Isaiah 42:8. I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
And then it was Friday, that blissful day we all look forward to, and joyfully declare: ‘TGIF! Thank God is Friday oui!’ It means the beginning of our weekend frolic time. And this weekend is even better because it’s the Labour Day long weekend. Unfortunately, I don’t believe there will be any big Labour Day parade in Brooklyn, New York after the terrible flooding that occurred over the last few days in that city. But mankind, being the quickest animal to rebound from a disaster, or even to celebrate in a disaster, one never knows. (smile)
Anyhow, let’s hope and pray for our besieged world, where so much of it has recently been plagued by disease, poverty, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, wildfires, floods, famine, hurricanes, hunger and our ever-present human strife. Oh my people, it’s really a sad time in the life of our world, and one that will only improve with our turning back to Almighty God. Yes, the same One who created and LOVED us so much that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us to be saved from our abominable sinful and ungodly lifestyle.
And please note friends, that unless we soon do something about our evil and ungodly machinations, our world will continue to crumble under our feet, until it just simply implodes or explodes with a fierceness that we cannot imagine. Oh, we blame a lot of it on what we call climate change, but who has caused climate change eh? We the people, who insist on littering the earth and the heavens with our ever-increasing refuse and polluting it with new pollutants every day. And yet we still expect it to be such a glorious place to live, and can’t believe that we’ve done so much damage to our wonderful environment.
Now, let us not forget the strong possibility of the hand of God being present in our worldly misfortunes, because it is said that He will not allow the sinful to continue in their sinful ways for ever. Remember, one time He got so fed up with our sinful ways that He destroyed the earth and all therein by flood, except for Noah, his family and one set of every animal so that He could replenish the world, give us a brand new start.
Unfortunately though, over time, we returned to our sinful, ungodly ways. And unless you are so living in the darkness of sin, that you are totally blind to what’s happening around you, you will acknowledge that this is one of the most depraved and sinful eras of mankind’s existence, even as his intelligence and knowledge have reached unimaginable heights. That has led him to want to remove God from the society, because he now feels that he is a god unto himself.
But mankind forgets that he is a created being, meaning he cannot stop or prevent the death and the eventual destruction of his human body, and no matter how intelligent he becomes, he will never be able to fully replicate himself, because neither can he do the ultimate job of breathing the breath of life into a body. Yes, he can imitate it by creating an artificial being, a robot with all the accoutrements of a human body, but never the breath of life, because that’s reserved for Almighty God Himself, the creator and ultimate controller of the universe.
We have obviously forgotten, or simply choose to ignore God’s statement to the ungodly Israelites. ‘I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.’ (Is. 42:8) And as the gotquestions.org website tells us on the subject. ‘God’s glory is His honor, splendor, and dignity, and He will not share it with anyone. In telling Israel of how He was sparing them from destruction and giving them new prophecies, God says, “For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another” (Isa. 48:11) I don’t know how much clearer the Lord can be nuh.
And we’ve said all of that friends, simply to say, that there is a higher power than mankind in this universe, and it will not let him destroy it or bring it to ruin through his sinful, ungodly behaviour. And having given us an option to reject sin, to get away from eternal damnation, through accepting His Son, Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, Jehovah God cannot be blamed if He just gets tired once more with our sinful shenanigans and destroys our world once more. And this time friends, He’s promised that it won’t be by water.
So, can you think of other methods of destruction? I believe they are all worse than water. One commentator asks these two interesting questions: ‘God promised no more floods. Is there a loophole—fire next time? Will God continue to self-limit when faced with our continuing evil? God promised not to destroy the earth (at least by a flood). Will God let us destroy it?’ Who knows the answers eh? And if yuh want a li’l heads up on it, listen to the album titled ‘The Fire Next Time’ by that awesome rap group from T&T, 3 Canal. (smile)
And right now friends, there are numerous wildfires burning in every corner of our universe, fires that we have been fighting for months, and are still unable to put out. Fires that are causing people to evacuate their safe and wonderful homes and cities every day. So, the world going up in flames, is not such an incredible option or idea, as so many of us would like to believe. All I know is that if we want to survive worldwide disaster, we have to, we must, bring God back into our society, re-establish Him and His rule as the Number One factor in the way we live our lives.
And we can begin doing that right now by going to Him in humble prayer, through our Friday Chant, sincerely asking for His help. So, as one voice: ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through this past week. You know it’s been rough… what with all the anxiety, the confusion and havoc that the Covid-19 virus and our many other problems are causing. We can’t seem to fix it on our own Lord, that means we desperately need your help.
Oh heavenly Father, with your omnipotent help, and our trusting faith, we know that we can stand strong and steadfast and defeat both the virus and the unrest in our streets. So Lord, we sincerely ask you today to give the governments and those involved in the forefront of this serious and unexpected storm, the wise guidance to handle the situation properly, with the least amount of loss to life and property as possible. And please help those of us who must go out to work amidst all the confusion, to be responsible and to stay safe, and avoid any more serious setbacks.
And Lord, we fervently pray that You’ll use this situation to bring a lot of backsliders back to your fold, show them the error of their ways. And please introduce a whole new flock, who will embrace your LOVE and compassion by the example, we, your faithful believers set. Yes Lord, please use this pandemic and the unrest in the streets as a means of restoring faith in You, so that our sinful world can wake up and smell the coffee, sweet and strong! We pray this in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen!’
Now friends, as always, the Lord’s answer will be based on the way we keep the promises we’ve made! Much LOVE!
…most of man’s woes…result from his own wrong doings…
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