Caribbean Moravian Devotions

Life is filled with every day surprises when the unexpected occurs. We are creatures of habit and expect things to go a certain way. Our expectation is not based on just a single occurrence. Repetition feeds our expectations. The surprise comes when what we anticipate or expect doesn’t unfold as we had assumed. Not all surprises are good. Some leave us shedding tears of joy. Others leave us deeply wounded, troubled and even traumatized. We were surprised largely because we PREDICTED that things would have gone one way – the way we had hoped for; what we believed; what we expected. But then something else happened. Depending on what it is, the unexpected surprise shocks and shakes us to the core. Life may have fewer surprises if we did less PREDICTING. But as human we project, anticipate and engage in the PREDICTABLES of life. The actions of others can be PREDICTED but when it comes to GOD presumption should never dictate what we expect, for GOD IS NOT PREDICTABLE.

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Isaiah 53 is entitled The Suffering Servant. This amazing passage from the Hebrew Prophets was written over 700 years before the birth of Jesus. It is found in Jewish Bibles today, though it is left out of the weekly synagogue readings, as are many other texts of the Bible. This passage is one of the most debated among Jews and Christians as Christians interpret it as pointing to Jesus Christ, the Messiah while Jews refute this claim, instead teaching that it referred to the whole nation of Israel. The fact is, this “servant” plainly is set in contrast to the Israelite “people” in Is. 52: 8. “By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who among them considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due?”
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The eyes of the world have been glued to their television sets watching the events in Egypt. After 30 years, Mubarak was told by his people to do just one thing: LEAVE! We now realize that one person’s voice can make a world of difference. One voice can crescendo into thousands and even millions. And so with a thunderous voice Egyptians told President Mubarak to LEAVE! At first he didn’t. But over the course of days with the ever growing demand for him to LEAVE, in the end he did just that – LEAVE! Our FF for today is that one word LEAVE!The eyes of the world have been glued to their television sets watching the events in Egypt. After 30 years, Mubarak was told by his people to do just one thing: LEAVE! We now realize that one person’s voice can make a world of difference. One voice can crescendo into thousands and even millions. And so with a thunderous voice Egyptians told President Mubarak to LEAVE! At first he didn’t. But over the course of days with the ever growing demand for him to LEAVE, in the end he did just that – LEAVE! Our FF for today is that one word LEAVE!

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Psalm 118: 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.

According to Clarke’s Bible Commentary, this was the response of the priests to the king as he approached the temple to make offer sacrifice. Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible has this or a similar saying applied to all the people as they approached the temple for sacrifice. ‘We bless you out of the house of the Lord” the priests would say. It was the language of those who had charge of the sanctuary, addressing him who came in the name of the Lord to present his thank-offering. It was used to welcome the worshipper, with the assurance that the offering presented would be acceptable to God.


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There are just some people who need no INTRODUCTION. We know who they are. In fact their lives are so public that we can claim to know things about them that they donÂ’t even know about themselves. Who needs to do an INTRODUCTION of President Obama? How would you feel if you had to do an INTRODUCTION of letÂ’s say Oprah or Prime Minister Spencer (Antigua). ItÂ’s not always easy to do INTRODUCTION especially when we canÂ’t say we know the persons personally. Often times we end up doing an INTRODUCTION based on what we see or read or have been told. But the INTRODUCTION takes on new interest when we can say IÂ’m speaking from my own personal experience or encounter with that person. But letÂ’s make a switch. If somebody had to introduce you, what kind of INTRODUCTION would it be? What would be said about you and how close to the truth would that be? That leads us to reflect on our FF for today BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION!

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Let no one lose heart. 1 Samuel 17: 32

There are many fearful and uncertain situations surrounding our lives daily. It becomes easy therefore for GodÂ’s people to throw up our hands in fear or surrender. TodayÂ’s text speaks to such a situation in IsraelÂ’s history. The story of David and Goliath is well known and timeless. This giant of a man, Goliath, leads the Philistine army in an assault against the armies of Israel. Instead of attacking, Goliath calls upon them to send out their best fighter to duel him to the death, and the winner would automatically win the battle for his army. King Saul and his army were afraid and virtually in hiding when the young shepherd boy, David comes on the scene. He is in total disbelief that they could make this one man be ridiculing the army of the Lord Almighty. He volunteers to battle the giant, tells the men of Israel not to be afraid, not to lose heart, and defeats Goliath effortlessly.
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There was a very common practice in the Caribbean that I suspect has become less popular. We used to ‘trust’ things. That simply meant your parents would send you to the village shop without money but a list. Afterwards, the shopkeeper would then write how much was owed in his book. Sometime later your parents would go and pay up what was owed without interest. You paid what you could against the original amount. Rest assured that if you could not be trusted, word got around. Caribbean people so love to ‘trust’ that major companies introduced ‘higher purchase’. But there’s a big difference! With ‘higher purchase’ you’re told to buy NOW and PAY LATER. But with ‘higher purchase’ by the time you’re done, your final price is a lot higher than your original price. But the small payments look so attractive we are tempted to buy NOW and PAY LATER. Only in the end we realize that to trust is not the same as ‘higher purchase’. When we PAY LATER we end up paying much more than what was the original cost.

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The Lord says: Those who love me, I will deliver. Psalm 91:14

As I reflect on the above verse over and over, I remember the story of a young married couple who had a daughter and were members of a church. They attended church regularly. Her husband died tragically.
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