the thought today series by ashley r cain as at 260213

THE THOUGHT TODAY June 26, 2008

Dimensions of Faith 1The Faith Of A Mustard Seed1

It is said that “a little goes a long way”. One of Jesus miracles was the feeding of a multitude with five barley loaves and two fish (a little boy’s lunch). At the end of the day everyone was full, the crowd was fed physically and spiritually and we have a lesson through the ages of faith at work in the lives of ordinary people. At a time when we are increasingly preoccupied and concerned about food prices, we too long for our five little barley loaves and two fish to stretch to meet the needs of our various “Thousands”.

My offering for reflection today is from the Gospels - Matthew 13: 31, Mark 4:30 and Luke 13:18. - a little mustard seed when sowed becomes the greatest of trees. Through this parable runs the thread- God can take our little things to create an overwhelming abundance for ourselves and others.

Have a mustard seed and barley loaf day.

Today.

Ashley R Cain(As You Care Share The Thought Today)

1Photo compliments http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120610205438/charmed/images/8/80/Mustard_seed.jpg

THE THOUGHT TODAY27/ 06 / 08

The Seeing Bartimaeus Mark 10: 46-52

Bartimaeus, without physical sight, had the spiritual insight to recognize Jesus. As Jesus appeared, he cried out to Jesus to have mercy on him. The crowd willed him to be silent, but with clear vision Bartimaeus sensed the opportunity for a change in his condition. Do we in our moments of need, who sense an opportunity for healing and wellness, cry out the more?

Jesus stood still. He paused in his journey, then called Bartimaeus to him. Jesus’ word to Bartimaeus is instructive for us today. He did not say “Bartimaeus I heal You” even though he sensed or knew this is what was required. Instead he says to Bartimaeus you tell me what you will for me. In our lives it is also true that Jesus knows where we are but the contract is that we must first ask in his name what it is we require of him.

In our story Bartimaeus put his priority up front – “that I may receive my sight”. Jesus’ response was “Go thy way. Thy faith has made thee whole”. In that instant, spiritual insight into what is possible became real for Bartimaeus. As always Jesus and salvation comes to us at the point of our need, but we must act in order to receive.

I pray for the insight, the persistence and the faith of Bartimaeus.

Today.

Ashley R Cain

(As you care share The Thought Today)

THE THOUGHT TODAY

03 / 07 / 08

A Walk in Unity

Ephesians 4: 1 - 8

As I awoke this morning about 6.10 a.m. , I lay in bed quietly. I dozed off again. Then suddenly came the word for today. The words popped into my head bringing me fully awake.: “Ephesians 4: 1 – 8”. I awakened fully and went to my study in search of my bible. There I read from the Nelson Study Bible:

“ I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you are called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says, “When he ascended on high , He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men”.

As I pondered the meaning of this experience and the particular passage of scripture, I reflected on my various frustrations at work and otherwise and the frequent temptations to be bitter and despondent. It occurred to me that I pondered, yesterday, walking away from the challenges and vexations of my current job and engagements. I also remember a choice almost 26 years ago to “feed the body of men instead of their souls” through my professional engagement as an agriculturalist.

My experience this morning is a reminder, I guess, that to each of us there is a calling to be part of God’s eternal scheme as “the whole of creation waits with eager longing for God to reveals his sons and daughters”. I am reminded also that “God has no hands except our hands” . As I reflected further the words of a modern hymn came to me

LOOK AND LIVEI’ve a message from the LordHallelujahThe Message unto you I’ll give‘Tis recorded in his wordHallelujahIt is only that you look and live

(Cho ) “Look and live” my brother liveLook to Jesus now and live‘Tis recorded in his wordHallelujahIt is only that you look and live

I’ve a message full of loveHallelujah!A message, O my friend, for you.“Tis a message from aboveHallelujahJesus said it and I know ‘tis true.

Life is offered unto youHallelujahEternal life your soul shall haveIf you’ll only look to himHallelujahLook to Jesus who alone can save.

I will tell you how I cameHallelujahTo Jesus when he made me whole:‘Twas believing on his name,HallelujahI trusted and He saved my soul.

***********************

May the Peace of God which passeth all understanding be yours

Today.

Ashley R Cain

As you care, share The Thought Today)

(P.S The balance of this chapter is an excellent elaboration of the way of the disciple.)

THE THOUGHT TODAY09 / 07 / 08

Stop the Clock ! Joshua 10: 12 - 14

Sometimes in solemn assemblies, when contending parties deliberate, crucial decisions must be made, or far reaching agreements arrived at by a specified time, hour or deadline. The parties will agree to “stop the clock” at a particular hour - say one minute before deadline. Whatever decisions are made, are recorded as at the time when the clock was stopped (even though deliberations went far beyond the specified hour).

For reflection Today, we go to the time of Joshua, when “the clock was stopped”. Joshua - successor to Moses and a mighty man of God, was in a struggle to carve out a space for God’s people. He had taken over from Moses on their way to the promised land. As new leader and nation, Joshua and Israel were conquering new territories and meeting new challenges. They were establishing new rules and ways of living and carving out their own spaces in hostile environments and conditions. Joshua formed various alliances and fought many battles with the enemies of Israel.

In one such battle, Gibeon was under attack for forging peace and an alliance with Joshua. The People of Gibeon asked for Joshua’s help with this challenge. Joshua in turn asked help of God. God assured him not to be afraid because he had delivered the challengers into Joshua’s hand. Joshua set himself to the task at hand. As he worked on the solution, time became a problem. It seemed that the coming darkness would prevent him from accomplishing his mission. For Joshua, the temptation to postpone the struggle to another time must have been strong. After all, God had promised his aid. Surely if he left it to the next day, God will fulfill his promise? Joshua commanded the sun to “keep still”! He turned his back on the natural progression of the clock. He stuck to the task at hand and accomplished the victory promised by God.

How many times, in our own peculiar struggles and battles, have we rested in God’s promise of sure victory and left the battlefield and its tasks to the next day when conditions may be more favorable? Sometimes we ease up, take a break and wait for another day when continued focus on the task at hand would have brought us victory. How many times have we ceased our labours at precisely the time when victory would have been assured if we “forgot” the time or “stopped the clock” when the temptation came to cease our labours until another day or more favorable time? How often have we not accomplished our mission because it is 4.00 o’clock, time for the office to close, time for the TV show or other more pleasant temptations?

I pray that, as we face our various Gibeons, we “stop the clock”, take our minds off the passage of time and gain the promised results and mastery for which we prayed.

Today.

Ashley R Cain (As you care, share The Thought Today)


The Spirit of “Wappy” Proverbs 6: 6-8 and Proverbs 30: 24-27

Proverbs 6: 6-8 “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.”

While growing up as a child in Richland Park there was a card game called locally “Wappy”. It was most often played by persons who were generally considered idle, lazy, lovers of pleasure more than hard work, inclined to steal, and who roamed the village day or night in pursuit of leisure or gain. Some hard working people also played the game but they were fleeced, more often than not, by the more proficient players. Many families suffered because small weekly family earnings were lost in the Wappy games.

This game was illegal and police would arrest persons caught in the act. It was therefore played in banana fields and hideaway spots, near bye ways and places that allowed for easy escape from random police patrols. If “Wappy” were played today in the same places the police would catch the culprits easily. Most of the banana fields are gone and we are left today with open spaces in villages where little is grown, consistently, on potentially fertile soil. The same spots and trails are now frequented and used by the “coke man” who peddle or use the drugs. For them, these tracks and spaces provide easy passage for stolen goods whether agricultural or otherwise.

The game was most often played with persons sitting on the ground. When a player lost his money he would get up, brush off the seat of his pants to clear any dirt or evidence of his playing and move on. The day’s activity was forgotten and thrown behind by that symbolic act which marked a move on to something else. More often than not the player comes back again to play another time in the hope that the next time his luck will change.

My Reflection Today is that we consider the way of the sluggard and be wise. Good often comes out of evil and adversity. The “Spirit of Wappy” is the consistent brushing off the seat of the pants after failure or adversity and returning to try again. Today as we face our many challenges, sometimes we win sometimes we lose. Sometimes we give up. Sometimes we persist with ways and habits that lead us nowhere new. But many stories also abound where success comes because the player / person is prepared to try and fail and try again and again until the goal is won for better or worse.

Proverbs 30:24 (There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.)

Today.



Of Corn and Good Ground Luke 8: 5-8, and v 15

Yesterday morning as I “drifted between sleep and wake”, I had an unusual dream. I went to a piece of land worked by the family in my youth. There I saw persons from the Dipcon construction company on the land. There were thousands of old time black plastic boxes used to transport bananas from banana fields to buying stations during the seventies and early eighties. Somehow this company, known for construction and road building, was creating new wealth from bananas and lands that are now left idle by regular farmers.

As I lay abed and pondered this unusual reverie, the Parable of the Sower came to me. I pondered my own deserts, the continual struggle with weeds and other difficulties that threaten to choke the dreams of wealth and sustenance from my farm lands.

As I reflected, it occurred to me that the common tale of the Sower and Good Ground has uncommon relevance today for us as we struggle to address the material needs of our lives. The true interpretation of this parable comes in Verse 15 and may be missed if we do not stay with this story to the end.

“That (seed which fell) on good ground are they which in an honest and good heart having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience”. It is in the hearing of the word, keeping and tending the dream and the goal with patience and consistent action that the good fruit of one’s labour is borne.

May our good fruits emerge despite our: continual struggle among choking thorns and thistles; exposure on life sapping, energy draining and dehydrating rocks; being trod on by uncaring fellow travelers; and being picked off by predators and poachers.

Today.



Spare Many Thoughts 0r Of the Woman of VirtueProverbs 31: 10-31

Friday 25th July, 3.10 a.m. I rouse from slumber and remember that I must take my Mother in Law to the Kingstown Market. I am late. I should have been there at 3.00 a.m.. I load the vehicle with agricultural produce from my own farm then head up the road to pick her up with her own “load” for market. There I met her and her six year old grandson waiting. As we travel to the eleven miles to Kingstown she tells me of her woes with a truant teenage son, who, having discovered the “joys of sex”, marijuana smoking and other vices, is coming home at the time when his mother and nephew are leaving for a day of sun, rain, dust, noise and competition to sell goods with other vendors at the Kingstown Market. She tells me the story of how he abandoned the construction job she had secured for him, to return to his life of ease and laziness.

As I listened I remember that even as a young University graduate, my own mother, at 69 years of age, would awake me, at a similar hour, to help her head produce which came from the same half acre of crown land on which my Mother in Law now earns a living. I also remember that, even before I was born, my own mother would carry her produce on foot to the same Kingstown and return with food and other needs for the family. Like my mother before her, she makes the more than two mile journey from home to farm on foot, to plant, tend and collect her crops for Friday Market.

As we pull into the market square, I am reminded why we had to leave home early. She had to “secure a spot to sell her goods” before the other vendors came. At 4.15 a.m. the market is light and few vendors have arrived yet as we offload the goods into an open space.

As I wind my way home, I passed other women and the occasional man, on pickups, trucks and vans, making the same journey, with similar goods in search of a livelihood. In a couple of hours the same Market Square will be a hive of activity. As I journeyed home, I listened to the BBC World programme tell its own tale of people in Hyderabad, India, who at risk of life and limb use city waste water to grow crops for food and living.

As we eat our varied meals today, spare many thoughts for the “Women of Virtue” and others who make our daily bread possible in spite of the deep challenges of their lives and living.

Today.



Come See a Man – Part 1John 4: 9-30

The perfection of Jesus Christ, in doing the will of God and in his way of living, stands as the ultimate standard for salvation and Christian example. I have often felt that many persons are turned away, or kept out of the Kingdom of God, by a certain image or standard put forward as the model of Christian example and witness. This is the image of a perfect, Christ like human being who does no wrong. My favorite Bible characters, and most cherished examples of Christians were real people, who struggled with the DEVIL they LIVED and learnt about EVIL as they LIVE. (Same thing spelled backward or forward?).

As the scholars and historians ask us, what manner of woman is this Samaritan, who comes alone to a lonely well in the heat of the midday sun? Jesus the Jew, cuts through the social barriers right away. “Give Me a Drink”. She responds in the traditional way. Why should you a Jew ask me a Samaritan for a Drink? Jesus tickles her imagination. “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink you will ask him instead to give you living water so you will never be thirsty again”.

The woman became consumed by the vision of a possible release from this difficult and frustrating aspect of her life. She asked him for living water. Not so fast, says Jesus. Bring your husband and come. Through her conversation with Jesus (a complete stranger) he tells her of her wayward and “thirsty” ways – five husbands before and one now who is not even her own? Now drunk with a wine of astonishment, she abandons her water pot at the well. She runs to her village and says to all who would listen “Come see a (stranger) Man who told me all the things I ever did!” Some may even have asked her – Girl, Another Man?

Today let us “Come See a Man”, (or more correctly A Woman) who having met Jesus in the scorching heat and wilting conditions of her normal life, went forward with great joy and a changed heart to tell others of new life restoring possibilities for their own lives. The lives of the Woman of Samaria, Jacob, David, Peter, Paul, and many now living or dead, stand out for me Today. They oft fell away from the standard of godly perfection, but only to rise again. Like Paul, their theme and experience was “forgetting those things which are behind and reaching for those things which are ahead, press toward the goal for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:13-14 ).

Today.



Come See a Man – Part 2Genesis 28: 10-22

Our Man Today is a grandson of Abraham - the man of faith who would sacrifice his only son for the will of God. He was the last born of twins, who joined his beloved mother in deception to steal away his brother’s birthright. He fled to a strange land in search of refuge. As he made a tentless stone his bed, he had a vision of a ladder stretching to the heavens and angels ascending and descending on it. There in his state of panic and fear came a great reassurance from God. I AM WHAT I AM gave him the land on which he lay. His seed will be as the dust of the earth. Through him and his seed, all families of the earth will be blest. Additionally, the I AM God will be with him and keep him in all places wherever he went and will bring him back to the land from which he fled. He renamed the place Bethel. Thus made he a covenant with God at Bethel.

