable manner. Could this Psalm have been a prayer by David in the distress he was going through?

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INSEPARABLE LOVE!

nospam@example.com (Rev. Mikie Roberts) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:15:42 -0700

Lionel Richie has recently released a new CD entitled ‘Tuskegee’. He rearranged some of his top hits in a country and western musical style. One of Lionel Richie’s top 10 is the ballad Endless LOVE which originally was done as a duet with Diana Ross. This time around he did it with Shania Twain. I wonder how many lovers who burrowed Lionel Richie’s words are still in LOVE today. Yet even when human beings sing to each other about endless LOVE, there is no guarantee that it really is. And even for those whose love for each other has withstood the test of time and they are still together 20, 30 or 40 years after being married, a part of our LOVE ends when that person is no longer alive for even if you LOVE them you can’t show them. So though we love Lionel Richie’s song, there is a LOVE that is better that being endless LOVE. Our FF for today focuses on that kind of LOVE. It is INSEPARABLE LOVE. That’s today’s FF: INSEPARABLE LOVE!

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Oneness Through God.

nospam@example.com (Rev. Bevon White) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:43:07 -0700

I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. Ezekiel 11: 19.

Beginning at verse 14, the prophet is instructed to give an assurance of restoration to Israel. The people will come back from all the different places where they have been exiled and be gathered in the land God promised them. Upon their return they would restore the place by destroying anything that connected the land to idol worship, setting them free to worship God. God would then give them one heart, and a new spirit. It is important to understand the implication of this. Firstly, not everyone was in exile, thus there were those who had taken possession of the land left behind by the exiles. The return of the exiles caused tension over the land. Secondly, while those who were in exile had remained true to their faith, those who remained had followed idols. The returning group therefore had a sense of superiority in land ownership which they repossessed, and superiority in religious practice which they were to enforce in the land. It was this very turning away from God which had led them into the state of exile.

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GIVE IT TIME!

nospam@example.com (Rev. Mikie Roberts) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 07:18:12 -0700

There’s a ‘Julie’ mango tree in our yard that is laden with blossoms on just about every branch. Every TIME I drive pass it I keep checking to see how far the blossoms have reached in their development on the way to becoming ripe sweet mangoes. A part of me is getting a bit impatient and wishing that the mangoes would be ready for picking sooner rather than later. But no matter how much I may want those blossoms to hurry up and become ripened fruits I know that IT takes TIME. Months pass between the tree pushing out its blossoms and producing nice fully ripened mangoes. That process takes TIME. And so between now and then I just need to pass that tree each day and GIVE IT TIME. That’s today’s FF GIVE IT TIME!

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Psalm 102:3

nospam@example.com (Calvary Moravian Church, Barbados) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:46:00 -0700

For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. Psalm 102:3

The psalmist begins this Psalm by asking God to hear his prayer. “1Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. 2 Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.” In the third verse the psalmist pleads his urgency, his anxiousness, his strong desire and desperation to have his prayers answered. 3“For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.”

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Godlike Purity Through Christ.

nospam@example.com (Rev. Bevon White) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:02:14 -0700

While we recalled our Lord’s journey to Calvary on Good Friday, our sister and PEC member from Jamaica, Allison Hall, made her final journey into Paradise. May God’s perpetual light shine upon her! We remember the province and her family in prayer.

Can mortals be righteous before God? Can human beings be pure before their maker? Job 4: 17

Job’s question of human’s purity in comparison to God’s is asked twice. The original translation is as follows: Is mortal man than God more righteous? Than his Maker is a man cleaner? [Young’s Literal Translation]. It suggests a questioning, not of God’s purity, but of human’s. The word used here for mortal, means man and is usually used when speaking of people of lower ranks or classes. It actually suggests imperfection or sickness that produces desperation and dependence. Humans are here portrayed as weak and feeble. Literally then, the question asks: Can imperfect humans be righteous before [perfect] God? Do we need an answer to that?

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Numbers 23:12

nospam@example.com (Calvary Moravian Church, Barbados) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:45:00 -0700

Must I not take care to say what the Lord puts into my mouth? Numbers 23:12

After the children of Israel were set free from Egypt, they conquered many heathen nations. When they set up camp in Moab, the king Balack was afraid and called Balaam the Prophet to curse the children of Israel so they would not overthrow his kingdom. This was not what God wanted. The children of Israel were a blessed people.

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Isaiah 53:7

nospam@example.com (Calvary Moravian Church, Barbados) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 00:42:00 -0700

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. Isaiah 53:7

The two great things which the Spirit of Christ in the Old Testament prophets testified before hand, were the sufferings of Christ and the glory that shall follow (1 Peter 1:11)

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