Faith and Evidence

Fellow Labourers-

To those of your are fathers I wish you a happy God filled Father's Day. For most of you I have seen the evidence of your fatherhood. For others I have only seen the evidence of your manhood, and the rest is by faith.:-)

Have you ever noticed that whenever a discussion arises about God that a very familiar answer pops up: "It depends on which God."? What this answer implies is that God does exist but I have a right to determine which God I own. As a Christian our God is a God of faith, whilst the other gods are determined by some other system. However, I have enough evidence for my faith.

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

Daily Bread

Fellow Labourers-

Praying for our daily bread is not a cliché. This is a daily fact of life. Even when we have our daily bread we still pray for it because of uncertainty. The Jewish nation seems to do well in spite of what is going on around them. There could be many reasons for this, but I believe it is also how they approach they life.

I believe they start from a position of certainty. They start with a conviction that God is their father, and as such he is going to provide. They do not waste time trying to assure themselves that God is their father. For them this is a given. Knowing their father and his capabilities they then move about with confidence and a sure knowledge.

Today I want to assure us that our daily bread is already provided. That does not mean we must stop asking, but we must now know how to ask. But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

Ethics of Heaven and Earth

Fellow Labourers-

How do we make our decisions? Do we take the heavenly and earthly perspective into consideration remembering that we are citizens of both places at the same time? Christianity is indeed an awesome responsibility. It is very popular in Jamaica that what a man does in the privacy of his home is nobody else's business. But, we had better stop and think this through carefully. We need to qualify this thought and add a necessary caveat. Our public life is in many ways impacted by what some persons have done in the privacy of their homes.

Let us pray earnestly for an ethics that is compatible with earth and heaven. Having such an ethics will help us not to compartmentalize our lives. Who am I? I am a new creature in Christ.

Pax Vobiscum,

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

Encore!

Fellow Labourers-

I saw several missed calls on my phone this morning (June 16, 2010). One of them was from a co-worker and so I responded ASAP. He told me that he saw his high school music teacher last week and they had coffee together at the Hilton. But, last night he got the sad news that the gentleman was shot in his office yesterday. The story he got was that two men walked into the office as if they were there for business. He was discovered dead with nine bullet holes only after his secretary knocked on his door several times and heard no response. It seems the gun used had a silencer on it.

Now consider that this gentleman after teaching music in high school for some time went back to school, studied business and economics, earned a PhD, and now his life is snuffed out in a brief moment.

I do not know the circumstances, and I will not speculate, but this one thing I know that the whole creation groans, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. It is time for the Sons and daughters of God to arise. But, this will not happen until we know the real purpose of the Church. We must be agents of change. It's time for us to make Matthew chapter 28 a reality.

We need a lot of Encore in Godly manifestations. It seems we have become spellbound by the glamorous, the encomiums, and the adulations and forget the real purpose for which we are called. We are happy when three are baptized, not considering that on that very day thirty or forty have died and gone to a Christ-less eternity. The statistics in Jamaica is saying to us that the Church must Evangelize. As I shared in devotion with the staff at the Church this morning Psalm 29 jumped out at me. The first two verses is asking us to give unto God, whilst the other nine verses tells us what happens after we give unto God. If we must see the manifestations of the sons of God we must do our part, and do it Now. Encore!

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

The Right Side of Pain

Fellow Labourers-

I have been seeing and hearing some things recently that make me know that we need a great Spiritual revival. Some of us seem quite oblivious to the real dilemma Jamaica is in. As we go from day to day ponder the question that Mordecai posed to Esther, as well as Esther's response.

"Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish."

"Sometimes God in his mercy must tear down even walls built with good intention. Though I still seem to move toward broken communities and still struggle with the weight of some of the things I see, I realize I struggle equally with the apathy that makes me want to flee from it all. But I am convinced that the right side of pain can only be accessed through the house of God, a house built not by human hands, but held up by the beams of the Cross. Here our souls find a house with rooms prepared for them and a table set with room for our enemies. God has invited us into the kingdom; the doors of a great house are opened wide. And it is a house where hospitality is not a conditional sharing of personal pains, or a self-centered preoccupation with suffering, but an extension of Christ's invitation: Come to me, all who are weary and I will give you rest."

Ready to go. Are you?