This man fell so in love at first sight with his uncle’s daughter that he worked seven years for her. Deceived by his uncle, he worked another seven years for the love of his life. He who had deceived his own father, was further deceived ten times by his uncle. This master of deception, however, would not be outdone. He used his own cunning, to establish and multiply a speckled flock and wealth, as he prepared his return to the land of his fathers.

As he almost reached back to his father’s home he learnt that the brother he had wronged was coming to meet him with a great multitude. In fear he prayed to the God of Bethel to deliver him and to keep his word. He sent his servants and men before him. He took his wives and family and also sent them away. As he was waited alone in the night to confront his fear and destiny he wrestled all night with a strange man until the breaking of day. The stranger could not prevail against him. As they neared the break of day, the stranger touched his hip and knocked it out of joint to weaken him. With great insight he held unto the man until he had blessed him. Imagine his astonishment when the Man changed his name to Israel – the one who has struggled with men and with God and prevailed.

This man’s love for the first child from the love of his life was deep. His jealous sons sold this brother into captivity and fooled their father that he was dead. The man wept with despair over the bloody coat of many colors. This same son, as a mighty man in Egypt, became the salvation of his father and the same brothers who had sold him.

I invite you Today to come see the man Jacob, renamed Israel, who struggled with men and with God and prevailed. From the lineage of this imperfect man of deception came Jesus as Savior of Mankind.

Today.



Come See a Man – Part 3Matthew 14 : 25-32

Our Man Today was a man of action and challenge who sometimes failed the test. He was one of the first whom Jesus called to be a Fisher of Men. Youthful exuberance, quickness to speak and to act without considering the consequences were his trademarks. When Jesus called him, he left his nets straightaway and followed. Without a blink he drew his sword and cut a man’s ear off. Another time he was prepared to and walked on water like Jesus. When doubts and fears overcame him, he began to sink until Jesus rescued him. In that defining moment of his life, he learnt of the awesome possibilities for the man who had faith enough.

He was always close to Jesus at the important moments of his life and Ministry. With a flash of revelation and insight he was the first to catch a glimpse of the true Jesus and his mission. When Jesus asked him, “who do the people and you say I am?” his response was swift and typical. “You are the Christ”. After our man’s acknowledgment and revelation of Christ’s true nature, Jesus began to reveal to his disciples the deeper things about himself. Our Man Today stood in awe with Jesus, Elijah Moses and two other disciples as Jesus was transfigured on the Mount. He wanted to stay forever in that zone of spiritual insight and revelation. Jesus reminded him, however, as he does after our “Mountain Top” experiences, that we must come down from the mountain to the plain to do the work for which God calls us. Our Man went with Jesus to pray in the wilderness, on the eve of his arrest and trial. He could not stay awake to watch with Jesus during his leader’s most excruciating period of contemplating his approaching death and the fulfillment of his earthly mission. When Jesus was arrested, in Jesus presence, this man who was closest to him, was so afraid for his own life that three times he denied knowing Jesus.

Jesus died and Our Man went back to the old life he knew as a fisherman. Surely all was lost when Jesus died. It was this same man, however, to whom came a special message from the resurrected Christ – “Go tell my disciples and Peter to meet me in Gallilee”. At Gallilee, Jesus took him back to the time when he first called him. He asked him three times, Simon do you love me? Each time he answered Yes, Jesus said to him “Take care of my lambs”. Jesus took him back to the beginning when he had called him to be a fisher of men. Jesus gave him a clean sheet. Our Man received full forgiveness from Jesus for all his weakness and wavering.

Our Man Today is Peter, who after experiencing Christ’s full forgiveness, became a human rock on which the Christian church was founded. He went forward without fear and concern for his own life to lay rock like foundations for the kingdom of God to come into the lives of all men.

Today.



Of Truth, Malice, Revenge and the Start of RedemptionMatthew 14 : 1-13

Each of us comes to the point, at some time in life, when we will do what we should not do. Herod had one such moment when he ordered that John the Baptist be beheaded. When news of Jesus’ powerful ministry spread throughout the land, Herod’s strange response was “This is John the Baptist. He is risen from the dead and therefore these powers are at work in him”. Clearly, his beheading of John still weighed heavily on Herod’s Spirit. He wished that John was alive. But why so? Had he not given the order for John’s Death?

Herod had taken his brother’s wife Herodias. John the Baptist condemned this publicly as a sinful and immoral act. Herod was irritated and angry, (as so often happens when powerful people are criticized truthfully) but it angered Herodias even more. She longed for the opportunity to get back at John for the embarrassment he must have caused her by his public condemnation of her relationship with her Brother in Law Herod. She had no power of her own. She could only bide her time and wait for an opportunity to “catch” John.

Her chance came when Herod held his birthday banquet. Herod must have seen Herodias’ daughter dance many times. Her excellence in dancing must have so excited Herod that he wanted to show her off among his friends. With a few drinks below his belt and the gay abandon and exuberance that often comes from intoxication, he promised under oath to give her anything she wanted. Whether by design or chance the young lady consulted with her mother about what to ask of the king. What an opportunity for Herodias! Her eyes must have lit up. Clearly the king could not break the oath which he had given in such company.

Sometimes we become locked into positions and actions, which are wrong and have terrible consequences. Because we gave an undertaking, we cannot withdraw from it and still maintain our public image or our place in the social structure. “Ask for the head of John the Baptist, here and now on a platter” was Herodias advice. Indeed the bad intentions of our enemies are often achieved through people who are closest to us and to whom it is difficult for us to say no, even to actions that are wrong.

Events unfolded as Herodias intended. Herod was very sorry when he heard the sobering request. Maybe he remembered that he had not killed John before because the people would be incensed and rise up against him for killing their prophet. Maybe he became fond of John the Baptist. When Jesus heard of it, he departed by boat to a deserted place and the multitudes followed him on foot from the city. Ironically, the multitudes were moved by John’s death, not to rise up against Herod, but to seek out Jesus whom John had acclaimed as the Lamb of God and Savior of the world. This terrible act by Herod marked the start of Christ’s redemptive act for mankind.

Today.



The Mountain On The Plain Of LifeLuke 4 : 1-13

“And the Spirit led him to a Mountain and showed him there all the kingdoms of the Earth. This will you have if you bow down and worship me.”

As a youngster, I walked several miles to Grand Bonhomme, where my father Phillip farmed almost two acres of crown land. At the top of this land was a small level on which stood a great tree called a “Bow Wood Tree” locally. This plateau bordered the untamed forest. When it rained, as it often did, we would find shelter under this tree and be kept dry. If we were tired, it was a very good place to rest, since cooling breezes would soon revive you. From this sacred spot I would look out beyond the land, down to the sea, past the islands of the Grenadines, to forever, or so it seemed. From this vantage point, I would think - thoughts of the purest essence (and innocence) - of creating worlds, shaping futures, becoming anything I wished to be. Many were the sermons which passed through my mind as I learnt the beauty of stillness.

As a teenager, I went less frequently to this place because of the demands of “Town School.” As I left for University, I looked longingly at the banana trees I had planted there. I took my walk barefooted down the slippery dirt track that was the way to and from this mountain shrine. I hoped that, on my return from University, some money from the sales of bananas I left there would be available to me. A few months after I was in UWI in 1981, the Forestry Department moved in. They took over the land, cut down my banana trees and put in young forest trees. It was my farewell to a spot that will always belong to me and be a part of me.

Since then I have taken my spiritual mountain, through thick and thin, challenge and pain, joy and sorrow, elation and despair. I have taken my mountain to other hills and plains; to a Cheng Cheng Lake in Taiwan, many walks through misty Armidale in Australia, in a hot banana field at Langley Park and in the deepest quietness of my spiritual search to return always to the source of life and true living.

Through the temptations and struggles to turn stone to bread, to seek glory and fame, to worship other gods and to be invincible and reckless superman, I have always been brought back to my spiritual mountain. Like Moses, I have been challenged to strip away even my shoes and to stand naked with my thoughts on the mountain of my Lord.

Think Today. Do you also have a mountain on the plain to which you climb from the Valleys of your life?

Today.



A Churlish Prophet?Jonah 4: 1-11

God gave his prophet Jonah a simple task in a difficult situation. “Go denounce the people of Nineveh and their wicked ways”. Jonah was not willing to brave what God commanded. He ran away. God’s will, however would not be thwarted so easily. As with modern drug dealers, Jonah’s actions brought trouble and danger to others who became inadvertently caught up in a battle which was not of their own making. As each man in the boat cried out to their peculiar Gods to save them, Jonah had a peaceful undisturbed sleep. Nothing that could happen on that ship could be worse for him than the threats of sinful and dangerous Nineveh. “Get up and call on your God too. Let us see if he can save you and us”. Jonah admitted to them that he had disobeyed the instructions of his God.

Interestingly, Jonah was more afraid of physical harm from the men of Nineveh, than the consequences of not obeying his God. By way of contrast, his admission created such fear in his fellow travelers, that they came to believe in the awesome power of Jonah’s God. On his own instructions they threw Jonah overboard. The sailors troubles and storms ceased immediately, but Jonah’s had just began. A fish swallowed Jonah. Imagine being alive in the belly of a fish for several days not knowing where you are going or how this will end? In his time of fear and uncertainty Jonah cried out to God for deliverance. “Adversity reduces a man to himself”. God heard and answered Jonah’s prayer. The fish landed him on dry land. God told Jonah again “Go to Nineveh”.

As always, God is constant in his desire that we be saved from sin and wrongful living. Oftentimes, people who hear the message from God’s preacher and prophet turn more easily from their sinful ways than God’s own messengers. God heard the repentance of the people of Nineveh and held his hand. He took away his sentence of death and gave them a new lease on life. Can you imagine Jonah’s Joy that, through his word, people were saved from destruction and came to know a loving and merciful God? Oh No! Quite the opposite. Jonah was so angry at God for saving these repentant wicked people. He asked God “ why make me go through such trouble to warn these wicked people and you then turn around and save them?” How often do we who benefit from the forgiveness and kindness of other only to turn around and become angry when the same favor is granted to others?

Jonah was vexed. He camped outside the city to see what would really happen. When the sun beat down on him a tree came up overnight to shade him from the raging sun only to be eaten up by a worm. He felt sorry for the tree. In anger Jonah wished he were dead. God asked Jonah if was right to be angry over a plant he had not created nor planted. Jonah insisted that he was right to be angry. God then asked him “why then shouldn’t God also care for the inhabitants of Nineveh whom he had created?”

Are we guilty of so caring about ourselves that we are not happy that our creator cares enough to give new chances to other persons who have strayed from the life saving and life giving standards which God requires of and offers to all men and women?

Today.Ashley R Cain (As you care, share The Thought Today)


Does God Still Talk With Man?Genesis 1: 8 -13

In my last reflection I asked if Jonah was sulky and mean-spirited towards the people of Nineveh and truculent with his God. On further reflection, it struck me. The conversation between God and Jonah over Nineveh was more like a normal argument between two friends. For many people, myself included, it is customary to think of God with great awe, respect and sometimes fear. “Pushing up mouth” like Jonah and quarreling with God is certainly not normal behavior for persons of Christian persuasion. Our first instinct is to stand humbled in the presence of an awesome God.

In other instances in the Bible, we hear of God being with and having normal conversation with man. God questioned Adam about his nakedness. He asked Cain about his brother. Cain replied rudely “Am I my brother’s keeper?” When Moses was in transition from adopted Egyptian to strong man of God, God spoke to him from a burning bush. These Bible stories are more akin to stories from Greek and Roman mythology about capricious Gods. These Gods not only had fun with men but also had close personal interactions with them. My question today is this. Does God still talk with man?

In the Bible, these conversations with God took place in quiet places, secluded spaces, on mountains and plains – always beyond the hustle and bustle of normal life. How often did Jesus himself go away? Does this suggest a shy and unobtrusive God, or one who only appears in certain circumstances. Does this also mean that God will appear and talk to us too in these same places. Or are we more open to our spiritual selves and God as we listen to “ the sounds of silence”?

Two Saturdays ago, in a banana field at Langley Park, I thought, with a wry smile, “What would happen if I invited God to spend the whole day here with me, alone on this farm?” My experience after this question was an intriguing one. For about five hours, between showers, occasional thunder, and intermittent sunshine, I felt lifted to a plane of spirituality I had not felt for a long time.

I am persuaded that God talks with us today through our normal lives and intercourse with our brothers and sisters. I am persuaded that God also talks to us in the old time way, in our deepest silences and aloneness. Sometimes God talks to us as we quarrel, like Jonah, about the world, its evil ways, and what is happening right now in the world. Sometimes God talks through a spirit of counsel.

Wouldn’t it be interesting though, if we could be so friendly and intimate with our God that him and us could talk together in the old time way?

Today.



Zacchaeus Come Down and Let Me Come InLuke 19 : 1-10

Imagine a wealthy, feared and powerful man - Chief Civil Servant in the land and representative of a foreign colonizing power - climbing a tree to get a glimpse of the newest sensation in town? The crowd was so thick and he was so short. Clearly Jesus and his public meetings were the hottest social events of the day. Forcing his way through the throng was not a viable option. Even if he wanted to, he hesitated. The people’s hate for one who extracted more taxes than he should from poor people, on behalf of a foreign power, may have induced them to harm him in such a crowd. Zacchaeus was so taken up with Jesus and what was happening around him, that he was prepared to brave even his life and reputation to see Jesus.

To his fellow Jews, he was a disgrace, an outsider to be feared and unfit to mingle with them outside the confines of his work and responsibility. Unknown to his fellow Jews, Zacchaeus was also a hungry man. Despite his wealth and position there was a huge gap in his life. He must have heard of Jesus and of the things he did and said through his network of informers and connections.

Zacchaeus had to see for himself. But what could drive such a man as Zacchaeus to see Jesus? Maybe he heard that Levi, a fellow publican, left all behind to follow Jesus – his lucrative job, his easy connections and social standing. Maybe he heard that the Centurion’s daughter was healed. He may have also heard Jesus being called “friend of Publicans and sinners”. Did Jesus stir his own nationalistic sentiments even though he was a highly placed civil servant for Rome? Did he wish to know Jesus, so that if Jesus led successfully the overthrow of the roman colonizers, he would still maintain his privileged position? Wasn’t Jesus attracting larger and larger crowds? Didn’t it make sense for him to know Jesus early?

