Caribbean Moravian Devotions

SPIRITUAL RENEWAL REFLECTION – SUNDAY, AUGUST 02, 2020

In the Moravian Daily Text, the Watchword for today says:
Remember the days of old, consider the years long past; ask your father, and he will inform you; your elders, and they will tell you.  Deuteronomy 32:7

The accompanying Doctrinal Text is 2 Timothy 1:13
Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 

Let us pause to reflect on today’s Watchword:
Remember the days of old, consider the years long past; ask your father, and he will inform you; your elders, and they will tell you.  

Verse 7 of Deuteronomy 32 seeks to take us down memory lane; to call us to do some reflection – one and two and three generations back, even beyond.  Suggesting that some answers today can be obtained through considering things past.  I have heard it touted in some quarters that Bajans have short memories; and maybe we are a lot like the Israelites in some instances.  

Israel had in some part forgotten the Rock, the joy of their salvation, their emblem in all the battles fought and won, the God who delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies in some amazing ways.  He brought them out of Egypt, fed and led them through the wilderness, and into the promised land of Canaan.

This verse challenges us to do some introspection, some soul searching, some recollection of our historical relationship with our Lord – what He had done and shown He can do.

God has been good. If you are not confident about this, ask your elders. Better yet, today we can go straight to the source – our Heavenly Father – and He will reveal the scriptures to us, when we seek them in faith with fervent prayer.  

Are you an elder today, and yet you cannot show and tell?  Then get into the Scriptures.  Are you young and cannot identify an elder around you who could show and tell?  Get into the Scriptures yourselves!  Study for yourself, to show yourself approved unto God so that you would be a blessing to your next generation.  Could we ask our Moravian ancestors today, they would tell us of the Holy Spirit’s ability to touch and fill our lives as he did for them in August 1727. 

Let us not repeat the sins of the past by forgetting or not knowing our Rock, our Saviour, and turning to idols.  Let us not fail to recognize that his Holy Spirit is still available to us.  Let us truly surrender our lives to the work and service of the One true and living Lord and Saviour, who is able to fill us with the Holy Spirit, and deliver us in every situation. 

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, help us to turn to you, to your Word.  Help us to be the support that is needed for the next generation to turn to you and your Word.  For you, O Lord, are our Rock and our salvation.  So fill us anew with your Holy Spirit; in Jesus’ name. Amen.

SPIRITUAL RENEWAL REFLECTION – SATURDAY, AUGUST 01, 2020

 

In the Moravian Daily Text, the Watchword for today says:
I am coming to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and see my glory.   Isaiah 66:18

The accompanying Doctrinal Text is Romans 10:12
There is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.

Let us pause to reflect on today’s Watchword:
I am coming to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and see my glory.  

This final chapter of Isaiah focuses its attention on worship – a theme popular throughout the entire book.  This thought, then, is set within the context of worship.  The entire world would be afforded the opportunity to observe the might and majesty of God, to revere him, and to experience his blessing. 

Such an opportunity was afforded to our Moravian ancestors of 1727.  In a regular service of worship on August 13th, the components of Holy Communion and Confirmation collaborated to give the worshipping community a special sense of God’s presence.  The congregation was inspired to a time of soul-searching as those ministering led in singing, reflection and prayer.  Touched by the Holy Spirit, they began to worship with a new sincerity that led them to experience God’s love and share the same.  Thus they found his forgiveness, whilst themselves forgiving each other; and they physically embraced each other, as God had lovingly embraced them spiritually.  From then on this Spiritual Baptism enhanced their worship, their service, and their witness.

In this month when we commemorate the spiritual renewal of our ancestors, we need to be open to allow God to fill us again so that we may experience his glory afresh.  Whilst their experience can inform us, it cannot satisfy the need for a personal experience with God and a definitive touch by his Holy Spirit.  God has no ‘grandchildren’ — each must experience God personally.  And Jesus Christ has promised the Holy Spirit to his followers.  Let us therefore reach out to him for the in-filling of the Holy Spirit.  Dwight L. Moody, in one of his sermons said: “See how he came on the day of Pentecost!  It is not carnal to pray that he may come again and that the place may be shaken.  I believe Pentecost was but a specimen day. . . . I believe if we look on Pentecost as a specimen day and begin to pray, we should have the old Pentecostal fire here.”

That Pentecostal fire was repeated on August 13, 1727; it can be repeated for us in this day.  We only need to earnestly pray, sincerely worship him, and avail ourselves to him.  We, too, may experience power from on high; and we, too, may see his glory.  For truly, as our doctrinal text declares, “the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him”.  Our prayer can therefore be that of our hymn-writer James Montgomery.

Prayer:
 “Lord God, the Holy Ghost, In this accepted hour,
As on the Day of Pentecost, Descend in all thy power.

We meet with one accord, In our appointed place,
And wait the promise of our Lord, The spirit of all grace.

The young, the old inspire With wisdom from above;
And give us hearts and tongues of fire, To pray and praise and love.”          Amen.