The Caribbean Pioneer - February 2003

Focus on good things. How do you see yourself in the truth? It is very important that you have a good self-image, because the way you think, so will you be. If you stay focused on bad, low or depressing thoughts, this will only bring you misery. Don’t continue to see yourself as a failure. Be positive and grow in the Lord. He will bless you and prosper your way before Him. Remember: it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Negative thoughts bring frustration and unnecessary burdens.

Elisha was confident of the blessing before he received it
The way in which you ‘see’ things has tremendous effect on your journey to the Kingdom. Elisha asked Elijah for a double portion of his blessing (II Kgs. 2:9-13). Elijah told him that if he saw him when he was taken away, then his request would be granted. At the very time Elisha ‘saw’ Elijah taken away, he believed that this blessing would fall upon him. It wasn’t long after when Elisha shouted, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!” Elisha saw himself receiving the blessings even before it actually happened.

Abraham saw the land of Canaan
In Genesis 13:14-18, God told Abraham to lift up his eyes and ‘look’, for all the Land which he ‘saw’ would be given to him and his seed forever. Abraham couldn’t see the whole land with his eyes, but he ‘saw’ all the land by faith. He ‘saw’ himself obtaining the promises and God called him His friend. Abraham focused on the eternal things of God.

Press forward
You must have hope, vision, and spiritual perspectives in life. Paul exhorts us in Philippians 3:13-14 to reach forth unto those things that are before us, pressing toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We need to stop looking and seeing the here and now, and think about the achievements we can make in life. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You can do all things through Christ who lives in you. There is nothing too hard for God to do, so we are told in His word.

Put self aside and ‘see’ yourself leaning on the everlasting arms. Are all your friends full of negative thoughts, and that is pulling you down? Then it is time that you encourage them and help them to develop positive attitudes toward life.

Be a winner
A young contestant recalled how, for two consecutive years, she became first runner-up in the Miss World contest. She selected hundreds of cassettes of successful contestants and watched them keenly. Not surprisingly, the next time she entered the contest she was crowned Miss World. When asked if she was nervous as she walked up for the prize, she said “No!” because she had gone up the aisle many times before.

What does God expect of you?
See yourself the way God would like to see you – a positive, energetic servant in His vineyard, having strong faith in the promises of God. God expects the vineyard to be fruitful and yield abundant lives dedicated to His service. If we fail to maintain the vineyard properly, good fruits cannot be harvested (I Cor. 15:58). It is by faith in God and Christ Jesus that we see ourselves as the children of God, heirs and joint heirs of the Kingdom of God.

Have you seen Jesus?
Patience and perseverance may be all we need to succeed in whatever we are doing. The disciples had to ‘see’ Jesus to follow him the way they did after he had left them to go to the Father. Not only did they see him physically, but also they ‘saw’ him as their Redeemer, Savior and King. Their faith was fully grounded in the promises he offered. “Come and see”, will always be the answer.

Have you ‘seen’ the Lord Jesus Christ? He is right beside you with outstretched arms ready to hold and lead you in the paths of righteousness. Wake up from slumber and sleep, and ‘see’. Abide in him, for this is the essence of true discipleship.

“He healed them all”
At this time, many of our beloved stalwart brethren and sisters in the Caribbean are ill and even bedridden. In Matthew 4:24, we are told that they brought unto Jesus people that had divers diseases and he healed all who had faith in him. Let us look far beyond our present evil time, and ‘see’ God’s Anointed One upon the earth again, standing in the midst of suffering humanity, purging the effects of sin and bringing restoration and gladness.

[I am greatly concerned about the depressing effects of the present political, economic and social situation throughout the Caribbean. It is crushing the spirit of even our greatest stalwarts. G.G.]

Why do we meet around this Table? It is not to satisfy bodily hunger. When they were doing that in Corinth, the Apostle Paul chided them that they were not discerning the Lord’s body. It is not to meditate. We can do that at home and save the bus fare.

Surely we meet to revitalise our corporate worship, to share fellowship, to show that we really do consider one another as belonging to the body of Christ.

We meet so that those who are strong can bear with the failings of the weak and not just please ourselves, and to build up our brothers as Christ did (Rom. 15:1-3). Paul’s quote from the Old Testament reminds us that bearing with the failings of others who share this table with us may even involve accepting insults without griping.