Zacchaeus knew Jesus’ route. Like a good assassin, he picked his spot early in a sycamore tree. From there he had an unobstructed and undisturbed view of Jesus. “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down. I must abide at thy house”, Jesus commanded. With great relief and Joy Zacchaeus flew down from (abandoned) his position as outsider. He welcomed Jesus into his home. Without prompting he offered to give half his goods to the poor and to restore fourfold what he had taken from anyone falsely.

This man who was outside the social and religious fold was changed completely through this meeting with the real Jesus. Are there people we know, even with high positions in society, who, like Zacchaeus, are also hungry for a meeting with Jesus and its life changing possibilities? Is there anyone we know, whose life can be transformed, because we dare to enter with them into their spiritual house with a message of love, care and example? Is there someone, considered proud, aloof, misfit and outcast, who is perched in a spiritual tree of isolation, waiting and longing for Jesus, through us, to come in and abide at their house?

Today.


THE THOUGHT TODAY 20 / 09 / 08

Who Do You say That I am? Or The Meat Of The MatterLuke 9 : 18 - 20

This Bible tells the story of man born with potential and in harmony with a perfect creation. This harmony changed by the actions of man. God wished to offer man a means of restoring the quality of relationship that was meant to be in the time of creation. As reflected in Romans 8:19 “the whole of creation waits with eager longing for the manifestation of the sons of God ” and the original order of harmony and perfection. Enter Jesus Christ of Galilee, speaking a message of a new order, a new kingdom, new relationships and ways of living with God and man.

The Gospels are full of instances of Jesus’ power, miracles and sayings as he moved through the land. As we follow Jesus’ journeys something intensifies. It is as if he were moving inexorably towards a date with destiny. His actions and sayings were so pointed and disturbing they could not be ignored. The whole country seemed turned upside down by this man, born in humble circumstances, who seemed bent on saying the strangest and sometimes most vexatious things.

On one occasion, Jesus asked his disciples two questions. Firstly he asked “Who do the crowds say that I am?” He received various answers. He asked again, the most pointed question in all of the Bible, “Who do You say that I am?”. Peter answered “Thou art the Christ of God”.

Whatever our feelings are about Jesus, his question comes daily and squarely to each person – Who do you say that I am? Our answer to this question cuts to the heart of life and our relationships with God and Man. The central challenge of Christian living today is to make a suitable answer to this question of who Jesus was. Our response to this question may have life changing results and consequences. As Jesus said in one passage of scripture “I am come that you may have life more abundantly”.

The question and answer to who Jesus was, call us beyond mere intellectual assent to concrete action. For example, Jesus asked Peter after his resurrection, “Do you love me”? When Peter answered yes, Jesus instructs him to act. “Feed my lambs”. When John and Charles Wesley answered this question personally, countless hours were spent all over England on horseback. Hundreds of sermons were written. Many were “brought to a saving knowledge of the love of God”. They created an eternal treasure of hymns and music that brought and continues to bring spiritual sustenance to Christians around the world. The answers of countless persons to this question, have resulted in medical and scientific advances, care for others and honest loving toil by ordinary people.

Today Jesus asks each of us to answer again the deep question of who do we say he is and to act accordingly. I also invite you to think through again the question which is at the Meat of the Matter of a man’s relationship with the infinite God.

Today.



When A “Commoner” DiesGenesis 35 : 18

“And Isaac gave up the Ghost and died and was gathered unto his people being old and full of days and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him”.

Sunday 21st September 2008, between intermittent showers, I monitor the weather. At 3.00 p.m., the funeral of Mr. Cyril Miller - a man I knew from childhood – will begin at the Richland Park Seventh Day Adventist Church.

From my earliest memory, Mr. Miller lived on my street – Benjamin Bristol Road. I knew him and his children, from as far back as I can recall. He lived on our street when it was a dirt track and the sickly were brought down, by at least four men, on a wooden reclining chair, in order to get to the paved village road and Doctor. I knew him in the gangs of people who, through “self help” and Levi Latham the politician, changed our dirt track into the motorable Benjamin Bristol Road. I knew him as a farmer at “Pasture Ground” where I went, as a youth, to head bananas, pick mangoes, or “tie out my goats”.

I dressed and with my new umbrella curled around my arm, I walked to the “Seven Days Church”. One of my enduring memories of Mr. Miller, a “commoner”, was his weekly walks to and from church with his family on Saturday mornings and evenings. They also took this walk many nights during the week. As the preacher said in the church, these journeys began, for Mr. Miller, since 1960 when he joined the Adventist church.

As I looked around the church I was struck by who was there. There were no big names nor famous people. There were children in uniform who attended the Richland Park Primary school where his son and daughter-in-law are teachers. There were people from throughout the village and some visitors. I was most struck, however, by the large number of people from Bristol Road who had turned out. It seemed that it was only the sick and indigent, from our street who did not come to say farewell.

Without fanfare and with sadness, we took a man who lived his 84 years as a fixture, on our street and in this rural community, to his final resting place. The usual funeral choir, of ordinary people from the street and village, sang lustily, with our own voices and clapping, as accompaniment “Up Mt Zion Hill”. With the same musical accompaniment we laid him to rest.

He served with diligence and devotion to his wife, who went before him and a family of eight. He served his God as best he could. His children have gone and live in places where he never went. Each day, our nation and our faith are built on the backs of “plain, ordinary, unsung, imperfect people”, who without fanfare lay foundations for us to emerge and live as a people. Like Lazarus, Cyril has gone away to “Abraham’s Bosom” for eternal succor. Long may we celebrate the “living rocks” that form us as a people.

Today.Ashley R Cain(As you care, share The Thought Today)


A Lament of The Muse or Of Musa and NostalgiaEcclesiastes 3:1-8

As an 11 year schoolboy, Winston Bacchus gave me two days to learn and recite “The Song of a Banana Man” at a Concert at the Richland Park Primary School. Astonished at my feat, Miss Theodora Samuel, who lived on my street, re-christened me the Banana Man. Little did I know that for most of my life I would become a “banana man” in a real sense.

Back then, the pride which we felt in being banana growers carried us through the hardships of growing bananas for a livelihood and survival. As I listened to the debate in Parliament on a new Banana Bill, which I have not seen, I was reminded of the following fable which I sometimes tell about the banana industry in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

As Larry Bascombe says on WE FM mornings, “Here I go Ernesto”.

When a banana farmer, who gets a weekly income from his banana farm decides for two weeks that he is tired with the crop and pays no attention to the bunches which emerge in that time, the banana trees grumble among themselves and say “I give him money every week but he is tired of my money every week. He prefers it monthly or fortnightly. That’s OK. When he is ready he will come back. When he comes back he will lose most or all of my hard grown bunches which he has neglected thus far. He won’t be able to sell them.”

If the farmer’s vexation stretches to two months, he loses income from those bunches which bear during that time. The bananas continue to grumble at this neglect but console themselves that he doesn’t need money. If he neglects the field more than four months, when he comes back he has to start over again and wait maybe another four months before he gets income again. This time, however, he has to spend what he had put aside or borrow to get the crop going again. This is what happened when the individual farmer became tired of the banana crop.

In many of our rural communities where banana was king many took its weekly income for granted. They grumbled “this work too hard every week”. After a while the poor farmer finds that even with the best will in the world he can’t get people to work. Again the banana says “look how I helped to build houses, educate children, sustain rum shop and pretty clothes, maintain wife, ‘keeper’ even ‘sweet man’ every week. Nobody wants money every week anymore! But that’s OK.” The humble banana watched men and women who could not work at home during the day, pay money on vans, leave family at night to fend for themselves and work more hours for lesser pay.

As the banana trees droop their leaves in despair and turn up their noses at the strong smell of marijuana smoke from hill and gully, house and block, they see the ‘dirty skin’, thieving ‘Coke Man’, hustle people goods and the occasional bunch of green banana and plantain to buy ‘weed’ and coke from the new merchants of death in gleaming SUVs. The same banana trees wave in the day and night as youngsters practice up automatic guns and gunshot pop out people eyes, belly, hand and foot, to protect the crop or ensure the drop. The same banana watch as people, who left their homes open and went to the land, lock up their burglar bars by day and imprison themselves by night, in order to safeguard the hard earned penny received after waiting hours to catch van in town at ‘Little Tokyo’, Peace Mo and Silky Garage to come home.

The poor banana bawl sometimes to see communities through which millions passed from land to hand for years turn to bush and lifeless communities without strength nor purpose. The same banana watched

blue diothene on banana bunches give way as lighter black plastic bags from Greaves and ‘Pampers’ fly upon the breeze, across now empty lands like a proverbial plague.

The few bananas that remain, like old men waiting for the heavenly call, rub leaves, fight goat and root borers, nematodes and leafspot until they too fall on the ground to become food for worms. As man and trees disappeared from the land, so too went the bananas’ tales of loving care by tender hands in the days when gold was green on hills, on flats and gullies. As the lush green hills gave way to occasional patches of brown ground then dasheen fields then brown ground, the humble banana remnants would tell a quieter tale of a time when banana sent ‘poor people piccanniny’ to school.

In solitude the banana trees hear the parents laments about lazy children, who like to fight and fete and who ‘don’t care damn’ about man or God. Somewhere one root says to another lonely root, ‘time was when some man or woman nearly fall down here with a double box on head’. Somewhere else another root hears a parent say “Child, you better not cry. I only have enough money for one ‘Chubby’ today. Me only hope me have enough to carry me to work and put a five dollar credit on me Razr cell phone. Leave me alone and make sure you come early this evening. Don’t get in no fight again or me meself might out your light.”

In yet another place, another banana root hears from AM radio station to FM station, swaying in the breeze “ The Prime Minister Gonsalves say, the only way to save banana, today we have to sign `pon this EPA.

Then the poor root says in its trembling way:

‘All ah Dem mind turn,long before today.Wey they do they doand they say they say,me banana out they spirit,long before today”.

Yet again, another root, heard the WIBDECO man say:

“Four weeks passed today ,I ain’t see your nameOn no shipment day,I can’t buy no moreLest me whole ship ripe,From your once a month fruit cutAnd your leaky hut,Global Gap too tough,You nah grow enough,For me boat to comeAnd you know things rough,Me go ask D.R, Dem ah now the star,Your tonnage gone way downAnd me journey, far”.

And the poor banana leavesAgain pick up the cryof the Fairtrade farmer to the young Elizar,Things too tight me sister

You don’t have no quota?If things go on soT’will be death for WINFA.

Somewhere else another rootof a weaker statureheard the sound comea rustling in the wind.“There’s a wake announcingfor the passing Muserwho remembered the daywhen it was the futureFor Bedford truckSchool shoes on footEducated PiccaninnyElectric light to seeHow a little countryCan be MDC.”

Today.



By The Hand Of Another Comes Healing Luke 5: 18 -20

For the last week my childhood friend and “brother” Larry Bascombe has been fighting a great battle with cancer of the bladder. This disease, which he has fought for months, has reduced him to a virtual shell of himself. Only occasionally do we now see the sharp tongue and brutal frankness, that has caused many to wince at his biting social commentary and criticism.

That indomitable spirit has also seen him struggle to have his own way with doctors, nurses, relatives and close friends when the discomfort of a tube, passing through his nostrils into his stomach to aid in the removal of toxic wastes, became too great. On three occasions he pulled it out. Each time he was coaxed to have it put back in by a small band of loyal friends, relatives, and well wishers. It is the same band of friends and family which has provided the moral and physical support so necessary for healing of any kind.

As I reflect on the latest struggles of my childhood friend, “brother”, fiercest critic, confidant, self confessed atheist for years, and “partner in crime”, I am taken back to the story in Luke 5: 18-20.

A group of friends heard of Jesus and his power to heal the sick and restore brokenness of body and spirit. Their love for their broken brother was strong. Their faith in the power of Jesus was even stronger. They would let no obstacle keep them from giving their friend a chance to meet Jesus for healing and life renewing possibilities. When the crowd seeking Jesus was too thick to pass through they took the man, bed and all, down through the house roof, into the room where Jesus was. The rest is history.

For the last week, I have shared with and witnessed a loyal band of: Lennox the brother, Yvonne the cousin, Isaac the friend and colleague and Dolly and Chesley the neighbour, carry my paralytic friend Larry, through unspeakable discomfort and untold frustration at his well known stubbornness, with great care to seek physical healing. I have heard them ask “I wonder if he still doesn’t believe in God? I have heard them hope (spoken or unspoken) that Larry “makes his paths straight with God” before he dies.

As one who has been with him through many other discomforts, I am assured that even before now, the constant care and love of God shown through me and others, have brought my friend back to the days of his youth, when faith in God was all we had. As we see in our reading today, sometimes it is through the persistent love and care of the people around us that we are brought to the saving knowledge of God.

Today.


PS. This reflection was written between 9.45 and 10.20 a.m. on 6/3/09. Larry Died on his hospital bed just before noon on the 6/3/09.


The Whole Duty Of Man Ecclesiastes 12:13

This morning I arose at 4.00 O’clock. All around is quiet. Not even the crickets have a say. I think forward to my day ahead - from finishing a farming chore to the tasks I must deal with at the office. I ponder how to tackle the days challenges, how to meet my deadlines. As I reflected, I turned to my Bible and which opened randomly to Ecclesiastes Chapter 1.

There I read of “vanities of vanities, the constant rising and going down of the sun, the futile continuous swirling of the wind, the constant running of rivers to seas that are never full”, and the dry observation that “there is no new thing under the sun”. Throughout Chapter 1 of Ecclesiastes runs the theme “Vanity of Vanities, all of man’s life and striving is vanity and vexations of the spirit since man must ebb and flow in accordance with an order which he is powerless to change”. Even the constant garnering of knowledge and wisdom, the search to understand all things on earth, is futile and folly since, in much wisdom is grief and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.

