The Friendly Church
"I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places..." (Isaiah 45:3 NRSV)
The experience of grief and loss in any form tends to create so much pain, anxiety, and disappointment that one may ask, “Where are the 'treasures’ in grief and loss when your 'treasures' have been lost?
The curtains have been drawn on the 175th Assembly of the Jamaica Baptist Union, held in Montego Bay between February 19 and 23. This marked the first time the Assembly took place outside of Kingston since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. The Assembly's theme was “Keeping Faith with the Word in an Ever-Changing World,” complemented by the sub-theme
“Wholeness.”
What's love but a second-hand emotion?
What's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?
My prayer for you as you begin this new year is that you will experience all the richness of the spiritual blessings that are in Christ Jesus. That you will grow more and more in favour with God, and love God from your heart. That you will love your neighbour from your heart as well. I pray that we all continue to be anchored to the word of God, which is unchanging, in a world that is forever changing. This is critical for the following reasons.
Dear Members,
We are beginning another year of the liturgical calendar, usually starting in Advent. It’s a season of hope, love, peace and joy.
There are two issues I would like to comment on at this time. At the time of writing this message, six teenage boys were charged after being positively iden-tified for raping a thirteen-year-old girl. The boys have been charged with, “rape, forcible abduction, knowing and producing child pornography and dis-tributing child pornography”.
I would like us to have a heart-to-heart talk. To that end, allow me to share a story that I am sure some of you may have heard before but is worth repeating here. The story is a demonstration of true love, commitment, and the power of hope. It is the story of a boy and his father after an earthquake in Armenia.
The curtains have been drawn on the Lausanne Congress, held in Incheon, South Korea, meeting for the fourth time since its inception in 1974. It was a rich time of fellowship, engaging with so many people across the world and hearing from two members of the Caribbean delegation–a medical doctor, speaking of her work experience, and a university professor speaking about Gen Zs.
“The mission of God flows from the love of God” Cape Town Covenant.
We live in a world filled with evil, greed, self-centeredness, and deceit, where moral values are disregarded and evil is increasingly prevalent. The Prophet Isaiah 5: 20 says:
Today, as I write this message, I do so with gratitude to God that we were spared the direct fury of the first major hurricane of this season. Apart from being the first hurricane of its strength in June, it also grew from a tropical depression to a full-blown hurricane in less than two days. Another first for Beryl is that it is the earliest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic to reach a category 4, and then 5, with devastating and destructive results.