We meet around the Table as ‘a spiritual act of worship.’ We do not offer animals at this altar. We offer ourselves ‘as living sacrifices’ (Rom. 12:1). To offer our bodies as a sacrifice is a decision, an act of choice. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross” (Matt. 16:24). Our ‘cross’ is obviously not unemployment, or chronic illness, or a difficult mother-in-law. Our ‘cross’ is a sacrificial calling, a kind of lifestyle and mind-set that we voluntarily ‘take up.’

A living sacrifice
Romans 12:9-21 is clearly intended to be a little picture of each of our ecclesias across the world. “Love must be sincere…be devoted to one another…honour one another…be joyful…share with God’s people who are in need…practice hospitality…live in harmony…be willing to associate with people of low position…live at peace…overcome evil with good.” Note the number of active verbs and action words in that passage: love, honor, serve, share, bless, rejoice, overcome. I am afraid that many of us at this table just concentrate on being passively ‘pure’ and ‘blameless,’ but are lazy when it comes to uplifting others. But goodness is far more than the absence of wrongdoing.

The apostle told the Romans to “accept one another” (15:7). And not just for friendship’s sake, but “just as Christ accepted you.” And this place, the Lord’s table, is just the right and proper place to fulfil that commandment. This is no place for finger pointing or ‘taking our brother by the throat.’ This is no place for pretending that you and he or she are unworthy to sit by me and sup the cup! I have to remember that Jesus sacrificed, suffered, and died so that I could be here today. That is the only table that will please God. Your failings are not going to affect my place at this feast, nor mine yours. It is the Lord who sanctifies this table, not you or I.

Elijah’s angel
There is a wonderful little story in I Kings 19 about Elijah. He was in a terrible state of depression, like many of us here this morning. God did not gripe at Elijah because he was down and out, and crushed by his circumstances. There was no finger pointing. God just sent an angel. The angel “touched him” gently and tenderly. He gave him freshly baked bread. He blessed him with soothing sleep. And then he gave him another nutritious meal. Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you. What a sympathetic love is there!

I am going to be like that angel. I am welcoming you all to this table today. Eat, for the journey is too much for you.

The other day I re-read the love story of Hosea and Gomer, and then Bro. Bob Jennings’ exhortation in the October, 2002, Tidings, which brings out many meaningful lessons.

I am sure that on their wedding day Hosea had the highest expectations of Gomer and of his ability to satisfy her and keep her on track. But when Gomer went off to live with her outside boyfriends and ‘played the harlot,’ to use the straightforward old fashioned phrase, Hosea was devastated. The children were disgusted. We are told that she only wanted gourmet food and fancy clothes from these playboys, nothing else. Of course, her adulterous liaisons did not last. They never do. So when her lovers had had their fling, and run out of cash, they abandoned her. She chased after her lovers but did not catch them, she looked for them but did not find them.

In poor but materialistic societies like ours, ‘gold-diggers,’ like Gomer, are the norm. These days, this scenario is played out in countless shattered lives. Popular women’s newspapers, like Flair, foster this lifestyle, and assume that it is inevitable. It is considered smart.

The more I thought about it, the more I realised that Gomer’s real weakness was not sexual: it was discontent and ingratitude. As Hosea said, she has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold which they (her boasty boyfriends) used for Baal (licentious idolatry). Gomer’s dream was that elusive notion, the ‘pursuit of happiness.’ But the more you pursue happiness, the farther it recedes.

What amazes me most about this story is Hosea’s attitude: utterly unselfish and totally sacrificial. I am going to allure her, and speak tenderly to her. I will show my love to the one I called “Not my loved one.” I told her, “I will live with you.” My heart is changed within me: all my compassion is aroused. I will betroth you to me forever, in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. That is not how cheated husbands usually behave. But that is exactly the attitude which God has shown to us all, for God is love.

Yes, as Hosea says, Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them.

The epistle to the Hebrews tells us that marriage should be honored by all. That is why we are celebrating your marriage today.

In Jamaican culture, marriage is scorned as an inconvenient obstacle to selfish desire. Even in marriage many couples live together selfishly. They think that fulfilment can be achieved without sacrifice and commitment, so a deep and lasting love always eludes them.