I follow the theme of effort, achievement, then sorrow at what has been accomplished in one’s life. I hear the preacher’s lament that it is an exercise in futility, albeit a necessary part of the ebb and flow of a man’s life. I walk with the Preacher through various contradictions in the life of man. I am sobered by the thought that we pitch ourselves at life seeking fame, fortune, pleasures, often neglecting significant others in our lives, only to arrive, like the preacher, at the point where much of our efforts become a vexation of our own spirits.

As I reflected I thought, “ what therefore is the purpose of living if it is all reduced to: this humdrum, contradictory tale of pain and pleasure, joy and woe, building and breaking down, and running of life’s river to a sea that’s never full? I am also reminded by the preacher that “too much learning wearies a man and there is no end to the writing of books”. “The dust shall return to the earth as it was and the Spirit return unto God who gave it”.

Like life lived to it’s end, however, if we turn our eyes away from that which is essential to man, if we do not follow the preacher’s discourse to its end, we miss his deepest lesson – “the conclusion of the matter”. The whole end of life and the duty of man is “to fear God, to keep his commandments and to walk humbly with God”

Today.



Of Rain in Due Season or Affirmation Deuteronomy 11:14

“That I will give you the rain of your land in due season that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy oil.”Imagine a people in a desert, in wilderness, heading into an unknown future behind a leader who took them from a land where, though oppressed and enslaved, they knew what life for the community was going to be, day in day out. Imagine this people who grew crops in Egypt for another’s gain and for their own sustenance, wandering through a desert land behind a promise made to forefathers years before.

Imagine a leader who leaves his followers, goes onto a mountain, then comes back with words and instructions” from God written on tablets of stone. Will you believe such a leader when he says that God has made a promise to provide rain in due season, when all around is dryness and unfamiliar ground? Are his words meant to inspire you to follow him still behind his dream and a promise of liberation from the familiar slavery that was Egypt? Why should you trust such a man who for most of his life enjoyed the best things that Egypt offered?

Or would you remember that this leader, in the name of God, wrought great signs and wonders, on Egypt, before Pharaoh set you free to follow him into a wild rugged and unknown land? From what should you take hope? From the waters of the Jordan which parted to let you through while keeping the enemy at bay? From the manna which fell from heaven to feed the body and keep faith and hope in the soul? From whence comes the affirmation of the promise?

For the last six months I have been engaged in my own peculiar struggle through a desert land of spiritual growth and regeneration? As I faced the waters of my Jordans, battled the scorching and sobering heats of my deserts, received manna sufficient for my daily needs, searched for a safe path through life numbing challenges of man and land, I have received a constant affirmation of faith from above, in a most unusual manner. I have received a gift of rain in due season, as a sign that I may gather in my corn, my meat and my oil in due season.

This has been the sign. At 5.30 a.m. as I take my fork and hoe in hand to till the land before I head for work at the office; in a partly neglected banana field at Langley Park, as I started the task of restoring the farm to a productive state in the face of an uncertain banana industry future; through the streets of Kingstown as I contemplated bills and commitments that were due or had fallen behind; At a work site where a “bonfire of the vanities” burns and national priorities are consumed in fires of personal ambition. In all these instances and more, as I contemplated the challenges and the sincere desires of my heart floated up in prayers, uttered or unsung, a cloud will form overhead, darken for a moment then the rain would fall on me, literally, “out of nowhere”.

The duration and intensity of the rainfall would vary. In March when the dry season was in full swing, as I struck my hoe to clear the profuse weed growth, down came the rain, intense enough to wet the soil for an easier turning of the sod. As I walked through Kingstown and contemplated overdue salaries for ADPIU staff, the rain came down as a short light drizzle from nowhere, then stopped as suddenly as it started. In so many other instances of change and challenges these last six months, the rain has come on me as a sign, in due season, that I may be assured of gathering my corn, wine and my oil in due season.

Have you too had rain in due season?

Today.Ashley R Cain (As you care, share The Thought Today)

THE THOUGHT TODAY 22/ 06 / 09 Beyond Affirmation

John 21: 26-29

In my last reflection I wrote of rain in due season and the affirmation which I received that the issue or difficulty that troubled me would be resolved: the sprinkling of rain falling “out or nowhere”, like manna to the Israelites in the desert. As I go through my day and I struggle with the orders of the day I sometimes find myself looking up for that light sprinkling from above.

As I walked in my garden on Sunday afternoon the thought came to me. Has this reassurance through the falling rain now become a crutch instead of a source of strength and affirmation of God’s eternal blessing? Very often, we come to rely so heavily on a particular experience of blessing from God, that we lose sight of or miss out on the potential for greater gifts or deeper knowing of the ways of God.

My reflections on this matter took me back to the familiar story of Jesus and the doubting Thomas in John 20:26-29. Thomas, who had offered to die with Lazarus, was not with the disciples when Jesus appeared to them after his resurrection. With disdain he asked “ Jesus alive? Unless I could push my hand through his side, I won’t believe”. Imagine his consternation when Jesus appeared, repeated Thomas’s words then asked Thomas to push his hands into his side. When Thomas said in recognition “my Lord and my God’, Jesus chided him. “Do you now believe I am alive because you have seen me?” Then came this telling statement from Jesus. “Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed”.

The force of the story hit me like a rock. I asked myself, have I become guilty, like Thomas, of looking for a physical manifestation or reassurance from God? Do I have the faith to trust wholly in God’s goodness in every situation so that I don’t need ‘the crutch of a physical manifestation’ to know that God is omnipresent and available in every circumstance?

Yes, the true test of our faith, is our believing, beyond physical affirmation and evidence, in the ever present goodness of God through a faith which makes even the seemingly “impossible” , possible.

I trust that as we make our life journeys, we rely not on mere physical evidence but rest assured of the omnipresence of God’s goodness in or out of season, whether due or not.

Today.


THE THOUGHT TODAY14/ 07 / 09

Beyond Taboo Luke 7: 36-39

“This man if he were a prophet would know what manner of woman this is who is touching him for he is a sinner”

Luke tells a strange and unusual story of Jesus being invited into a Pharisee’s house. While there, a “woman of lesser virtue”, known throughout the city for her “bad” ways, came to see Jesus at the house of Simon the Pharisee. As he sat down to eat, the sinful woman brought a flask of expensive alabaster oil to anoint Jesus. Before doing so, however, heartbroken about her sinfulness, she began to weep. So abundant was her sorrow at her sinfulness that enough tears flowed to wash Jesus feet. If that were not enough, she took the hair of her head, wiped the feet she had washed, kissed his feet with her lips, then proceeded to anoint Jesus feet with the expensive perfumed alabaster ointment.

Anyone standing by must have wondered about the nature and intensity of the emotion which drove her to do this. What was it that Jesus said to her before this which would have led her to do this? Anyone yes, but not Simon the Pharisee. As far as he was concerned, Jesus was allowing a bad sinful woman to be all over him.

He must have invited Jesus to his house because of the power and authority which Jesus showed in his teaching and preaching throughout the land. Are we too not caught by power and authority of religious and civic leaders that we gladly invite them to our houses to share the best that we have? Simon was so disturbed that he said to himself. “ Wait. I made a mistake. Is this man a prophet? He can’t be a prophet, otherwise he would have known and felt the sinfulness of the woman and shunned her.” He may have even thought to himself ‘Jesus shame on you. I wish I didn’t bring you into my house’.

Jesus, with acute perception, read Simon’s thoughts. He asked him if two persons were forgiven their debts who would love the forgiver more, the one with the greater or the one with the lesser debt? Simon answered the one with the greater debt. Jesus then turned to Simon and reminded him of the love and care which the woman showed (which he, as host, should have shown but didn’t do so). Jesus ended this incident with a telling observation. “To whom much is forgiven from them is much love received. To whom little is forgiven, from them little love is received”.

Are we guilty of being caught up in our self righteousness and lack of sin that, even in our spirits, we frown on and deny the joy of salvation and release (beyond taboos) to persons who have been weighed down by sinfulness and other people’s unwillingness to forgive and forget another’s transgression?

Again we are reminded by Jesus himself of the great joy in heaven when even one sinner comes to redemption

Today.


THE THOUGHT TODAY 27/ 07 / 09

The Apt Word Psalms 2: 7 - 12

Its 11.30 P.M, almost midnight. I lie in bed restlessly battling with a particular concern. My frustration and vexation arises and so do I. I lie on the floor of my living room, but the feeling of discord intensifies. I return to my Study. I take up my Nelson Study Bible in hand with the same dis-ease in my spirit. I closed my eyes, then opened the bible randomly, to “take my proof” (as is the way of the Spiritual Baptists) to see what light the scriptures may provide in my circumstances. My right hand page opened to Psalms 2 verse 7. There I read, “You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potters vessel!”

I read it once but there seemed to be nothing special about it. With my spirit still disturbed, I looked at the left hand page, hoping for a more satisfying word. Written there was a commentary, “In Depth” on the Poetry of the Psalms. The poet in me could not resist reading the commentary. There it explained how a fuller appreciation of the eloquence of the Psalms can be gained by understanding the basis of Hebrew poetry.

I read with increasing interest and calmness that, although Hebrew poetry contains some rhythm, it primarily makes use of repetition and recapitulation. One line of a verse is followed by another which gives a variation of the same idea. The commentator then gave the following five techniques which the writers of the Psalms and Proverbs used.

Synonymous Parallelism makes two elements similar. Antithetical Parallelism contrasts two elements. In Synthetic Parallelism the second line develops the theme of the first. In Climactic Parallelism, the first member of a couplet repeats the first and then completes the thought. Finally in Emblematic Parallelism, the first line contains a figure of speech which the following lines explain by expansion or explanation.

A little more settled in spirit and thought, I returned to the reading of my “Proof”. Whereas, I had questioned before, in frustration, the aptness of my randomly chosen text, it came home to me, now, that the passage was giving a word of comfort and reassurance, which addressed perfectly, the concerns which caused me to toss and turn sleeplessly in bed.

I thought to myself, how easy it is for us to tell God of our wishes and preferred solutions instead of, listening for the apt word in due season when his spirit seeks to bring us into a saving knowledge of his ever present goodness and love.

Today.



Midlife Crisis Part 1 – Of David and Bathsheba 2 Samuel 11: 1

Sometimes our life defining moments happen like the blowing of the wind. There is little fanfare, we go about our business doing what we normally do, then something happens which changes the course of our lives completely. For King David, such a life defining moment happened during the time of his “midlife crisis”. “At the time when kings go forth to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel…. but David tarried still at Jerusalem”. Clearly David came to a time when he had seen many battles, led them then become tired of it all. A midlife crisis? How long was it since he slew Goliath?

What happens to David next, is history. In leisure and ease David walked on the roof of his house, saw the beauty of Bathsheba , was completely overtaken by the most intense desire, had the woman brought to him, made her pregnant and changed the course of his and his family’s life forever. As we asked sometimes in youthful days “ so what are so classical about that?” Has he not had other women before who were beautiful and whom he desired? Maybe, but they were not the wife of Uriah the Hittite.

Uriah’s devotion to duty, (unlike David’s) was too strong. He refused to leave, before completing his duty to the king, to be with the same wife whose exquisite beauty made king David break the seventh commandment. When his attempts to trick Uriah into sleeping with his wife failed David schemed with Joab to have faithful Uriah killed in battle in order to cover up his sinful act. The rest is history.

First came the prophet Nathan whose parable and message from the God made David realize the error of his ways and God’s condemnation of him and his house. Then a life of ease and comfort will change forever to war and conflict in his own family. His grief over his beloved Absalom became unbearable. In crisis and penitence David penned Psalms that have been the solace of many a midlife traveler after him. His first sickly child from Bathsheba died as punishment but the second, Solomon, became the wisest man who ever lived.

David’s midlife crisis had the potential for him to be lost forever. His deep and contrite response to God provides us, down the ages, a living example of how to attack our own midlife crises

Today.


THE THOUGHT TODAY 8/ 10 / 09

Midlife Crisis Part 2 – Moses and the Call to Mission Exodus 2 : 11-15

It came to pass that the Pharaoh of Egypt made the life of the children of Israel very difficult. The order went out to slay the male children of Israel. Thus it was that Moses, the child of an Israelite was rescued from the river, grew up in royal Egyptian palaces, acquired the state of the art knowledge of the day, yet retained his care and concern for his own people. Although he was not a slave in Egypt, he interceded in an argument between an Egyptian and an Israelite. At the end, the Egyptian lay dead by his hand.

Another day he met two Israelites in a quarrel. This time he tried to be peacemaker. One of them reminded of his “great secret”. When the secret came to the Pharaoh's knowledge, he sought to have Moses killed . Moses fled for his life. Imagine a man who accustomed to ease filled with great wisdom and scholarship forced to lead a low and menial life among a people who did not fully claim him as their own? Midlife crisis?

What was Moses to think of his changed circumstances from privileged Egyptian prince to lonely goatherd and keeper of sheep among a people enslaved?

This was his circumstance when his attention was taken by a bush, ablaze with fire and yet not burnt? Stranger yet, a voice commanding him to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground? A voice telling him that it had come from the God of his forefathers – the I AM what I AM? How worse can it get? Him, a stranger, to free and save a people who barely acknowledged him as one of their own?

Was he hearing right? Was the messenger telling him that he must go back and face the same Pharaoh from whom he had fled and ask him to free people who had slaved for him for many years? What was Moses to make of this? Truly he was going mad and imagining things. Was the man in the bush telling him that he, Moses, will lead the children of Israel to a land flowing with milk and honey? Truly, the Gods must be crazy?

In great disbelief Moses wanted reassurance. “ Throw down your rod”. It promptly became a snake. Moses ran for his life. “But Lord I am not a speaker”. The excuses were endless but to no avail. God had prepared for him and prepared him for this time of salvation. In spite of himself, Moses led the children of Israel from Egyptian captivity.

Have you too had a “midlife crisis” and doubted the power of God to lead you and others out from it into his marvelous light? Maybe, if we look hard enough we will recognise the “Rod of Moses” in our own hands

Today.


