God's message to me for the last Sabbath of 2014

On December 26, 2014, I celebrated my eighth anniversary with my wife, Fiona. It was in the spring of 2011 that our marriage was put to a test with my having to migrate to study in Canada. Thankfully, we passed that test and are both celebrating today in Canada more committed to each other. However, I have sought from God the vision for our family for 2015 and beyond. And he has begun to answer.

On the last Sabbath of December 27, 2014 or of the Gregorian calendar, I got the same message from God that I received during my 2014 Feast of Trumpets season. From Sabbath school, to the songs sung by the singers for special music, to the sermon from the appointed speaker. The message was consistent, in that God is calling me to plunge deeper into my spiritual life with him and move beyond just believing the testimonies of others to becoming one with testimonies to give to others.

You see, God makes himself invisible unto us a human beings and cannot be accessed through our scientific empirical methods. However, he makes himself available to us via the route of faith. While he has left evidence in nature to reveal himself, he has always chosen to reveal himself after our sin in Eden to a few persons, who serve as witnesses that testify of his existence. These witnesses are sent to help us interpret the visible evidence in nature and in life. So, for example, God called Noah to be his witness to tell persons that God was about to act and send a flood.

However, God leaves human beings only with the physical evidence and the testimony of his witnesses to make a decision. However, for those who are willing to believe the testimony of his witnesses, God takes them to another step, revealing more of himself to them personally and awarding them for their faith in the testimonies or witnesses. This is what happened in the early church in Acts, when the apostles testified of Christ, and the Lord gave the Holy Spirit to those who believed their testimony, so that they too could experience God for themselves.

The New Testament evangelists basically provide two verses that help to define what faith is. First of all, faith comes by hearing (Romans 10: 16-18). It is listening carefully and attentively to a testimony. Secondly, faith is the evidence of things unseen (Hebrews 11:1). Basically, witnesses are people who have heard or seen things, that they tell about or report on in order to help persons interpret evidence and make judgments. This is what Peter and John declared when a Jewish Council sought to forbid them from preaching Jesus (Acts 4:19-20). According to Peter and John stated "we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20, English Standard Version/ESV).

In fact, in Acts 1:8 Jesus proclaimed to his disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit arrived and shall be his witnesses"both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (NASB95). Further, in Acts, Jesus mirrors a prophetic passage in Isaiah 43: 8-11 (King James Version /KJV):

⁸ Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.
⁹ Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.
¹⁰ Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
¹¹ I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour.

Further, God also prophesied to the Hebrew people that he would raise up someone to speak in his name rather than to speak to human beings directly. According to Deuteronomy 18:15-19 in the English Standard Version (ESV) it is reported that Moses said:

¹⁵ “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ¹⁶ just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ ¹⁷ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. ¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. ¹⁹ And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

However, listening to the testimony from God's witness is just the first part of the process. The next is for us to have our own testimony. Even in Moses' time, God did not confine his Spirit and prophetic utterances to Moses alone, but gave it unto other Hebrew men. One event was so significant that it is recorded in Numbers 11:26-29 in the New International Version (NIV):

²⁶ However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷ A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
²⁸ Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”
²⁹ But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

 Apostle Paul related a similar idea in his letter to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 14:5 Paul states:

I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy.(New International Version/NIV)

Thus, part of God's message to me was that he no longer wants me to be content in believing in the Bible and the experiences of those recorded in the Bible, but he wants me to go deeper and the next level, that he can take my faith and turn me into someone who his Spirit can rest on and use as a mouthpiece to speak in his name. And the same is God's desire for you, whoever you are that reads this post.

A testimony that safety comes from the Lord

Prior to leaving for Vancouver on June 8, 2014,  a friend of the family insisted that I call her before the cab to the airport so that she could pray with me. Knowing that I had to wake up before 5 to make it in time for my 6:20 departure time, I literally shook my head at the thought that she wanted me to call her so early in the morning so that we could pray. I thought "why couldn't she just pray for me (without me calling her prior to my departure)?"

Well, the wisdom of her initiative was proven by the end of my trip. On my way to Vancouver, I lost my phone (either between connecting planes or the airport). Further, the hotel that I stayed at was situated in a location where I had to walk pass a lot of afflicted persons (homeless, seemingly drug addicts or users, possibly mentally ill and possibly prostitutes). Even though I thought to myself, that "this is Canada and it is much safer than downtown Kingston, Jamaica" I would later be surprised. On my departure from Vancouver airport, I learned of a gun battle in downtown Vancouver. To think that I might have walked in that very location as that incident and ended up nursing gun shot wounds humbled me. Further, my departure day also coincided with the funeral of the Moncton RCMP officers who were gunnned down by a lone heavily armed gunman.