Marriage involves giving love to someone whom we treasure more than anyone else. The mutual decision to honour one man and one woman as uniquely precious is the only basis on which marriage can be built. True love is never possessive. It is always sacrificial. There should always be a very special joy in the heart of each of you when your beloved is near.

The advice which Hebrews 13 gives you is brief and simple, but it cannot be bettered in any marriage manual. Here are five succinct bits of guidance from that chapter.

May the God of peace equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in you what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

At a Truth, Joy and Praise meeting, which we hold every Sunday, a proposal was discussed to move meetings from our beautiful Assembly Hall in Orange Street, built with such love and sacrifice eleven years ago, but which is now in the midst of a violent neighborhood ruled by terrorists. We felt that we had scriptural support to continue witnessing.

There are three parables in Scripture, two of them ‘acted’ parables, which I am convinced describe the Kingston ecclesia, and so give us clear guidance.

Peace, perfect peace, is the gift of Christ our Lord;
Thus, says the Lord, will the world know my friends.

Pieced together from interviews during the 1990’s. Bro. Sidney Kelly fell asleep in Christ during the evening of 21 December 2002 while Sis. Doris was attending a wedding in the Kingston Assembly Hall in Orange Street.

I was born just two years after the great earthquake of 1907, which devastated much of Jamaica and killed a vast multitude of its citizens. As a child, I grew up in a farming village called Camberwell in the parish of St. Mary, the second of eight children. The farms were just tiny plots, far too small for a family to make a living. My parents had to do stone breaking and, when it was available, line up for day’s work on the big banana plantations down on the plain.

In the village, besides the farms, there were a few other buildings, including a school and several churches. The churches would compete all the time for members. The head teacher was the only educated person in the whole area. The pastors, policemen, and ordinary people were all illiterate. I was not able to go to school every day, because I had to work on the farm at a very early age. We used slates to write on. I tried hard in my reading lessons, which was useful later on when it came to learning the truth. I had to go to church regularly. I don’t remember now what the church was called, but like all the churches in the area, the services consisted only of redemption songs all sung at the top of our voices, clapping and stomping, a long sermon with the pastor shouting and screaming at us young people to stop flirting and fornicating, followed by testimonies from us pretending that the blood of Christ had cured us from those terrible sins. I remember giving a Holy Ghost testimony at the age of ten that the blood had cured me from the sin of adultery. It was all godliness without the power thereof.

I was sent by my family to seek my fortune in the big city of Kingston. When I got there, the city was still being rebuilt. Before the disaster, Kingston had been built of bricks. Rebuilding was mostly in a material called nog which had sturdy wooden framing. By 1922, Kingston was a city of nog buildings with roofs made of shingles, a lot safer than the earlier brick construction. I found it was easy to get a job in construction and I became a skilled carpenter and builder.

In 1951, hurricane Charlie devastated Jamaica, and many thousands of Jamaicans lost their homes, including my wife, Doris, and myself. The government built some houses for the homeless, and we moved into 17 Olympic Way, our address for the next 50 years, although I did build another larger house on the same lot some years later.

I was 46 years of age when a very small thing totally changed the lives of Doris and myself. At that time there was only one newspaper in Jamaica, The Daily Gleaner. “Gleaner cars” used to leave the North Street pressroom with bundles of papers to deliver to every corner shop throughout Jamaica. It was said that one in four adult Jamaicans bought the Gleaner every day. If you couldn’t read, you looked at the pictures. Of course in those days there was no television, very few radios, and even fewer telephones. People depended on their daily newspapers for news, advertisements, jobs, times of sunrise and sunset, and the tides.

One day in 1954 I saw a little notice in the Gleaner offering a free book called Preaching the Truth. I was intrigued. I wrote for the book to an address in Georgetown, Guyana. In a short time, I received the book, and also letters from two ladies called Spence and Odle. These letters were so encouraging, and the little book was an eye-opener. In fact, Doris and I read it so many times that I could almost say it by heart. The most compelling thing about the story in the book was that the people took their religion seriously. Up to that time, I had thought of religion as only some kind of entertainment, having no real importance in daily life.