THE THOUGHT TODAY 14/10 / 09

“Whose God is the Lord Psalms 144: 11-15

“ Happy is that people that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord”.

As I sit at the office this morning and prepare for a long and varied day, I felt the urgings of the lord's spirit with mine. For the last hour my soul has been filled with a sweet spirit that burst out in spontaneous song, even as I thread my way through the stop, start, stop of Arnos Vale Traffic. As I sat at my desk, with the Methodist Hymn “Behold the Mountain of the Lord” in my thoughts -a song which I don't know yet how to sing, I take my bible to take my random “proof” as the Spiritual Baptists do. On my right hand it was Psalms 144: 12-13. On the left hand Psalms 140: 12-13.

Searching for “the apt word in due season”, I looked at Psalm 144: 11-15. The Psalmist David was making an appeal to God to rid him and deliver him from the hand of strange children whose mouth speaketh vanity. He then goes on to say that if God grants this wish of deliverance from strange children, certain distinct blessings will flow. “Our sons (children who we treasure) will be plants grown up in their youth”? “Daughters as cornerstones polished like a sparkling palace”? “Garners (storerooms) that are full with all manner of good things”? “Sheep multiplying and bringing forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets”? “Oxen strong to labour”? “No breaking in nor going out”? “No complaining in our streets”? All these as signs of well being and strength of the nation?

As I reflected on David's desire for his people, the noise from the street behind me sounded different. With curiosity, I pulled the curtains aside, only to see heavy rain falling where ten minutes before there was only sunshine. I smiled as I remembered “rain in due season”.

As I reflected on our time and country, the many signs of success which David wrote about seemed far removed from my own land. Today our signs of success are vested in elaborate mansions, flashy cars and clothing, boredom that numbs the spirit and leads young and old into deviance of all kinds - whether sexual or otherwise- endless debates on radio and street corners about matters which carry us, as a people, nowhere closer to the desire of the Psalmist's heart.

The rain has stopped now, as suddenly as it started. How I long to say like the Psalmist David - Happy are my people and our circumstances whose God is the Lord

Today.


THE THOUGHT TODAY 14/11 / 09

“Take Up Thy BedMatthew 23: 1-12

The Gospels and the Bible are littered with stories which are often well known and familiar to many people. It takes a little illumination, sometimes, to bring us again to their deeper meaning and enduring value for our lives today. One such story is told in Matthew about a man at the Pool of Silaom.

It was traditional that once each year, there would be a stirring of the waters. Anyone who got in first would be healed of whatever ailment one had. Can you imagine the rush and bedlam at that time as people jostled and pushed and even fought to get the opportunity for healing and restoration? Imagine the disappointment of those who were not able to get in on time to experience their moment of restoration.

The Gospel story tells us of a crippled man at the pool of Silaom. What chances did he have? The case of this man is made more poignant when the story tells us that he had tried for thirty eight years for his moment of healing. To the ordinary person maybe two or three years of waiting for something that was difficult, if not impossible, may have been too many. This man was an extraordinary man of faith. He maintained his dream and wish for thirty eight years. When Jesus met him that day and heard his story of faith he was moved with compassion. He offered him the word “take up thy bed and walk”. An ordinary person may have said, “which bed? I have been here, crippled for 38 years and you are telling me to not only take up my bed but walk? You crazy!” Our Man Today did not question. He obeyed the command and by his obedience began his healing and wholeness.

Sometimes, it takes 38 years and more to come to a point of healing and renewal of life and limb, to move from a posture of helplessness to one of active faith. For our Man Today, this act of faith and obedience changed his life and became a source of inspiration for other people of his day and through the ages. Some experiences of faith are so compelling that they are retold from generation to generation.

Do you know anyone , even yourself, who has been stuck in a moment in time, or an event in your past that has so traumatised you and rendered you helpless to move on with life's possibilities? Is there a need for reconciliation with friend, neighbour, child, or some significant other that has paralysed you for a long time and which has taken your joy away? Do you too need to hear the Lord's gentle invitation to take up your bed and to walk again to fulfill your life's possibilities?

Today


THE THOUGHT TODAY 8 /11 / 09

For Love of RuthRuth : 1: 16

Nestled between Judges and 1st Samuel is a book called Ruth: four chapters long. Someone paging hurriedly through the Bible may easily miss an intricate love story of exquisite and unusual beauty and power. Elemilech, an Israelite escaping from famine in his land, took his wife Naomi and sons to Moab. Elemilech and his sons died there leaving their wives behind – one a Jew the two Moabites. With great care and sensitivity, Naomi freed her daughters in law of their marital obligations and allowed them the freedom to marry men of their own land.

Having heard that the famine had ended in her own land, she decided to return to her own land and people. Orpah accepted Naomi's offer but Ruth was firm. She would abandon her own land and people, lodge where Naomi lodged and make Naomi's God her own. As a widow Naomi faced an uncertain future. It was unlikely that she would have another husband or children who would eventually marry Ruth as was the Jewish custom. Ruth by this act clearly demonstrated her courage, love and commitment to her Mother in Law. Back in Israel, Ruth and Naomi faced an uncertain future. They were not even sure from whence would come their sustenance. When the time of harvest was near, Naomi advised Ruth to go to the field of Boaz to gather grain with other maidens.

Was this by accident or design? Did Naomi harbour thoughts that Boaz ,as a near kinsman of her ex husband, would look favorably on Ruth and allow her to reap from his fields? Did Naomi know that Boaz, as a man of principle, would not allow harm to come to Ruth in his field. Was she acting with motherly love and feminine purposefulness to pursue the best welfare of Ruth?/ Did she dream or imagine that Boaz would take interest in Ruth beyond the gathering of grain.? Was the wisdom of Naomi so great that she understood the purpose and power of love awakened and its determination to fulfill itself? Or was she simply motivated by hunger and the pure physical necessity at the time?

Whether it was by accident or design, Boaz not only noticed the comely Ruth but he made it easy for her to gather the grain which she needed, once he found out who she was and from whence she came. Maybe he had heard the stories of Ruth's faithfulness to her mother in law. After all had she not left her own people to live with Naomi?

Ruth returned to Naomi with her grain. Naomi asked her about her experiences that day. When Naomi heard that Boaz had facilitated her reaping and protected her from the advances of the young men, something stirred in Naomi. Call it female intuition, purpose or what you may, Naomi sensed that a seed of love for Ruth may have been planted in Boaz. “Daughter, prepare thyself with oils and sweet perfume. Enter the tent of Boaz his feet and await his response to you.” So said, so done.

Boaz awoke to find the lovely damsel at his feet. With great principle and dignity, Boaz did not take advantage of her. Instead he negotiated the hand of Ruth from the kinsman who had the first right to her as husband. Thus it was that the deep love of Ruth and Naomi led to the birth of Obed, Jesse, David and Mary the mother of Jesus. Oh for the intricate love, purpose and planning of GodTodayAshley R Cain (As you care, share The Thought Today)

THE THOUGHT TODAY 6/12/09

Of Job and a Bragging GodJob 1:6-8: , Job 2:1-3

It was a bet. One day when the sons of God came to present themselves before God, Satan came with them. God asked him, where are you coming from now? He replied, “going to and fro in the earth , walking up and down in it”. True? God asked. Well you must have seen my servant Job? Even you will agree, there is no man as good and perfect on the earth as Job, a man who fears God and will have nothing to do with evil. A good man. Not true Satan? Yeah. Talk God talk, Satan said. Does he fear you for no reason? Look how you bless the man. Look at his possessions. God I bet you, put your hand on him, take away everything and , see if he doesn't curse you to your face. “Alright Satan”, God replied. Do all you want with him. Just don't kill him and we will see.

Satan unleashed a reign of terror on Job – a thousand oxen and asses dead, all servants except one dead, camels gone and children dead all at once. What a tribulation! And Job, what did he say? Well, “the Lord gave and he took back. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” What an answer from a man who lost suddenly all that most people work for and treasure all their lives. “Blessed be the name of the lord?” Say what? Yes. Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly.

Another day, when Satan came, with the sons of God, to present himself before God, God asked him again. “Ah Satan, where are you coming from? Satan gave him the same answer as before. Again God asked “You see my man, Job? A good man eh? Although you did him all manner of evil, has he sinned against me? No! Satan answered, “yeah, talk. A man will give all he has to save his life. Touch his bone and his flesh and see if he doesn't curse you to your face”.

God let Satan loose on Job a second time. Covered with boils from head to toe, Job sat down in ashes, seeking some relief from his physical distress. Even his wife treated him with scorn. You are a foolish man, she said. Curse God for all the hardship you are going through and die”. Often, it is our nearest and dearest who make us to fall victim to the tempter. Job was unmoved. “Folly Woman! Should we receive and accept good from God and not evil? Be Quiet!” Through all of this, Job did not sin.

When his three friends came to share his distress, they sat silently with him for seven days and seven nights. After this, the floodgates opened, and the discourses, which over the years led many a man and woman to marvel, began. First Eliphaz, “ you gave so much counsel to others in distress, now you have yours you can't bear it? You ever see the innocent perish or the righteous cut off?” Then Bildad, “God will not cast away a righteous man”. Then Zophar, “cans't thou by searching find out God? God exacteth from thee less than thine iniquity deserves”. The arguments between the men flew back and forth: distilling great wisdom on the nature of man and God, the reactions of one human to another's deepest suffering and distress, and the ever constant faith Job had in God's wisdom and right to do as he pleases. The caring frankness of a friend became an anchor and support.

The story ends with Job restored, his glory greater than before. How I wish that you and I, like Job, will keep God's constancy within, through thick or thin, so God can win his bet on us as faithful mortal man

TodayAshley R Cain (As you care, share The Thought Today)


The Best That I Can BeMatthew 5:16

“That they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.”

Its 12.20 a.m. and I realise that someone has entered my bedroom and was standing there. I thought for a moment it was my wife, then I realised that it was my teenager Kristal. When I enquired what was wrong, she said that she had a bad dream and joined us on the bed. As I struggled with the snuffy nose and usual symptoms of Flu, I could not fall asleep again. I reassured her that she'd be ok. As I struggled with sleep, I remembered my conversation with her as we journeyed from school earlier in the day.

As she shuffled her marked test papers in her hand, I noticed that she had 97% for one of her subjects. Curious about her test results I asked her about the other subjects. Somewhat defensively, she told me about scores in the seventies for two subjects. She did not know how she had performed for other subjects. As we journeyed, I reassured her that she could turn seventies into nineties. She must not be disheartened. I only wanted her to be the best that she can be.

As I reflected on our conversation something struck me forcibly. You are a fine hypocrite Ashley I thought. “Be the best that you can be?” Can I honestly give such advice to my child or any other? I thought about my various roles and responsibilities: parent, civil servant, farmer, husband, Rotarian, football administrator, President of a sports club, Methodist Church member with various responsibilities as Chairman of the Organisation and Education Committee in my Circuit, member of the Emmaeus Community and citizen at large. Have I been the best that I can be in those various roles and responsibilities and in stewardship of God's gifts? Have I been the best in managing my time to effectively juggle and fulfill my responsibilities? Have I been the best in managing money and other resources given to me. Have I been best at using abilities, lent to me by God, to empower others and build my own spiritual house?

Have I had a form of Godliness and denying the power thereof? Have I allowed ill discipline and bad habits to weaken even the witness within? Have I been erratic and inconsistent in my response to family, church and community? Have I helped others to learn of and come into a saving knowledge of the love of God? Have I, by my life and example, led others to deny Christ and his possibilities to set at liberty those who are captive and to restore spiritual sight to persons dazzled or blinded by life's experiences? The questions went on and on.

Are my good works and “busyness” seen and taken as examples, so that others are inspired to glorify our Father which art in heaven? Have I, by my life, constancy and witness mirrored the perfection of God so that others will be magnetised and drawn into a life giving empowering and enduring relationship between man and God?

I pray that God will empower me to say, mean and show to my child and the world that “I am the best that I can be through the indwelling presence of an Almighty God”



Demands of A Kingdom Part 1Whatever He Says To You Do It

John 2: 4-5 My Mother Joycie Agatha Cain celebrates her 94th Birthday today. As I reflected on my relationship with her over the years, I remember that I have always been intrigued, nay, fascinated by the relationship between Jesus and his own mother. We were taught early, as good West Indian children, to be obedient and courteous to our parents - especially our mothers. My fascination with this Mother and Son relationship reaches its highest point in the story told in John 2.

We will never know what drove his mother Mary to come to Jesus when there was no more wine at the Wedding in Cana. Did Mary know the full power of her son? Had Jesus wrought other signs and wonders before? Was she concerned that the family would be embarrassed and their good name spoiled because the wine had run out? Did she want to test the power of Jesus to do miraculous things? Did she have the faith that her precious son could do anything he wanted? Whatever her reasons for asking, Jesus' response is as startling as it was unexpected. “Woman, What have I to do with thee? Mine hour has not yet come”.

Mary's answer to her son's rebuke is equally puzzling. She said to the servants, “Whatever he says to you do it”. She did not rebuke her son for rudeness nor quarrel with him as we are wont to do when our children, or those we have respect for, give us answers which we do not like nor expect to hear. Did some spirit warn Mary that something special was about to happen? We will never know. The servants heeded her instructions. They turned to Jesus, filled the water pots to the brim, drew from their drums, took their draught to the Governor, and listened to him quarrel that they had left the best wine for last. All of this, because both mother and servants heard, heeded Jesus instructions and acted.

Since that day in Cana of Galilee, men and women of great faith and sometimes fainting courage, have heard a call and plunged headlong to obey its demands. Some 250 years ago, John Wesley and others heard again the instructions of Mary. They stood up, looked at their own country, and needs, declared the world to be their Parish and worked tirelessly to satisfy the demands of a kingdom to bring men and women into a saving knowledge of the love of God.

