“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
Like in the days of Jonah we need to call island-wide fasts of repentance. We need to repent and ask God to have mercy on us NOW.
In Jonah chapter 3 Jonah entered the city, went one day’s walk and preached, “In forty days Nineveh will be smashed.” 5The people of Nineveh listened, and trusted God. They proclaimed a CITYWIDE FAST and dressed in burlap to show their repentance. Everyone did it–rich and poor, famous and obscure, leaders and followers. 6When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he got up off his throne, threw down his royal robes, dressed in burlap, and sat down in the dirt. 7Then he issued a public proclamation throughout Nineveh, authorized by him and his leaders: “Not one drop of water, not one bite of food for man, woman, or animal, including your herds and flocks! 8 Dress them all, both people and animals, in burlap, and send up a cry for help to God. Everyone must turn around, turn back from an evil life and the violent ways that stain their hands. 9 Who knows? Maybe God will turn around and change his mind about us, quit being angry with us and let us live!” Jonah 3:4-9 (The Message Bible)
From island to island too much injustice is happening. There is an increase in crime, unemployment is on the rise, the prisons are over populated and if ever a time we need God it is now. God have mercy on us!!
We are no better than the people around the world who have recently experienced much disaster and grief in their lives. We thank God for His mercies on us as a people but we should never take His mercies for granted. So many times people in the Caribbean say “Nothing is going to happen to us, we are blessed.” “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.” Psalm 33:12
Many of the islands of the Caribbean have turned to other gods. Oh Caribbean, do our actions as a people truly demonstrate that God is our God? Have we forsaken the true and living God and turned to serve other Gods – the love of money, greed, injustice, pride, religion, idolatry, witchcraft, love of pleasure, homosexuality, lust, promiscuity? God will not share His glory with anything or anyone. The opposite of blessed is cursed. If we have replaced God, with other gods then we become cursed. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, …” Exodus 20:1-3 (NIV)
We know how to call out to God in times of crisis, trouble and storm but often times once the storm has passed its back to ‘business as usual’. Yes, God has been merciful to us but we cannot afford to trample on His mercies.
Hurricane Season official began on June 1, 2010 and we thank God for all the prayers that have been prayed asking God for protection and His hand of mercy on our region. We thank God for the meteorologist and we must continue to pray that God will grant them godly wisdom, but God knows all and sees all things. No need to get upset with the meteorologists when a storm does not take the track they predicted or if it shifts and does not come at all. Yes, there are those who instead of seeing the merciful hand of God when a hurricane changes path and a land is speared they get all upset at the meteorologists. We have to be constantly in prayer and keep in-tune with the Holy Spirit in order for us to know what the Lord is saying to us.
– Ministers Jackie and Wilbert Richardson are based in the British Virgin Islands, Tortola.
Thank you for sharing. God bless you
The lack of the desire to repent in the lives of most people is reflected in the attitude that takes God for granted. We are wailing “praise the Lord” here and “Jesus is Lord” there, but we do so as long as we are allowed to live Life at our own time and space. Living Life at our own time and space means that we make no reservations for what God wants in us and through us.
Repentance does not mean asking God for mercy, God is Love, and by His Love He gives us abundant mercy and compassion, through the blood of Jesus Christ. Hence repentance is the choice we make to change our lives to live by the ways of God, in Jesus Christ. When God knows our desire, by faith, His Holy Spirit will begin the work of change of in us.
Many people blamed God for what happened in Haiti earlier this year, but there was one man who asked, how do we know how many times God prevented this from happening to Haiti. Most of the time God trains and disciplines us by allowing difficult circumstances in our lives. So if you are not ready to deal with the circumstances of your life, perhaps you are somone who has been taking God for granted. You need to learn how to live by the reservations of God, in Jesus Christ, through the teachings and guidance of His Holy Spirit. In other words you need to repent.
The people of Nineveh were a sinful people. But God knew that they were ignorantly sinning against Him; the reason He sent Johah to preach the message of truth to them. They heard the good news, they accepted it, and they decided that this news was good for their lives. They desired to change their lives of sin, God saw their attitude and He saved them. That is what repentance is all about. If it does not change you to save your Life for the glory of God, then it has not workded in you.
I hope when you say there is injustice from island to island you are not excluding the church, because there is also injustice within the church (all denominations). Isn’t there? You seem to take a holier-than-thou approach in your postings.
Bless His Holy Name!