One day a young white man came to our home and introduced himself as Alan. I was amazed because he came on foot into our poor neighbourhood and not in a taxi or a car. He said that he had received our address from the same Spence who had written to us. He began to visit us regularly, and then told us about a series of Bible lectures in Kingston to be given by a visiting speaker from Britain. Those lectures by Harry Whittaker finally set us firmly on the way of life. The strange part to me was that although the Bible teaching was so clear, none of the big churches seemed to want to teach it. In fact, The Star newspaper even had a big headline warning people against Harry and his Bible lectures. It seemed so odd that this funny little group meeting in an old school should know more about the Bible than anyone else, but we realised that we had to do something about it. I was baptised on the 27 October 1956, a few weeks after Harry had left Jamaica. Doris followed me through the water soon after.

Although we were only a small group then, we had many activities. I used to help with meetings in the Slipe Pen Hospital, where eventually we started a branch ecclesia. We decided to start a Sunday school and also a Bible study class in our own yard at Olympic Way, and both of those went on for years, yielding several baptisms. For a time our school was much bigger than the one held in the meeting hall.

I must say that because of my faith, I got a lot of ridicule and scorn from other men, especially from neighbours and friends, and even some of my own relatives. This was very hard to bear, as I wasn’t very good at explaining to these people the special things about my faith, and often they would get the better of the argument. The Muslims gave me the hardest time, as they are so cock sure of themselves and deride everything you try to say in defence.

It was a joyful day for us both when our youngest son James was baptised. But right now he needs the fire of God to inspire him more.

What shall I say more? Not all Christadelphians turned out to be the wonderful people I thought they would be. Is it that God puts His truth into earthen vessels so that people will worship Him and not us? We thought that we would get much more support for the work we tried to do down in Olympic Gardens. It has been a long hard fight of faith, with so little to show for it. But the Bible says that only he or she who endures to the end shall be saved, and that’s where I will leave it for now.