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

God's Public Relations Department

Fellow Labourers-

This is an article which implores balance in what we say and do. I believe motive is hidden somewhere in the text. God is his own PR agent. As long as we do our part he will do the advertisement. Thinking of advertisement I find we are commoditizing Christianity so much that we are leaving out the work of the Holy Spirit.

Think back as far as you can and see how many programmes we have introduced as a PR stunt to win souls. Now ask yourself if you needed any of those when you got saved. Now ask yourself why am I still saved today and many who came after me are no where to be found. Could it be you are purpose-driven and not programme driven?

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

Creative Collaboration

Fellow Labourers-

As I read this article my mind races back to the early Church. They went from house in breaking of bread, and they had all things common. It is this creative collaboration that leads to unity in diversity. The apostle Paul says when we come together one should have a hymn, one a psalm and so on, but we seem to only do this on Sunday. Once we step outside our sanctuary it seems as if it is "thy man for thyself." There seems to be no confluence of thoughts, no meeting of the minds. This is a trick of the enemy that we must recognize and kill. Let us learn from the "Inklings" and bring our creative energies to bear upon a world that is dying to see the manifestations of the sons of God.

As a people we are destined for greatness but we have become our own enemies. When we know who we are in God I believe we will not only have creative collaboration but we will begin to do the greater works of which Jesus speaks. Let us arise the world is waiting.

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

The Slain Lamb Stands

Fellow Labourers-

The Bible is indeed a book of paradoxes. Yes, our redemption often times lies in the obverse of the paradox. It was necessary that the Lamb was slain, but it is because he stands why we are saved. Isn't it paradoxical that the way up is down? Our upward mobility in God requires our bending. It is when we fall prostrate at his feet that we will stand with him. He whose throne is in the heavens can be found down on my knees.

Today the Lamb beckons to us to steal away from the noise of our surroundings and find him in the quietness of the moment.

Pax vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

Illumination

Fellow Labourers-

The more I try to understand God the more I understand how little I am. The following quote encapsulates for me so much of what I am trying to do and say." We are at our best a reflection of God when we are drawn into relationships with one another, modeling the love that has been modeled to us. We are at our best a reflection of God when we live in community that expresses God’s concern for all of God’s creation—from the downcast and the powerless among us, to the oppressed and the least throughout the world. If God is light, God's creation and creatures can somehow reflect it. The hope of theology is always that, like Moses, we may come down from the mountain glowing."


Tremendous experiences are had in the mountain, but life must be lived in the valley. It is in the valley where we will find the dry bones. The valley is the place for our testimonies. Moses came down from the valley with a glow that was effective. It was the very glory of God shining from him. He had the glory without even being conscious of its presence. Yes, God can use us without us even being aware that it is God.

My wish is that all of us would have our mountain top experiences, but please come down so that the rest of us may benefit from your experience. For those who have been in the valley for a very long time, please take your ascent and hence your illumination. To touch man, man must touch God.

Pax Vobiscum

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor

A Strange Feeling of Emptiness

Fellow Labourers-

During last week I did feel "A strange feeling of emptiness." From Monday to Wednesday I sat during the mornings looking through my window, hearing the barrage of gun shots, then a loud explosion followed by dark smoke rising upwards as if it had a message to tell. I felt helpless and my imagination at times got the better of me. I would see in my minds eye thousands of dead and among them children and seniors. The vulnerable and the helpless.

Because we live in an uncertain, untrusting, and an uncaring world we make assumptions on a number of issues. Our assumptions sometimes are made without any reasonable facts, hence we end up making wrong decisions.

Today we assume that our young people are come of age, and they are armed with a copious amount of knowledge so we give in to them on almost every issue. We do this without any understanding of history or destiny and so they too later come to that place of emptiness. You see, change does not necessarily means progress. I believe it was C.S. Lewis who said "For change is not progress unless the core remains unchanged." He explained that a oak grows into a big oak: if it became a beech, that would not be growth, but mere change.

When we are changing and not growing that can really cause us to feel "A strange feeling of emptiness." That is not to say that this is the only reason for that strange feeling of emptiness. However, as a nation and as a people we have seen many changes around us but not much progress. How can we turn this around?

Pax Vobiscum,

Robert A. Stewart J.P.
Pastor