Just the day before, I had told a friend that even though I walked past apparent drug users and afflicted people, I felt safer than Kingston, Jamaica, where I knew there were illegal guns. However, for the first time I realised that Canada was not as safe as I had thought.  This reminded me that safety and security does not come from migrating to a country with better policing, but from God who decides whether or not to preserve one's life from the evil intentions and inclinations of men (and Satanic forces).

So my prayer for you and me today is from Psalm 22:19-21, 29 (KJV):

But be not thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me.20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.21 Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. 

May you be blessed and may the Lord indeed preserve your soul and life.

Reasons why God permits the existence of trouble and calamity

In a previous blog post (Does God really help those who help themselves?), I discussed some of the sources of trouble and calamity. I want to follow-up on this subject by discussing in this post some of the main reasons why I perceive God permits and allows human beings to have troubles and sorrows.

First of all, it must be acknowledged that God permits suffering and troubles to affect both believers and unbelievers. Neither of the two groups may be exempt from suffering. However, both find themselves in difficult situations for distinct purposes.

For unbelievers, God permits them to have trouble in order to give them an occasion to encounter him. This comes out in Psalm 107's story of the rich merchants at sea. While the merchants set off on the sea to do business, God sends a storm to turn their trip into one where they lose themselves with fear (Psalm 107: 23-30). While it might seem in this case, that God gave them a wild amusement ride on the sea for the LULZ or to get a good laugh, in truth, the apparent motive in this story for God taking the merchants on a wild roller-coaster sea ride is for the purpose of introducing these rich and powerful merchants to their human limitations and inability to help themselves. This indeed allows one to recognise the need to believe and trust in God when one has no other source of help. Hence, unbelievers have trouble and sorrows as a megaphone to announce their need for a Saviour or Messiah.

But trouble does not stop there. Even when unbelievers become believers, they still face trouble. It is not sufficient to believe in God for all your troubles and woes to cease. Even those who believe in God still need and are faced with troubles.


For believers, the main reasons why we have trouble and sorrow are:

1. So that we won't forget God. We can forget God if our lives are too comfortable. (Deut. 8:11-14; Proverbs 30:9). When we have all that we want to eat and have nice homes to live in and much stuff and possessions, it is easy to think we have it all. Hence, from time to time, God has to send trouble to remind us that we must not take all that we have for granted.
2. So that he can prove if we truly believe in him. God gets glory out of us passing various tests of our faith. Our faith tried and tested prove that we are genuine (1 Peter 1:7). According to Apostle Paul, we are on display to the universe/multiverse (1 Corinthians 4:9). Earth is a laboratory that is being used to not only test us, but to reveal to other inhabitants of the universe/multiverse God's character and laws. We are being watched by other beings [angels and the different classes of angels] for our faith and how we respond to God as agents created with free will to settle a controversial matter about God (1 Peter 1:12). The story of Job also proves this (Job 1). In that story, God boasts to Satan about his servant Job. Satan therefore challenges God to a bet that Job is only serving God because God has been good to him. Hence, God takes the bet and let Satan bring trouble and calamities on Job so that he can prove to Satan that Job is a genuine believer and righteous man.

Hence, we are to count it joy when we have temptations, for as Jesus says, temptations must come (Matthew 18:7). As they say, 'you can't have a testimony without a test'. Just make sure that you trust in God so that you can past the test.

How I became 7th-day Adventist? Part 2

This post is the continuation of a previous post (or part 2 thereof) that I started way back July 2012. As I ended part 1, I spoke about how I began a university experience that changed my religious and spiritual outlook.

First year at university

The 2000s was a turning point for me spiritually. It was in this period that I arrived at university and felt that Satan was assaulting my intellectual foundation in Christianity. It felt as if there was an intellectual assault on my Christian worldview and outlook, which I did not experience before within in my previous stages of education. For the first time, many of the lecturers and tutors that taught me, seemed to be secular or critical of Christianity. Then many of my fellow university students were the party going types. I met university students who justified the use of curse words and foul language intellectually. I learned of many Christian students who abandoned their faith on campus, some taking on Rastafarian world views, others falling to fornication and parties. I even had a person who seemed to be an overt Satanist in at least one of my classes. To make matters worse, I saw many idols (sculptures) that glorified images of naked bodies and paintings that seemed suggestive of sexual messages. This environment isolated me and made me feel that I was now in the Devil's campus.