	The Caribbean Pioneer (February 2003 Edition)
	The following is a list of this month's articles. Editorial - Stay Focused At the Lord's Table - "Eat for the journey is too much for you" Hosea and Gomer Keeping on Loving Each Other - at a recent wedding Three Parables about Kingston Ecclesia The Kelly Story
	Editorial Stay Focused Focus on good things. How do you see yourself in the truth? It is very important that you have a good self-image, because the way you think, so will you be. If you stay focused on bad, low or depressing thoughts, this will only bring you misery. Don’t continue to see yourself as a failure. Be positive and grow in the Lord. He will bless you and prosper your way before Him. Remember: it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Negative thoughts bring frustration and unnecessary burdens. Elisha was confident of the blessing before he received it The way in which you ‘see’ things has tremendous effect on your journey to the Kingdom. Elisha asked Elijah for a double portion of his blessing (II Kgs. 2:9-13). Elijah told him that if he saw him when he was taken away, then his request would be granted. At the very time Elisha ‘saw’ Elijah taken away, he believed that this blessing would fall upon him. It wasn’t long after when Elisha shouted, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!” Elisha saw himself receiving the blessings even before it actually happened. Abraham saw the land of Canaan In Genesis 13:14-18, God told Abraham to lift up his eyes and ‘look’, for all the Land which he ‘saw’ would be given to him and his seed forever. Abraham couldn’t see the whole land with his eyes, but he ‘saw’ all the land by faith. He ‘saw’ himself obtaining the promises and God called him His friend. Abraham focused on the eternal things of God. Press forward You must have hope, vision, and spiritual perspectives in life. Paul exhorts us in Philippians 3:13-14 to reach forth unto those things that are before us, pressing toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We need to stop looking and seeing the here and now, and think about the achievements we can make in life. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You can do all things through Christ who lives in you. There is nothing too hard for God to do, so we are told in His word. Put self aside and ‘see’ yourself leaning on the everlasting arms. Are all your friends full of negative thoughts, and that is pulling you down? Then it is time that you encourage them and help them to develop positive attitudes toward life. Be a winner A young contestant recalled how, for two consecutive years, she became first runner-up in the Miss World contest. She selected hundreds of cassettes of successful contestants and watched them keenly. Not surprisingly, the next time she entered the contest she was crowned Miss World. When asked if she was nervous as she walked up for the prize, she said “No!” because she had gone up the aisle many times before. What does God expect of you? See yourself the way God would like to see you – a positive, energetic servant in His vineyard, having strong faith in the promises of God. God expects the vineyard to be fruitful and yield abundant lives dedicated to His service. If we fail to maintain the vineyard properly, good fruits cannot be harvested (I Cor. 15:58). It is by faith in God and Christ Jesus that we see ourselves as the children of God, heirs and joint heirs of the Kingdom of God. Have you seen Jesus? Patience and perseverance may be all we need to succeed in whatever we are doing. The disciples had to ‘see’ Jesus to follow him the way they did after he had left them to go to the Father. Not only did they see him physically, but also they ‘saw’ him as their Redeemer, Savior and King. Their faith was fully grounded in the promises he offered. “Come and see”, will always be the answer. Have you ‘seen’ the Lord Jesus Christ? He is right beside you with outstretched arms ready to hold and lead you in the paths of righteousness. Wake up from slumber and sleep, and ‘see’. Abide in him, for this is the essence of true discipleship. *“He healed them all”* At this time, many of our beloved stalwart brethren and sisters in the Caribbean are ill and even bedridden. In Matthew 4:24, we are told that they brought unto Jesus people that had divers diseases and he healed all who had faith in him. Let us look far beyond our present evil time, and ‘see’ God’s Anointed One upon the earth again, standing in the midst of suffering humanity, purging the effects of sin and bringing restoration and gladness. Gerzel Gordon [I am greatly concerned about the depressing effects of the present political, economic and social situation throughout the Caribbean. It is crushing the spirit of even our greatest stalwarts. G.G.] Return to Top At the Lord's Table "Eat for the journey is too much for you" Why do we meet around this Table? It is not to satisfy bodily hunger. When they were doing that in Corinth, the Apostle Paul chided them that they were not discerning the Lord’s body. It is not to meditate. We can do that at home and save the bus fare. Surely we meet to revitalise our corporate worship, to share fellowship, to show that we really do consider one another as belonging to the body of Christ. We meet so that those who are strong can bear with the failings of the weak and not just please ourselves, and to build up our brothers as Christ did (Rom. 15:1-3). Paul’s quote from the Old Testament reminds us that bearing with the failings of others who share this table with us may even involve accepting insults without griping. We meet around the Table as ‘a spiritual act of worship.’ We do not offer animals at this altar. We offer ourselves ‘as living sacrifices’ (Rom. 12:1). To offer our bodies as a sacrifice is a decision, an act of choice. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross” (Matt. 16:24). Our ‘cross’ is obviously not unemployment, or chronic illness, or a difficult mother-in-law. Our ‘cross’ is a sacrificial calling, a kind of lifestyle and mind-set that we voluntarily ‘take up.’ A living sacrifice Romans 12:9-21 is clearly intended to be a little picture of each of our ecclesias across the world. “Love must be sincere…be devoted to one another…honour one another…be joyful…share with God’s people who are in need…practice hospitality…live in harmony…be willing to associate with people of low position…live at peace…overcome evil with good.” Note the number of active verbs and action words in that passage: love, honor, serve, share, bless, rejoice, overcome. I am afraid that many of us at this table just concentrate on being passively ‘pure’ and ‘blameless,’ but are lazy when it comes to uplifting others. But goodness is far more than the absence of wrongdoing. The apostle told the Romans to “accept one another” (15:7). And not just for friendship’s sake, but “just as Christ accepted you.” And this place, the Lord’s table, is just the right and proper place to fulfil that commandment. This is no place for finger pointing or ‘taking our brother by the throat.’ This is no place for pretending that you and he or she are unworthy to sit by me and sup the cup! I have to remember that Jesus sacrificed, suffered, and died so that I could be here today. That is the only table that will please God. Your failings are not going to affect my place at this feast, nor mine yours. It is the Lord who sanctifies this table, not you or I. Elijah’s angel There is a wonderful little story in I Kings 19 about Elijah. He was in a terrible state of depression, like many of us here this morning. God did not gripe at Elijah because he was down and out, and crushed by his circumstances. There was no finger pointing. God just sent an angel. The angel “touched him” gently and tenderly. He gave him freshly baked bread. He blessed him with soothing sleep. And then he gave him another nutritious meal. Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you. What a sympathetic love is there! I am going to be like that angel. I am welcoming you all to this table today. Eat, for the journey is too much for you. Davion Sinclair, Kingston, Jamaica Return to Top Hosea and Gomer? The other day I re-read the love story of Hosea and Gomer, and then Bro. Bob Jennings’ exhortation in the October, 2002, Tidings, which brings out many meaningful lessons. I am sure that on their wedding day Hosea had the highest expectations of Gomer and of his ability to satisfy her and keep her on track. But when Gomer went off to live with her outside boyfriends and ‘played the harlot,’ to use the straightforward old fashioned phrase, Hosea was devastated. The children were disgusted. We are told that she only wanted gourmet food and fancy clothes from these playboys, nothing else. Of course, her adulterous liaisons did not last. They never do. So when her lovers had had their fling, and run out of cash, they abandoned her. She chased after her lovers but did not catch them, she looked for them but did not find them. In poor but materialistic societies like ours, ‘gold-diggers,’ like Gomer, are the norm. These days, this scenario is played out in countless shattered lives. Popular women’s newspapers, like Flair, foster this lifestyle, and assume that it is inevitable. It is considered smart. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that Gomer’s real weakness was not sexual: it was discontent and ingratitude. As Hosea said, she has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold which they (her boasty boyfriends) used for Baal (licentious idolatry). Gomer’s dream was that elusive notion, the ‘pursuit of happiness.’ But the more you pursue happiness, the farther it recedes. What amazes me most about this story is Hosea’s attitude: utterly unselfish and totally sacrificial. I am going to allure her, and speak tenderly to her. I will show my love to the one I called “Not my loved one.” I told her, “I will live with you.” My heart is changed within me: all my compassion is aroused. I will betroth you to me forever, in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. That is not how cheated husbands usually behave. But that is exactly the attitude which God has shown to us all, for God is love. Yes, as Hosea says, Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. Mary Eyre Return to Top Keeping on Loving Each Other - at a recent wedding Beloved in Christ, The epistle to the Hebrews tells us that marriage should be honored by all. That is why we are celebrating your marriage today. In Jamaican culture, marriage is scorned as an inconvenient obstacle to selfish desire. Even in marriage many couples live together selfishly. They think that fulfilment can be achieved without sacrifice and commitment, so a deep and lasting love always eludes them. Marriage involves giving love to someone whom we treasure more than anyone else. The mutual decision to honour one man and one woman as uniquely precious is the only basis on which marriage can be built. True love is never possessive. It is always sacrificial. There should always be a very special joy in the heart of each of you when your beloved is near. The advice which Hebrews 13 gives you is brief and simple, but it cannot be bettered in any marriage manual. Here are five succinct bits of guidance from that chapter. Keep on loving each other. Married love is not just romance which fades when the wrinkles appear and the waistline is lost. The word meno (‘keep on’) used in verse 1 means to continue or persist indefinitely in a particular state or condition. It is not like the proverbial flash in a pan. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails (I Cor. 13:7-8). This is true of all kinds of love. It is supremely true of married love. Keep the marriage bed pure. As a newly married man with very little money, I was told by a brother who worked at Courts’ furniture store that if I wanted a good marriage I could forego lots of things, but a comfortable marriage bed was essential. It was funny, but for years we sanctified by our love a wonderful one hundred year old bed given to us by a sister, who said that long ago Bro. John Thomas slept on it. I can tell you that they don’t make beds like that any more! Do not forget to entertain strangers. Showing hospitality is a marvellous way of strengthening your married love. Open your home, however humble, to your needy brothers and sisters. Also, entertaining strangers is a great way to bring others to the truth. You will find that tripe and beans, chicken feet, or pigs’ ears and stew peas are inexpensive ways of winning hearts. In this area of married life, you have some splendid examples in Jamaica to follow: just think of the Isaacs’ homes in Jones Town and Port Maria, the Wallaces’ in Free Hill and the Gordons’ in May Pen, all homes radiating truth, love and wondrous hospitality unselfishly to great and small. Keep yourselves free from the love of money. The poor can be as greedy as the rich, perhaps more so. You will need money, sometimes desperately. But you can help each other do without the love of it. It is significant that avarice has always been counted one of the seven deadly sins. Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse. He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses (Prov. 28:6,27). Be content with what you have. The writer backs up this advice with a quote from Deuteronomy 31. The reason we can be content is that God has made a wonderful promise which both of you can absolutely trust: Never will He leave you; never will He forsake you. So we say to you both: May the God of peace equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in you what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Alan Eyre Return to Top Three Parables about Kingston Ecclesia At a Truth, Joy and Praise meeting, which we hold every Sunday, a proposal was discussed to move meetings from our beautiful Assembly Hall in Orange Street, built with such love and sacrifice eleven years ago, but which is now in the midst of a violent neighborhood ruled by terrorists. We felt that we had scriptural support to continue witnessing. There are three parables in Scripture, two of them ‘acted’ parables, which I am convinced describe the Kingston ecclesia, and so give us clear guidance. Ezekiel 5:1-4. Here Ezekiel shaves his head and beard and weighs the hairs on a delicate balance (it would have to be very sensitive to weigh hair accurately!). The hair represents the population of Kingston. One third is burned. Ezekiel takes another third and “strikes it with the sword all around the city.” Nearly all of the remaining third is “scattered to the wind” and migrates. Then he takes “a few strands of hair” and puts them into his pocket. That’s us: a little remnant in the folds of God’s care. Then, surprise! God tells him to take a few of these and “throw them into the fire.” That has happened to some of us too, like Stephen and James in the Acts of the Apostles. “This is Jerusalem,” God said to the prophet. But it is also Kingston. I often think of our little company here as those few hairs out of all the pile on the balance, and when I read this parable I am comforted and sustained in my conviction that we are not going to get blown away. Mark 4:1-20. This describes our seed-sowing here in the heart of one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Jesus tells us that our witness from this meeting hall is not going to be a mighty success, like the supposed results of the big church crusades uptown. We can expect varying responses, from instant rejection and hostility to fruitful commitment. Even some of our converts, perhaps even long time members, may wilt “when trouble or persecution comes.” And certainly some will lose heart and zeal because of the “worries of this life,” and allow the word to be “choked.” Even among those who bear a crop in good soil, only a few produce “an hundred times what was sowed.” But some of you here today, especially those of you living near the meeting hall, are among that faithful class, bearing bountifully amid great difficulties. That surely makes all our efforts worthwhile. And, most importantly, we must understand that Jesus does not suggest that only the hundredfold category will be received gladly by him at the judgement. We must be charitable to our weaker brothers and sisters and encourage rather than criticise them. Mark 4:35-41. Sometimes, when our Kingston ecclesial boat is tempest tossed, as your ecclesial leader and ‘elder’ (not in age!) I forget that our Lord and Savior is in the boat. He seems asleep. I really don’t know how convinced I am that Jesus was really fast asleep on that pillow. I wonder if it was just a one-eye sleep to test his disciples. When our ecclesial boat is “nearly swamped,” I certainly do what they did, cry out in prayer, Don’t you care that we’ll all drown? Of course he cares. Revelation chapters one to three confirm that he was concerned and cared for even weak and shaky ecclesias in Asia long ago, even one that had lost its first love. He will surely still our tempest too. Outwardly, it may not seem like that, but spiritually he will calm, refresh, restore and bless. This place, this sanctuary, with its expressive foundation stone defying the world, will, I am sure, continue to be a place where weary souls can find peace and rest. That is why we can sing Peace, perfect peace, is the gift of Christ our Lord; Thus, says the Lord, will the world know my friends. [Praise the Lord songbook, 247] Leroy Johnson, Kingston Return to Top The Kelly Story Pieced together from interviews during the 1990’s. Bro. Sidney Kelly fell asleep in Christ during the evening of 21 December 2002 while Sis. Doris was attending a wedding in the Kingston Assembly Hall in Orange Street. I was born just two years after the great earthquake of 1907, which devastated much of Jamaica and killed a vast multitude of its citizens. As a child, I grew up in a farming village called Camberwell in the