As we reflect on the demands of the Kingdom of God in our lives and times, Mary's call comes to us again. Clearly.”Whatever he says to you do it.” May it also be so for us, that, even when all our best wines have run out, whatever he says to us, that do we do

Today


THE THOUGHT TODAY28/09/10

For Love Of Our BrotherLuke 16: 27-29

In Luke's Gospel, Jesus tells a story of a rich man and Lazarus. The rich man had everything to his ease and enjoyed the fruits of his and others labor. As so often happens, when we are consumed with and by our many material possessions, we give short shrift or scant regard to others who are not equally blessed. In fact, we oftentimes find our brothers in need to be burdensome and a bother as we confront and turn away from their various needs, day in day out.

We know very well how the story ends, with Lazarus dying and going to a place of peace and rest in Abraham's bosom where he received eternal comforts. By contrast, the rich man died and because of his spiritual poverty and lack of concern for others outside himself and his immediate circle of friends, he went to a place of eternal spiritual and other torment. Interestingly, from there, he could see, across an impassable divide, a joyful and happy Lazarus. He appealed to Father Abraham. “Please allow Lazarus to come and dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue and ease my torment in this eternal flame.” When Abraham tells him that there is an impassable gulf between Lazarus' new home and the rich man's new home of torment, we hear an amazing and unexpected request from the rich man.

“Father Abraham, I hear, I understand and I accept that once you reach here you can't cross over. I also agree that I did not show the love and concern for others that I should have shown during my earthly journey. I was mainly concerned about the well being of myself, my immediate family and friends. Maybe I am being selfish again and caring only about my own. Father Abraham please grant me one last favour. I withdraw my request for Lazarus to come this side. I don't want another person to follow or join me here. I have five brothers who are still alive. I know them well. I don't want them to experience what I am going through. Please Father Abraham, send Lazarus to them, at my father's house, to warn them, so that they may change their ways.”

As I reflected on this story today, it came home to me, that over the years, I have read this story often and only paid attention to the rich man and saw only his callous treatment of another human being - Lazarus. Instinctively I dismissed him as one of the cruel, selfish, uncaring wealthy persons we find in every age and land who have little regard and concern for others outside their immediate family and circle of friends. It struck me forcibly, today, for the first time, that this rich man's experience in the place of torment, brought out in him a deep, loving, noble concern (albeit for his own brethren) which was in stark contrast to his treatment of Lazarus.

I trust that as we reflect on this often missed part of our story, (caring concern for others) may this story of love of our own brothers (kin) move us to reach and help others choose a path which rescues falling men and women and leads to eternal life

Today

Ashley R Cain

(As you care, share The Thought Today)


Of Servant-hood and Faith Luke 17: 1-10

It is 9.25 a.m and I work my way through the 2008 Annual Agricultural Review for St Vincent and the Grenadines, making notes and thinking of changes and issues to be included in the 2009 review which is now being prepared for publication. As I reviewed the challenges faced by the agricultural industry, I remember that I must attend a meeting of the Emmaeus community this afternoon. I am also reminded that I must prepare for a talk on “ The Body of Christ”.

I turn to the Internet, put my question to the search engine and find Upper Room Daily Reflections and the scripture reading for today – Luke 17:10. I then realised that right beside it was Luke 16: 19-29. This was the basis for my last Thought Today reflection of 27th September 2010 on Lazarus and the rich man's love for his own kind. “What a coincidence” I thought.

Intrigued, I read the scripture passage which opened with Jesus telling his disciples that “offences will come but woe to him through whom they come. It were better for him if a millstone was tied around his neck than to offend one of the little ones. Take heed to yourselves, forgive your brother if he repents when you rebuke him, even if he offends you seven times in the day”. To the disciples of Jesus, this was an amazing demand. we can understand, therefore, their saying to Jesus (as we say in local parlance) “Lord! Give me (more) faith. I need it.”

Jesus' answer to their request for more faith is equally amazing and unexpected. “More Faith? How much more faith do you need? If your faith is as small as the little mustard seed, you will say to the Sycamore tree, “be ye plucked up and be planted in the sea” and it will obey you.” The disciples must have shaken their heads and looked at each other in astonishment, but Jesus did not stop there.

He asked them “which of you will have servants come in from feeding cattle (work) and tell them to sit down and eat right away? Wouldn't you tell them to prepare your supper then have theirs after you have eaten? Does he thank the servant for doing he was commanded to do? Surely not.” In the same way, he said, “you must also do what is commanded (or required) of you and when you are done, say to yourself 'We are humble unprofitable servants. We have done what is our duty to do'.”

I smiled wryly to myself as I considered the various issues, obligations, challenges, concerns and frustrations which have troubled my spirit recently and often creased my brow. I also remembered the many times when the spirit has led me to an often puzzling (at the time) but apt word of faith and reassurance.

I pray that the Lord helps me to do that which is my duty, on my journey of servant-hood and faith

Today



A Message From The LordPsalms 98-1-5, Psalms 102

It's 12.30 a.m. Another day is beginning. For the last hour my troubled spirit has struggled through an hour of deep contrition and sorrow, as I sought solace from my God and a consolation / request that he be merciful to me a sinner. In deep sorrow, I groaned with burdens and concerns that are sometimes too deep, even for tears. I arose from the floor and of my living room, move to my study and reached for my Bible. With a habit learned from my elderly mother – a Spiritual Baptist – I opened the Bible randomly, seeking I knew not what. Reassurance? Consolation? Words of ease and joy? What will the Father say to me through his word?

At my left thumb was Psalms 98:1-5. At my right thumb was Psalms 102:3-15. On my left hand I read “O sing unto the Lord a new song for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy hand hath gotten him the victory”. I also read “the Lord has made known his salvation, his righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen. He remembered his mercy and his truth towards the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all the earth make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praises.”

I turned to the right hand passage. My thumb rested on verse 13. “Thou shalt arise and have mercy on Zion, for the time to honor her, yea the set time is come.” I read further “He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer. This shall be written for the generation to come and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth: to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those that are appointed to death, to declare the name of the Lord in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem when the people are gathered together and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord.”

I smiled wryly at the words revealed. My eyes moved to the beginning of Psalm 102 and I read the following summary: “ A prayer of the afflicted when he is overwhelmed and poureth out his complaint before the Lord.” I then read Verse 1. “Hear my prayer O Lord and let my cry come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me. In the day when I call answer me speedily. For my days are consumed like smoke and my bones are burned as a hearth.”

I read the rest of Psalm 102 from Verse 4 -12 and heard the lament of the Psalmist. My mind went back to the morning and God's goodness to me when a financial need was addressed by a God who is always on time and in time. I thank God for his mercy and I trust that you too, in your moments of deep contrition, may also hear him on that day.

As I finished this reflection, at 1.20 a.m, I heard the rain start to fall on my rooftop; softly at first then in an insistent flood. It was truly a reminder to me that God always gives “rain in due season”

Today


The Thought TodayFor The People In The South Caribbean Called Methodists

20/1/11Jeremiah 50: 4-7

It is 10.40. P.M. and I arise from listening to the St Vincent and the Grenadines' House of Assembly debate on the 2011 Budgetary Estimates for St Vincent and the Grenadines. My thoughts turn from national politics to the gathering of South Caribbean Methodists in Tobago. I remembered my first experience last year and my suggestion to Ela Davis that we ask Methodists in St Vincent to lift up the District Conference in prayer, each day, as part of a prayer vigil for the success of the Conference and its work in the region. I remembered, vividly, my tiredness from traveling during the day, the hospitality shown by the people who met us, the initial meeting with our hosts for the week, the making of friends, the renewing of acquaintances and the sharing of stories and pleasantries by people who share this meeting year after year.

As I moved to my study, I thought about the various persons with whom I share The Thought Today. Why not invite them to join me in prayerful support for the success of the Conference? In fact, why not share with them nightly a passage of scripture, song or some other thing which the Lord lays on my heart? Good Idea. Let me do it. I reached for my Bible, “took my proof” and opened randomly to whichever Bible passage was on my right and or left thumb. On my right Thumb was Jeremiah 50: 4-7. I read, “In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God”.

Interesting text! I thought, then read on. “They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, [saying], Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant [that] shall not be forgotten. My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away [on] the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place”. As I read this verse, I thought, how many times have I heard my fellow Methodists lament that other churches (denominations ) were taking our people away as our “flock” becomes smaller and smaller? I continued on. “All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers”. Another interesting verse, I thought.

As I reflected on this last verse, I remembered my own father Phillip, (a staunch,committed Methodist ) who maintained a steadfast faith until death, even though he had “sinned and come short of the glory of God''. I also remembered the Apostle Paul saying that, despite challenges (thorns in the flesh), he kept striving towards the mark of Christian perfection. How fitting, I thought. It is said that Methodism was born in Song. It is God's grace and the spirit of its singing heritage that will carry it forward with faith. Tonight as my 2011 South Caribbean Methodist District Conference delegates turn into bed for the night, the song on my spirit for them and for you is from Charles Wesley – Hymn # 956 in the Methodist Hymn Book Come let us anew, Our journey pursue Roll round with the year And never stand still till the Master appear

TodayAs You Care Share The Thought TodayAshley R Cain

The Thought Today21/1/11

A Prayer For The Spirit To FallActs 2: 1-4

On the beautiful island of Tobago, the Annual Methodist Conference of the South Caribbean District is into its second full day. Presbyters in the District, all Circuit Stewards and equal numbers of Lay Representatives from each Circuit have started the journey. By now participants have settled in with their various hosts. The volunteer support from the local congregations have begun to kick in as they provide much needed nourishment and other assistance. The hospitality offered by the hosts is setting their guests at ease.

The conference programme has been received by all. Old friendships have been rekindled. New relationships are starting. The various working committees have been formed. Persons have been assigned to their various roles and responsibilities. First timers are observing and making notes unsure of what will be next. Those who are attending for the first time are beginning to see what the District Conference is all about. Already the conversations on the work of the church have started to throw up the fears, concerns and struggles to be a Methodist communion, called out to spread scriptural holiness (wholeness), in our day and our time.

As I continue my own prayerful support today for the success of the conference, I wish for the kindling of a deep fire within my Methodist communion. My mind goes back to the early days when the church's numbers were so few that they literally huddled together in various upper rooms, sharing a common meal and purpose and waiting for the promised comforter to come. For them the concern was not urgent repairs to the church building or even how to finance the work. Instead their concerns were about how to go forward in a hostile environment where merely being associated with the group was reason enough to have your life taken away.

I also remember the words of a man who, at Aldersgate on 24th May 1738, felt his heart strangelywarmed and assured that God works a change in the heart through faith in Christ, did trust in Christ alone for salvation and received an assurance that Christ had taken away his sins, and saved him from the law of sin and death. In the same way, in an upper room, almost two thousand years ago at Pentecost, a group of people were in one accord in one place. Suddenly there came a sound as of a mighty rushing wind. ¨Cloven tongues like as of fire sat upon each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance¨. After that, every man heard the gospel (good news of salvation) in his own tongue (language).

I remember also that John Wesley, when denied a parish in which to preach and faced with exclusion from the pulpits of his day, declared the whole world to be his parish. With the help of Nathaniel Guilbert and others a flame was lit across the Caribbean which became the body of people (Methodists) who became methodical and faithful in life and witness.

As you join me in lifting up our Methodist communion and gathering of leaders in prayerful support , I ask that ours will be a prayer to let Godś spirit fall on us all

TodayAs you care, share The Thought TodayAshley R Cain


A Breaking of BreadSt John 21: 1-17

It is now 8.15 a.m as I prepare to lift up the Methodist District Conference in prayer for anotherday. By this time there is the first gathering for devotion as the delegates seek spiritual food andstrength. This spiritual food will add to the physical nourishment already provided by a loving,caring support team of host families and individual societies (congregations) who preparemeals each day for the delegates.

As I pondered on the loving care and duty of these persons I am reminded of the manyoccasions in which Jesus was involved not only in the sharing of a meal but also making mealspossible for others. (a useful reminder for me an agriculturalist charged with helping ournation to provide food for its own sustenance as well as that of others in the Caribbean and theworld). One such instance is given in St John 211-17.

Jesus was crucified and ¨died¨. The great promise of one who would redeem Israel´s raceseemed to have disappeared. His disciples were daunted, their spirits broken or low. Theirmaster and motivator had left them. What about the promised comforter? It is true that he hadpromised to send a comforter but they had not received it yet. The daily joys and rituals ofbeing a disciple of Jesus have disappeared. The daily cares of life and family had to be facednow. What' to do now? Life must go on. ¨I go fishing¨ Peter said, returning to the old ways.¨We are going with you¨ the others said. They set out in darkness and resignation, back to thelife they knew before Jesus called them to be fishers of men instead of fishermen.

All night they toiled and caught nothing. When the morning came, Jesus stood on the shore andasked them ¨do you have any meat?¨ When they answered him ¨no¨, he said ¨cast your net onthe right side and ye shall find¨. So said, so done. Their catch was so heavy that they were´unable´ to bring it in for the multitude of fish. When they brought the net to shore, afterfollowing the direction of their risen Lord, they found it not broken but ready for the nextoverwhelming catch. When they reached the shore they saw a fire of coals there ¨with fish andbread laid thereon. The Lord had already prepared sustenance for them. In the same way, onthis and other mornings and days, loving hands, sometimes with slender physical resources,have already prepared sustenance for our conference delegates.

As our delegates go through the day today there will be many conversations about the work ofthe Lord. There may be reports and stories of times when no fish is caught after toiling all year.Their may be talk of sheep being lost from the flock. It is my hope that there be also talk ofcasting nets on other sides (including the Internet). I pray that my brethren and our Methodistcommunion will also tell our own stories of people and new possibilities being caught,nourished and lifted up by our loving caring hands

Today

As you care, share The Thought TodayAshley R Cain


A Sending OutSt Mark 6: 7-12

Today it is Sunday and the South Caribbean Methodist communion at the District Conference will go out to the various congregation in Tobago to share in worship on the Lordś day. Some will preach the word. Some will teach. All will sing praises to God. Some may even do special songs as the local congregations desires. All will bring greetings to their hosts and share testimonies of the love of God. The local congregations to whom they go will welcome them with anticipation and share or extend a hand of Christian fellowship.

