(April 2003 Edition)
Caribbean Comment - For God not Men
At the Lord's Table - Love Unlimited
Thanksgiving Celebration for Bro. Windsor Swaby
Sir Isaac Newton: Our Brother in Christ?
Caribbean Comment
For God not Mean
Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God (I Cor. 10:31).
Do not as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Matthew 6:2.
How many of our activities are done strictly for “the glory of God”? Here is a little test, based on some words of Jesus himself. When was the last time you went into your bedroom, closed the door, and prayed in secret to your Father, who is unseen? How many times last week? Last Year? Be honest!
A few days ago I had to make a trip for personal reasons into the mountains of central Jamaica. I took the opportunity of making a surprise visit to the two ecclesias in that remote area.
I had never been to Mount Pleasant ecclesia before. The members there get few visitors. For one thing they are separated from other brethren and sisters by formidable mountain ranges and cratered roads. For another, they have to be self sufficient, with little or no outside support.
Sunday morning was a thrilling and eye-opening experience. The partly built shack that is their embryonic meeting hall was lovingly prepared, with Bibles and hymn books laid out on the crude benches ready for visitors. On a large board was the day’s programme. The Lord’s Supper was laid out on “fine linen, clean and white.” The president had obviously dutifully prepared every detail for the meeting in advance, assisted and reminded by a diligent and loving wife. There were twenty-one of us including children, perching on bending planks, the majority being keenly interested friends. Surprise, surprise, hardly anyone was late. In Jamaica, that’s an unbelievable achievement! Praise the Lord hymns were sung in a manner that Hoddesden would envy. Our spirits flew like eagles in the air. The prayers were eloquent and reverent. Young mothers soothed and nursed potentially noisy infants. The meeting hall is on a minor track with no passing traffic, so there were no “men” to impress and give glory. All this heaven-soaring worship was done to the glory of God alone.
I went on to Argyle Mountain, a desperately poor, terribly shabby village, with its Christadelphian Hall tucked away on a rocky lane in a tiny valley, shaded by giant breadfruit trees, hidden almost totally from human view. I had not been to the ecclesia for years, and this visit was unannounced. The meeting hall and its garden were tidy, “swept and garnished.” Most striking of all were two pots of beautiful flowers – real not artificial ‑ one on each side of the entrance like the leafy pillars Jachin and Boaz in Solomon’s temple. There is one sister in Argyle Mountain who is widely known for her love of flowers. She displays them, at her home and at the temple of the Lord, for the glory of God alone.
Caribbean Correspondent
Who made his sons judges who “perverted judgment”?
Who was on a missionary journey with two others, but suddenly left them and “went not with them to the work”?
Which brother “loved to have the pre-eminence” in his ecclesia?
Who was told by an apostle, “take heed to thyself, and unto the doctrine”?
I was standing at a busy bus terminal beside a young sister, when a thief slit her handbag with a knife, caught the contents, and ran off across the road. As soon as the traffic was clear, the sister crossed the road, faced the robber and said, “You slit my bag and stole my children’s lunch money.” “O no I didn’t,” said the man. “O yes you did. Please let me have it back. It’s all I’ve got to give the children.” Sheepishly, he slowly put his hand in his pocket and gave her everything. When she had counted it, she had more than she had before.
I count myself blessed to have had as a lifelong friend a wonderful Jamaican woman. Her name was Alice Blaine. In the 1930’s as a young teenager, she worked for a brother Randall, a Kingston merchant, who introduced her to the Christadelphians. She was very beautiful and became an actress at the Ward Theater. When she was in her mid-thirties she married. At the time she did not know that Mr. Blaine had neuro-syphilis. She was infected, and Alfred, their only child, was born with a severe congenital form of the disease. After barely a year of marriage, Mr. Blaine was certified insane and committed to the Bellevue asylum. Alice was baptised a few years later, which is when I first met her. A very meaningful moment for me was in 1995 when I accompanied her to the asylum on the day of her husband’s death. There and then I learned that she had taken a cooked dinner to her husband, a round trip by bus of twenty miles, every single day of every year for fifty years, even though during his later years he couldn’t even recognise her. “As a wife, it was my duty” she said simply. I know the Lord will reward such incredibly selfless dedication and faithfulness with a pain-free life that will know no ending.
Sister Myrtle Aiken of Kingston, now nearly 97, loved to tell of two memorable moments in her life. At a bus stop on her way to work, she was held up by a gunman who demanded all her money. She only had 14 cents, just enough for the fares to and from work. With a gun on her chest, she pointed out to the gunman that if he took all 14 cents, she would be in trouble and lose her job. She offered to give him 7 cents and walk home, if he would allow her to take the bus so as to get to work on time. The robber agreed, took the 7 cents and disappeared round a corner. Some time later, he reappeared and returned the 7 cents he had taken, saying, I can’t take it, lady!