parish of St. Mary, the second of eight children. The farms were just tiny plots, far too small for a family to make a living. My parents had to do stone breaking and, when it was available, line up for day’s work on the big banana plantations down on the plain. In the village, besides the farms, there were a few other buildings, including a school and several churches. The churches would compete all the time for members. The head teacher was the only educated person in the whole area. The pastors, policemen, and ordinary people were all illiterate. I was not able to go to school every day, because I had to work on the farm at a very early age. We used slates to write on. I tried hard in my reading lessons, which was useful later on when it came to learning the truth. I had to go to church regularly. I don’t remember now what the church was called, but like all the churches in the area, the services consisted only of redemption songs all sung at the top of our voices, clapping and stomping, a long sermon with the pastor shouting and screaming at us young people to stop flirting and fornicating, followed by testimonies from us pretending that the blood of Christ had cured us from those terrible sins. I remember giving a Holy Ghost testimony at the age of ten that the blood had cured me from the sin of adultery. It was all godliness without the power thereof. I was sent by my family to seek my fortune in the big city of Kingston. When I got there, the city was still being rebuilt. Before the disaster, Kingston had been built of bricks. Rebuilding was mostly in a material called nog which had sturdy wooden framing. By 1922, Kingston was a city of nog buildings with roofs made of shingles, a lot safer than the earlier brick construction. I found it was easy to get a job in construction and I became a skilled carpenter and builder. In 1951, hurricane Charlie devastated Jamaica, and many thousands of Jamaicans lost their homes, including my wife, Doris, and myself. The government built some houses for the homeless, and we moved into 17 Olympic Way, our address for the next 50 years, although I did build another larger house on the same lot some years later. I was 46 years of age when a very small thing totally changed the lives of Doris and myself. At that time there was only one newspaper in Jamaica, The Daily Gleaner. “Gleaner cars” used to leave the North Street pressroom with bundles of papers to deliver to every corner shop throughout Jamaica. It was said that one in four adult Jamaicans bought the Gleaner every day. If you couldn’t read, you looked at the pictures. Of course in those days there was no television, very few radios, and even fewer telephones. People depended on their daily newspapers for news, advertisements, jobs, times of sunrise and sunset, and the tides. One day in 1954 I saw a little notice in the Gleaner offering a free book called Preaching the Truth. I was intrigued. I wrote for the book to an address in Georgetown, Guyana. In a short time, I received the book, and also letters from two ladies called Spence and Odle. These letters were so encouraging, and the little book was an eye-opener. In fact, Doris and I read it so many times that I could almost say it by heart. The most compelling thing about the story in the book was that the people took their religion seriously. Up to that time, I had thought of religion as only some kind of entertainment, having no real importance in daily life. One day a young white man came to our home and introduced himself as Alan. I was amazed because he came on foot into our poor neighbourhood and not in a taxi or a car. He said that he had received our address from the same Spence who had written to us. He began to visit us regularly, and then told us about a series of Bible lectures in Kingston to be given by a visiting speaker from Britain. Those lectures by Harry Whittaker finally set us firmly on the way of life. The strange part to me was that although the Bible teaching was so clear, none of the big churches seemed to want to teach it. In fact, The Star newspaper even had a big headline warning people against Harry and his Bible lectures. It seemed so odd that this funny little group meeting in an old school should know more about the Bible than anyone else, but we realised that we had to do something about it. I was baptised on the 27 October 1956, a few weeks after Harry had left Jamaica. Doris followed me through the water soon after. Although we were only a small group then, we had many activities. I used to help with meetings in the Slipe Pen Hospital, where eventually we started a branch ecclesia. We decided to start a Sunday school and also a Bible study class in our own yard at Olympic Way, and both of those went on for years, yielding several baptisms. For a time our school was much bigger than the one held in the meeting hall. I must say that because of my faith, I got a lot of ridicule and scorn from other men, especially from neighbours and friends, and even some of my own relatives. This was very hard to bear, as I wasn’t very good at explaining to these people the special things about my faith, and often they would get the better of the argument. The Muslims gave me the hardest time, as they are so cock sure of themselves and deride everything you try to say in defence. It was a joyful day for us both when our youngest son James was baptised. But right now he needs the fire of God to inspire him more. What shall I say more? Not all Christadelphians turned out to be the wonderful people I thought they would be. Is it that God puts His truth into earthen vessels so that people will worship Him and not us? We thought that we would get much more support for the work we tried to do down in Olympic Gardens. It has been a long hard fight of faith, with so little to show for it. But the Bible says that only he or she who endures to the end shall be saved, and that’s where I will leave it for now.
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