So I sought refuge, and went to join the University and College Christian Fellowship (UCCF), the university equivalent of the Christian club that I was part of at my high school. However, unlike high school, for university I had greater options and variety of Christian groups to choose from. However, like the human being that I am, I stuck with what I knew and was used to.

As I attended the first meeting, I felt a sense of smallness, as the group was way bigger than what I was accustomed to in high school. In my first year, though, I at least continued with them, and especially their small group meetings, joining for devotions in the early morning and prayer times when I felt my spiritual reserve was emptying.

While UCCF was my mainstay, I must say that I felt the need to connect with others. I remember signing up for a bible study with Campus Crusade for Christ, though at the first meeting, the person did not show up. At that time I also encountered members of the Kingston Church of Christ. I remember the day I met this tall young fellow who just walked up to me and invited me to church. I was impressed at his boldness and bravery. So I obliged him once by attending the church one Sunday, but more so attended the small student group on campus.

Controversy

It was a little while before members of UCCF began warning us about cults on campus. Explicitly they mentioned that members of the Kingston Church of Christ were one of those cults who appeared friendly, but were just hiding a deceptive agenda. I was shocked. How could they classify this group of friendly people who were so bold on campus to go up to strangers and invite them to church as a cult? Plus being in small group with them, I could not verify that these persons were up to no good.

This event shook me. Primarily because I too was coming out of a church labelled as a cult (the Worldwide Church of God). As such, I felt the need to seek God for myself and away from organized groups. How could I trust any group? This began my search for "truth" as well as a distrust in organized Christian groups, which continued during my first year.

My second year at university

In my second year, as I moved on campus (closer to the den of iniquity), I connected with Advent Fellowship. At the time, I just did so because I felt that at least we worshipped on the same day. So when I gave my name and contact to the leaders, I did not realise that this move was going to change my life for ever and put me on a path that I was not planning to tread.

I remember going through induction for the hall and telling them that on Friday night, that I did not want to participate, as I wanted to rest for church the next day. The student leader in charge asked me if I was a Sabbath keeper, to which I replied "kind of". The student leader at the time said I could not be on the fence, and that "either you are a Sabbath keeper or not a Sabbath keeper". However, for me it was really complicated. At the time, Worldwide Church of God was no longer observing Sabbath, though the Jamaican congregation still met on Saturday for worship services.

However, I remember, when the President of Advent Fellowship came to my rescue one Friday evening. he asked for me, and the student leaders released me. Then he waited for me to get ready to follow him to Advent Fellowship's first meeting for the term. As we walked to the meeting site, he interviewed me to find out about my spiritual gifts as well as my background. Eventually we arrived, and when the meeting began, I heard singing like I never heard before. This was a talented large group of students, who could really sing. I enjoyed the meeting and from then on, the group became a spiritual oasis for me.

Advent Fellowship also had small group meetings, and I too became involve in that. I hanged out with the ChanSea group (a combination of Chancellor Hall and Mary Searcole Hall). In this small group, the ladies out numbered the men. ChanSea met on Saturday, where we went to church together, had lunch together and studied the quarterly lesson of the SDA church together. Over time, I found that I studied the Bible more and topics about the Sabbath, the law and grace was featured in one of the quarterlies. This began to change my spiritual outlook on the Sabbath.

So far, I have omitted the romantic aspects of my campus life, and the love triangle that developed soon. However, since I do not want to write any names or implicate any of my former girlfriends, I have to keep it brief and just say that over time, I experienced a crises in my relationships that involved two girls. The crises led to depression and made me feel like the world's worst Christian and chief sinner.

Crusade by mistake or by God's design?

One day in the period of my depression, I told my ChanSea friends that I wanted to go to church alone in order to seek God for myself. They respected my wishes and left me to go to church alone that day. As I was on the bus to church, I fell asleep. The public bus passed the usual stop, and as such, I missed my turn. I panicked when I awoke and realised that I was off route. However a calm came over me, and it was like the voice of reason spoke and said there must be an Adventist church else where to go to.