After the various services they will share with their hosts things about themselves, their congregations and their countries. Some new friendships may be made and the local congregations will get a feel for how the work is going in other countries. There may be physical refreshments but more importantly it is an opportunity for both host and guests to learn from each other how the word is shared in different congregations. Something seen or heard today, will be brought back to another congregation, to help strengthen the work, in the vineyard of the Southern Caribbean. It is an opportunity for renewal of our spiritual resources and common bond.

Almost 2000 years go there was another ¨sending out¨ in the name of the Lord. St Mark 6: 7-12 tells us of another such sending out – the sending out of the twelve disciples. They were chosen and destined to learn from him and with him and to carry his message of salvation to all parts of the earth. Jesus sent them out by the two´s. He empowered them for the journey. He gave them power over unclean spirits. They were to take with them no encumbrance or anything that would distract them from their task. They were to take only a staff and go among people who they did not know.

They were to take no scrip - no standard written message or formula applicable to any and everyone. They were to take no bread nor money (to buy bread nor be stolen) but to rely on the goodwill and providence of God and others. They were to take sandals and not even carry a change of clothing (travel light). When they entered or were welcomed into a house, they were to abide there until they departed from the place. When they expressed concerns about people not welcoming them he told them, lest they worried, that ¨for whoever did not receive them nor hear them, it were better for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement than for them.¨ If they were treated badly, this way, they were to shake even the dust of that place from off their feet as a testimony against them.

The disciples went forth in obedience to the Lordś commands and preached that men should repent. With what result? They cast out or freed many persons from the devils which bound them. They anointed with oil and healed many who were sick. They demonstrated the power of God to work mighty deeds with and through people who ¨travel with spiritual lightness” unencumbered by cares which distract from the greater work at hand – the harvest of the souls of men. Let us pray that our leaders and friends at the District Conference, and us who share their mission ,can also ¨travel light¨ in the service of our Lord and people, so that ¨waters may turn into wine and sight return to the blind¨

TodayAs you care, share The Thought TodayAshley R Cain


The Business Of CommitteesActs 6: 1 – 8

The Southern Caribbean District Conference of the Methodist Church continues today in Tobago. Let me say thank you to all who have joined me in lifting up this Conference to God in prayer. May our prayers help to deepen and strengthen the work of the people called Methodists in this region, as they work their way, methodically, through the Conference agenda.

As the Conference has progressed, the delegates and leaders have been systematic and orderly in examining and making decisions on the various aspects of the church's work. They would have examined the challenges and issues faced by our church and its work among God's people in the region. The various committees have met in sessions and are agreeing on how to spread and expand the Lord's work - making disciples of all men.

As I reflected on this aspect of the Conference, I am taken back to the beginning. After the Holy Spirit had fallen on the gathering at Pentecost, the witness of the disciples multiplied. Greater order and organisation had to be brought into the life of the early church for it to be effective in its work and witness. Acts 6:1-8 tells us how the early apostles responded to to this challenge.

“And in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration”. As a result , the leaders (the twelve disciples) called the multitude (congregation) and said, “It is not reason(right) that we should leave the (spreading of ) word of God and serve tables. Look therefore among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over the business. As for us (disciples) we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The model was firmly established. The work of the church multiplied and its number grew.

Our own founder John Wesley, after “making the world his Parish”, put in place a system of classes (committees of members) to share and expand the work. As the spirit gave gifts in the early days to those believers, so did it give gifts to the people of John Wesley's day. Whenever this model was repeated in any church, the same thing resulted. The work was multiplied as well as its fruits among the people and lands.

Today, we the people called Methodists are weighed down by declining membership, low resources and other challenges. Let us therefore pray, in our Conference and District, for the Holy Spirit to come among us more fully, through the sharing of the work with other hands. As we lift up our leaders in prayer, may the “busyness” and business of our various committees, help us to lift up new life giving possibilities among our people

Today

As you care, share The Thought Today Ashley R Cain


Of Walking Humbly With Your GodEcclesiastes 1: 2-11

Today, as I lift up the Methodist District Conference in prayer, during my lunch break, there is steady but light rainfall. I remember that, for me, this gentle falling of rainfall has, for some time now, been a sign of reassurance that a matter which was of concern to me will be resolved satisfactorily - “rain in due season”. Earlier this morning, I had taken my random “proof” from the Bible and opened at Ecclesiastes 1: 2-11. It has rested on my mind during the morning.

“Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity” what a strange thought? “What profit hath a man of all of his labour which he has taken under the sun? One generation passeth away and another cometh? The sun riseth and goeth down? The wind goeth south then turneth north, whirls about continually and returneth again according to its circuits? All the rivers run to the sea yet the sea is not full because the rivers return to the place from which they came? All things are full of labour? The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing? The thing that hath been it is that which shall be? That which is done is that which shall be done? There is no new thing under the sun? Is it really true that what is before us hath already been of old time? Is there truly no remembrance of former things, neither any remembrance of that are to come with those which shall come after?” What am I to make of this passage?

Our various congregations are grouped together in Circuits – Ebenezer, Mt Coke-Georgetown, Bethel, Tobago, etc.. It is in these Circuits that the Ministers of the Conference and lay representatives labour to bring good news of God's salvation and love, to our people. The new or various “stations” of the Ministers, for the next church year may have already been decided at the Conference. A Minister may be in one Circuit today and learn (in this same Conference) that he or she must move to another part of the Lord's vineyard by year end.

As I pondered these mysteries, I wondered and enquired of the Lord. What does your word for me today mean for us as Methodists? Does it mean that all the deliberations of the Conference are as “sounding brass”, an exercise in futility? Are our delegates and us being burdened with cares and concerns for which there is little hope of a solution? From what should we draw hope and sustenance or even continue to plan and pray for the work to continue and grow? Is it vanity of vanities, all vanity?

I hear outside the swish of vehicles splashing through water on the road. I look outside again. The rain continues to fall lightly. The hills are all covered in clouds. This could be any wet day in the middle of the rainy season. I pondered and asked myself. “If the falling rain, in this due (dry) season is the usual sign to me, then why should my 'heart be heavy and my soul thrown down' by the concerns expressed above? Why not have instead a blessed assurance that the Lord will equip his people with the gifts required to further his kingdom on earth?”

I turned to the end of the Book of Ecclesiastes and found there 'the word in due season'. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole (of the) duty of Man”TodayAs you care, share The Thought Today Ashley R Cain


A Turning of the SodSt John 15 : 1-17

It is 6.50 a.m. My humble hoe lifts and falls as I shape the ridges for the next crop. Soon I must leave this task to head off for work at the office. As I till the soil my thoughts are on the South Caribbean District Conference of the Methodist Church. I lift it up in prayer and I say to myself that the end is near. By now most of the decisions have been made and preparations are in train for people to return to their various Vineyards. Soon the volunteers and other who have provided support, will have to bid their various farewells. Like Peter and the disciples on the mountaintops, it will soon be time for the delegates to return to the various plains of their lives, to continue the work and to carry forward decisions made in Tobago.

As I turned the sod, a sweet potato, buried in the soil from a previous planting, came up. I thought about the sweet potato which grows from a vine and found my Thought for Today and the meditation to share with my brethren who have joined me in lifting this Conference up to God. The words came. “I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman”. I looked at the land before me. On one hand was the portion which I had already completed - neat and orderly, soft and yielding, ready and full of potential to produce any crop which I chose to plant. Next to it was the unworked portion. Though it was already “ranged” (lined up on the contours for an efficient “covering”- reworking) it was a stark contrast to the worked portion. If left in this state the weeds will overcome it, the soil will be washed away by rain and no good crop will come from it.

I left home, journeyed to my office (which I will change today, after seven years, for another) settled in, then reached for the Bible on my desk. I searched for the reference with the thought in my mind. In St John 15: 1-7 I found the following:

"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you,you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples”.

"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another”.

It is my prayer that my Methodist Brethren at the Conference, throughout our region and I learn, again, that our efforts and us will not bear fruit unless we always abide in the true vineTodayAs you Care Share The Thought TodayAshley R Cain


The Whole Armour or Resources of GodEphesians 6: 10-20

Today, my brethren at the Southern Caribbean Methodist District Conference make their way to their various homes and country. The deliberations have been made, decisions arrived at, commitments given, “charges to keep “ have been issued or given. New ideas are in the minds which must be implemented under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The challenges are many and daunting. The mission field may even appear overwhelming. Now is the time to “roll round with the years until the master appears”. I thank God for the Conference and his renewing of our delegates.

As I thought about them, I asked myself. What final word or offering can I bring as my brethren return to the mission fields in their various communities? The Thought Today came to me - “The Whole Armour or Resources of God”. I then remembered that Paul, writing to the brethren at the church of Ephesus, admonishing them to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might”. I also remembered that I once made a note to write a Thought Today reflection on the Whole Armour of God or Resources of God, but never did. As I reread the passage, it dawned on me that it is a fitting thought for my brethren who return from the Conference to the mission fields of the Southern Caribbean.

What was St Paul saying at Ephesus? “Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might'. I thought about the many times when I have tried to be strong in my own might. I have had a “form of godliness” but denied the power which comes from abiding in the vine. “Put on the whole armour of God that you may withstand the wiles of the devil”? “We wrestle not against principalities and powers but against spiritual wickedness in high places”? “Take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand”?

As I continued reading, I thought about the many challenges which we face not only in our daily lives but also in our personal walks with God. We constantly fight a battle for physical survival but an even greater battle of the spirit, through our various life experiences. As our delegates return from the “spiritual mountaintop” of the conference they will soon have to re-engage in the challenges of our daily lives. The work of the Lord may be hard sometimes, there may be times when no fish is caught despite our best efforts. Our “mustard seed faith” may appear inadequate.

The message of Paul is clear and a clarion call. “Girt our loins with truth. Put on our breastplate of righteousness, shod our feet with the “preparation of the gospel of peace”. “Take the shield of faith (and not lose heart) to quench fiery darts from the wicked”. “Take a helmet of salvation. Take the word of God – The sword of the spirit”. “Pray always in the spirit with all prayer and supplication, with perseverance.” Finally, “pray for me the preacher that my utterances become a clear message, spoken with boldness, to make plain the mystery of the Gospel.”

As our brethren make their various ways back to us, our song today is hymn numbered 484 in the Methodist Hymn Book – “Soldiers of Christ Arise and Put Your Armour On”. I pray that we too put on our own armour

Today(As we care share The Thought Today)Ashley R Cain


A Dry Thirsty LandIsaiah 35: 6-7

This 20th day of March 2011 is the day after we buried our mother Joyce Agatha Cain who lived to the ripe age of 94 years. As I rise from my rest, my thoughts go to the departure of Brother Lincoln ( as he returns to New York) and the conversations we had over this weekend of grief and bereavement.

I recall our discussions on the Thought Today series. I also recall our discussions with and about his “estranged” son – Lincoln Jr. and the tensions arising from the life choices of a father's son which run counter to the father's will. As I reflected, the words in the song “He Hideth My Soul” - 'A dry thirsty land' kept coming to my thoughts.

As I recollected the stories and experiences in New York which my brother shared with me, I could not help thinking of his need for streams of cooling waters in a desert land. I heard, inter alia: his stories of struggle and sacrifice to keep life and limb, the constant need to work long hours at several jobs, the longing for quiet places in which to restore one's soul. I also heard of the pursuit of material things to assuage a deeper spiritual longing, as the dream of the better life becomes engulfed in global recession and the strident emergence of other countries and nations on the international stage.

With mixed emotions, my thoughts turned to our own land of St Vincent and the Grenadines. As the number of churches increase and proliferate, it is accompanied by a bitter sowing of dissidence. From youth to politician, Talk Show hosts to receptive nation, people locked into immovable and immalleable positions behind special interests and rhetorical dialectical discourses of an often sterile kind repeated ad nauseum to captive congregations and communities. As the rain falls, even in the dry season, I think of a people who have become as parched and brittle as dried out twigs, waiting to be snapped underfoot or consumed in a veritable flame fired by a “bonfire of the vanities”.

As I pondered the increasing dryness of our dry season and a spiritual drought in the land, I thought that, not only my brother in New York, but here in St Vincent land, we too have a need for streams of cooling waters to flow in a dry thirsty land. I return to the word of Isaiah 35: 6 -7 and the promises made there. “The desert land shall rejoice and blossom abundantly, as the rose, as they see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of God. Eyes of the blind shall open, deaf ears shall hear once again, waters break out in the wilderness and streams in the desert shall flow.”

How I wish that “the power of the Lord shall flow once more and his people will languish no more, Lions may lie with the lambs and days spent with war no more and waters be turned to wine”. How I wish for God's spirit to come on “a dry thirsty land”

Today

Ashley R Cain(As you care, share The Thought Today)


A Going Away or A Prayer For The Spirit To ComeLuke 24: 44-49, Acts 2:1-21

Monday 6th June 2011, about the thirteenth hour of the day, I wind my way to “Heritage Square” in Kingstown St Vincent. As I crossed the bridge at Middle Street, I became aware of a gathering of people. I was first struck by the sight of about 20 policemen standing in “Heritage Square”. This recently christened Heritage Square, has now become the place for weekly Friday evening bacchanalia as young and not so young men and women practice their various arts of seduction and otherwise at the end of a varied week.

Sometimes, a promoter gets into the act and spirituous liquors lift the mood and the passions to a point of frenzied excitement and earthly bliss. It is also the site for carnival bars and riotous behavior as revelers, some bleary eyed from lack of sleep or otherwise, congregate in our annual sacrifices to Bacchus – the God of wine and revelry. It is also the site where, when a more “noble” cause is put on public show, bored and indifferent passersby cast fleeting glances at the ones on show. So Teachers Union Solidarity marches and other causes wind their lonely ways through the streets of Kingstown to this new shrine of national concerns and celebration.

As I looked in wonderment, I heard the muted sound of a microphone. Then it dawned on me. Vaguely I remembered that today is a “National Day of Prayer at Reconciliation”. With my usual reverence for things sacred not profane, I stopped, stood with head bowed and listened as the speaker finished his prayer. I scanned the crowd of about a hundred persons or so and looked beyond the stage to an ever darkening cloud which seemed ready to burst in showers on our blessed land. Concerned about the Zurich Flu which had dogged me the last four days, I eased into the shelter of the Blue Caribbean building as the voices of religious leaders (praying for reconciliation, love, and national healing) continued in my ears.