I came off at a particular bus stop, where something was telling me that an Adventist church was located nearby. So I walked in the direction of what I perceived to be the church sign. However, I noticed that I saw some people dressed in church clothes going in the opposite direction. So I stopped them and asked where was the church. I was told that the church would be close today for a crusade, but I could accompany them to the crusade. So I walked with the group to the crusade, in which I was about to hear a sermon that would answer my questionings.

The sermon and altar call
The sermon built upon a principle that was sowed in me by my reading of the literature of Herbert W. Armstrong of the Worldwide Church of God. The sermon was about Babylon (man's religion and laws) and God's religion and laws. The preacher asked us to choose which one we would follow. However, in my spirit, I was hearing a different message. I was hearing from God that of course there is deception even within Christianity, but he has given his word the Bible to help me to identify deception and to stay away from those who teach falsehood. Hence, once I study the Bible I would not fall victim to cults.

When the evangelist made the altar call, I wrestled with the question as to whether or not I should go up. I did feel like a sinner, but I knew I was already baptized. Nonetheless, I went up, and as I did, a lady greeted me and asked me if I wanted to be baptized. Thinking that this was God's will, I said yes, but exclaimed that I did not have any change of clothes. She told me that they had some for circumstances like these, and so that same day, I was plunged into the water a second time, with new life and joy.

And this brethren is how I became a member of the Seventh-day Adventist church. However, the story does not end here, but is still developing as I write, and some day I hope that a book will emerge on my spiritual autobiography that will continue to tell you the complete story. For God knows where he is taking me, and that baptism or initiation was just part of the journey.

Praying for my Students

As I was leaving my office to attend an examination that I set for my students, in my instant message I told my wife about what I would be doing to let her know that I would be offline. Her reply was that I should pray for my students.

I carried that thought with me to the examination centre, committed to doing it. However, when I got there, I mentally pushed it aside to execute my other secular duties.

First, I checked to see if all my students were present, except those I expected to be absent. I also checked to see if the question paper had any errors. After doing this I checked the questions to determine how many possible interpretations could be had of my examination questions.

Finally, I remembered the prayer. I stood and closed my eyes and petitioned G-d in whispers, I heard snickering or laughing from 2 of the invigilators in front of me.

In the petition, I asked G-d to be gracious and merciful to the students and to cause them recall what they studied, learnt and read. I also petitioned that they would interpret the questions properly and read them carefully, that their answers would be relevant and match my expectations.

I also asked that God have pity on the students. I referred him to his heart of compassion that he had, wherein he was not willing that any perish but that all would have eternal life. I mentioned to G-d that this is similar to my situation as a lecturer, as I too had no desire that my students fail but that all should pass.

After petitioning G-d on the behalf of the students, I left the examination centre and returned 2 hrs after, when the students were leaving. One female student who was just leaving her seat walked over to me and said:

"Sir, I thank you for the prayer. I could not think until I saw you do what you did."

I knew then that G-d had used me and answered the prayer.

Another healing testimony

On November 26, 2009, I was sick with flu-like symptoms. I was very weak that I left work half day, as I was just sleeping away and could not get any work done.

When I arrived home, I had a fever, eye ache and a head ache. I was bed ridden for the rest of the day into the night.

By the night fall I was fed up of my condition, and prayed, calling on the name of the LORD (as revealed in Exodus to Moses in Exodus 34:6 as commpasionate, merciful, long suffering,). I knew that God would have mercy and extend mercy to me, as I have personally been extending mercies to others (for Jesus teaches us so in Matthew 5:7). In addition I just came out of studying Matthew 8 and 9, where God's character being revealed through Jesus was merciful unto all that called on him for help.

After prayer, I received instant revelation that my headache and eyeache had nothing to do with my flu-like condition, but were caused by anxiety and worry. Subconsciously, I was worrying about the deadlines and the entire gamut of tasks that I needed to accomplish for December. These things weighed unconsciously on my subconscious mind.

Immediately after that revelation, I began to sweat. Then my fever came down.

With that revelation I began to try to relax and think about how I could take it easy. This helped as later, my headache and eyeache was gone, and I felt strong again. With this new found strength and joy of receiving an answer to my petition, I got up and went into the kitchen to cook bean stew to eat with the food that my wife cooked earlier in the day. It was delicious. I left some for my wife and continued to sweat while pondering about how I could relax and worry less.