As I listened, I heard the poignant agony of a country's prayer for a spirit of strife and bitterness to go away, for swords to be changed to plowshares, for lions to lie with the lambs and for the righteousness of God to flow again in a dry thirsty land. As I pondered the chances of this happening in my land, in this Whitsuntide season, I am taken back to another time of prayers for the Holy (comforting) Spirit to come.

Jesus was crucified and buried. The glorious promise of a brighter day appeared dim and lost. It was back to the old ways. Where was the promised salvation of Israel? In the midst of this crisis came the resurrected Jesus with the words. “Behold I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry you in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high”.

Thus it was that on the day of Pentecost, when they were in one accord, in one place, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. They began to speak with other tongues as the new spirit gave them utterance. Each man heard, in his own language, the good news of God's power to redeem each man in each land.

As I looked at the leaders of our various Christian Communions and nation on the witness stand, I prayed “Lord, how I wish, for your spirit to fall again in this land



Sing AnywayActs 16:16-34

One day last week as I drove into Kingstown for work, I remembered my dead father Phillip Cain and a story which he told me of a time when was in hospital in Aruba. He had an accident which resulted in his losing part of a finger. The hospital was run by Roman Catholic nuns who provided care for the patients. They had very strict rules on maintaining silence on their wards.

As he lay there, God's spirit moved in him and he felt compelled to sing of God's goodness. Imagine his surprise when a nun came over and rebuked him, in Dutch, about his singing. Even though he did not know the language very well, he understood enough to know that she was very displeased with his singing on the ward. His desire to praise God in song was too strong for him to stop. He continued to sing anyway. As I thought about his experience on the ward, I was reminded of another time nearly two thousand years ago when two men who were imprisoned for their faith decided to sing anyway.

The story is told in Acts 16:16-34. A young lady who had a spirit of divination met and followed Paul and Silas. Her ability to sense and understand deep spiritual truths led her to declare to all and sundry that Paul and Silas were servants of the most high God who were showing the people the way to salvation. After several days of being followed in this way, Paul turned to her and commanded the spirit of divination to leave the young lady in the name of Jesus Christ. The Spirit obeyed, Hallelujah!. It departed from the young lady.

What a great relief for Paul,Silas and the young lady herself . End of Story? It would have been the end of the story if the young lady was not being used by others to make money. Suddenly their valuable source of income had dried up. With great vexation, her handlers took hold of Paul and Silas, brought them before the magistrates, and had them arrested for creating mischief in the city. They were able to so incite the crowds against Paul that the Magistrates commanded that Paul and Silas be beaten and imprisoned. The jailor was given strict instructions to ensure that they did not escape under any circumstances.

The jailor not only put them in the innermost and most secure part of the prison, he shackled their feet in the stocks. All of this for doing good works and proclaiming the gospel of Christ? How did Paul and Silas respond to this injustice? Did they fret, complain, claim wrongful imprisonment or beg to be released? No. Instead they prayed and sang praises to God. All the other prisoners could hear them as they demonstrated their faith in trying circumstances. Suddenly there was a massive earthquake. The prison was shaken. The bonds of the prisoners were broken and they must have fled from the prison to sweet freedom.

Imagine the fear and consternation of the jailor. “Once my prisoners escape I will be put to death” he thought. Let me not wait for that. Let me take my own life, he thought. As he moved to kill himself Paul and Silas stopped him. “Wait. We are still here”. He came to them in disbelief and asked a strange question. “ Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The experience had taught him that Paul and Silas were blessed with a greater spirit and power than mortal man could give. “Believe on the lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house”. When Paul and Silas spoke the word to him and his household, they were all baptised and rejoiced believing in God.

I pray that as we meet and deal with the earth and life shaking circumstances of our lives that we too, like my father Phillip and Paul and Silas, will “sing anyway”Today Ashley R Cain (As you care, share The Thought Today)


My Manna BeExodus16: 2-3, 13-22

At about 4:45 p.m on the 2nd July 2011, I left the task of forking and pruning some ´Goldfinger¨ bananas and headed for my house, about 100 yards away, for a well earned rest from the dayś exertions and labours. With cutlass, scoop and a fertiliser sack containing plantain suckers in hand, I walked past a nutmeg tree,which fell last year during Hurricane Tomas and which I was always promising to cut up but never did. As I looked at the vines growing on it, I purposed in my heart not to leave it undone this time. Hungry and thirsty from my dayś exertions, I looked at my empty water bottle, and made up my mind. I will not let another day pass before I took care of this long-standing task.

As I hacked at the tree trunk and its branches, my nagging hunger and thirst showed up again. As I ignored them, the words of a well known hymn came to me Ï hunger and I thirst, Jesus my manna be, Ye living waters burst out of the rock for me¨. This is very interesting, I thought. Living waters? My Manna be? How curious! As I continued my task, I remembered recent conversations with a dear friend of mine whose ¨world¨ had virtually collapsed under the weight of professional blunders (not of his making) tinged with greed and ündue¨diligence.

Like many persons, in times of deep recession and economic crisis, he had seen his income and financialresources dry up and virtually disappear in two short years. With a promised ¨solution¨ becoming more elusive everyday, I have walked with him, in spirit, through his desert land, as he and others sought the refreshing streams and the cooling balm of the promised ¨Canaan land¨. As he tried to provide solace to others, who had suffered like him, I have watched the wry smile barely disguise the agony within of leading others, reassuringly, through a dry thirsty land.

As I pondered, my memory, took me back to the time when another was leading another group to a new and promised land. With the plagues of Egypt behind him, Moses led the children of Israel through a hard and desert land. After the euphoria of fighting off Egyptian attempts to bring them back to captivity wore off, Moses and his band faced hunger and death in a savage land. The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the ¨wilderness¨. Hunger has a way of shortening our memories of good and more prosperous times. They said, ït is better we had stayed in Egypt land, where would have had food to eat. Why bring us to die of hunger in this desert land?

The rest of the story is well known. God provided manna sufficient to meet their daily needs. For how long? For forty wilderness years, the Lord provided for the needs of the Children of Israel in their time of testing. To what end? ¨That the Children of Israel will know that Man doth not live by bread alone but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live¨. In like manner, I also remembered my friend telling me about receiving an unexpected helping hand when all seemed lost. When he knew not from whence the help will come, almost as miraculously as the manna coming for the Children of Israel, he would receive (as with the daily manna ) sufficient for the needs of him and his little ¨flock¨. As with the manna, it was not enough to store up in elaborate barns, but sufficient for the day and the needs at hand.

As I meditated on this story in the fading light, my task almost at an end, I remembered the words of the well known prayer. ¨Give us this day our daily bread”. I pray that for you and for me, that in all our circumstances, as we hunger and we thirst, that Jesus will truly our manna be

TodayAshley R Cain(As you care, share The Thought Today)


On A New LifeRevelations 21: 5 7

It is 10 p.m. I sit alone in my house as I await the return of my family from their sojourn overseas. In the distance, I hear faintly a singer trying his or her voice at the Karaoke. I hear the hum of my laptop computer and the continuous insistent sound of the cicadas outside. I scrolled through the files on my computer and came across a ¨Full Text of ´the Methodist Hymn Book Illustrated´”. I skimmed through the book with increasing interest and came to the section ¨The Story of the Hymns and their Writers¨.

It begins with a reference by Rev Henry Moore about the genius and taste of Rev. Charles Wesley. I scrolled through with deepening interest and traced, with him, the origins of the first hymn in the Methodist Hymn Book ¨O for a thousand tongues to sing¨. Intrigued, I arose from my seat and retrieved my Hymn Book with the intention of scrutinising it more closely. I was especially struck, nay arrested, by Verse 4. ¨He speaks and listening to his voice new life the dead receive, the mournful broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe¨. The hymn goes on ¨He breaks the power of cancelled sin, he sets the prisoner free, his blood can make the foulest clean, his blood availed for me.¨

I paused and thought deeply. Tomorrow, Sunday 4th September will be the first Sunday in a new church year during which, we as Methodists, will go through the seasons of : Harvest Festivals, Advent and Christmas joys, Easter and resurrection, Aldersgate Rallies and the joys of Whitsuntide (when we celebrate the coming of the promised comforter and indwelling teacher that will bring us into a knowledge of all spiritual things). With this indwelling spirit/comforter, no one will have to teach his brother.

As I reflected on the possibilities of an indwelling spirit bringing and moulding us in Godś own image, I became acutely aware of the tasks and challenges we face as a Methodist Communion in an increasingly secular world. I also remembered that John, in Revelation 21:5 said ¨And he that sat upon the throne said ¨Behold I make all things new. It is done, I the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end will give unto him that is thirsty freely from the fountain of the waters of life. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. I will be his God and he shall be my son¨. My eyes worked backwards to the beginning of the chapter and its telling of a new heaven and a new earth, the coming of the new Jerusalem and the voice declaring that ¨the tabernacles of God is with men, they shall be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God.¨ I thought ¨what a wonderful promise¨.

How then have we, (as a Caribbean Methodist communion,with such a wonderful legacy, backed by Godś promise of regeneration, forgiveness and restoration) lost ¨the joy of our salvation¨? Why do we so often belabour through the very hymns which once had such power that England was transformed, missions covered the world and Education made accessible in St Vincent to common people through Wesley Schools and Mission bands? I trust as we go forward as Methodists, in this new church year, that, through our speaking and our listening to Godś voice, new life will the dead receive, broken hearts rejoice and humble poor believe

TodayAshley R Cain

(As you care, share The Thought Today)


Youth MeetingMark 4:3-20

At 415 p.m on Sunday 5th September, I left home and walked to the Richland Park Methodist Church. My purpose was to have a meeting with the young people of our church. Earlier that day, during the morning service Mrs Ela Davis , the Society Steward, lamented that the youth of the church were no longer meeting regularly. Their numbers had shrunk to one or two persons. I begged her not to give up hope and I gave an undertaking that I will render some assistance. At the back of my thoughts were the words of a coworker who on reading The Thought Today suggested that I don't keep them hidden away but find a way to make them available to a wider Methodist church community

As I walked, I remembered my own days when I was called “Youth” by my Youth Fellowshipmembers because of my involvement in building other young people especially through church and community activities. When I reached the church, I saw Anastasia, one young female member, sitting forlornly in the verandah area. Sister Cheryl, who was passing by, remembered my decision to meet with the young people, and remarked drily “Not too many of them here”

When I joined Stasia on the porch, she offered to go and call others. I agreed. While I waited, myattention was drawn to a great quarrel on a property on the other side of the church wall. I saw a young teenage mother, with child in one hand and a stone in the other, in a heated argument with a young man who was part of a drinking bout on the neighboring porch. With “F” words flying back and forth, she demanded that the young man give her some money to buy Pampers for the their little child who was wearing the same Pampers for the whole day. For almost half an hour, this loud cursing flowed back and forth. His drinking buddies, most of them less than twenty five years old, became a part of the fray. Sometimes they restrained the father from hitting the baby 's mother. At other times they offered their own opinions and curse words of their own.

I left them, after trying to rebuke them, when we were joined by three other youth fellowship members from one household. We started our own Youth meeting with the muffled sounds of the other “Youth Meeting” in our ears. Unsure of how best to go forward with our own meeting, I shared with them experiences and stories from my time which could guide them on how to conduct their own meetings and what is possible through their Youth Fellowship experiences. Almost an hour and a half later, we ended our meeting with a prayer for the Lord to bind us together and an agreement to start preparing for the annual Harvest Cantata in November 2011.

I could sense a new optimism in their spirits, at the close, as new seeds of hope, faith and newpossibilities were planted in their minds and spirits. As we drew comparisons between our youthmeeting and the one next door, I prayed that, as in the well known story of the Sower in Mark's Gospel, new sown seeds of fellowship and love could reach beyond the walls of our church, into the noisy youthful throngs in our villages and towns. I pray that these seeds will grow and prosper with and through youth on purpose and in mission in our world

TodayAs You care, Share The Thought TodayAshley R Cain


On Waking MomentsMark 4:37-39

Have you ever paid attention to the first things which come to your mind when you awake in the morning after a night's rest? Do you awake refreshed and ready for a new day or do you bring into the new day longstanding fears, concerns, deadlines, and other imperatives of the moment? Do you awake with a song in your heart and a spirit that gives you energy and focus throughout the day?

Three days ago, I awoke from my night rest and the first thing that came to me were the words of a song which Brother Winston Bacchus taught us some years ago in choir practice. “Master the tempest is raging, the billows are tossing high,... Peace be still”. As I prepared for work, the song kept going around in my head. In particular were the words “no waters can swallow the ship where lies, the master of heaven and earth and skies. They all shall swiftly obey thy will, peace be still, peace be still.” As I walked around my garden before leaving for work, I thought about the story in the New Testament when his disciples woke Jesus during a fearful storm and he commanded the storm to be still. The winds and waves obeyed him and we have a lesson, through time, when one person's moment of awaking (albeit forcibly) became the basis for calmness and the salvation of others. This lesson set me thinking about other “waking up” moments.

I remembered the story of a son who had asked his father for his inheritance, took it to a far off land and wasted it. There then came a time when he awoke to his poor condition and remembered that his father had riches untold and work in abundance to be done. He left his depraved condition, returned to his father, was welcomed back and greeted with love, had his physical and emotional needs met and his spirit restored.

I also remembered the moment of awaking for a young fisherman, Peter, who heard a call to become a fisher of men. Straightaway he awoke to a new opportunity and challenge, left his net for a new way that eventually led to his death. And what of the young prophet Samuel, the son of Hannah who, in her distress, asked God for a son who she promised to give back to God and did so? Samuel went to bed and was awakened by a voice calling his name three times. On the advice of Eli the priest, he answered the voice when awakened and became one of the greatest prophets of Israel.

I remembered T.F. Powys telling story, in “Lie Thee Down Oddity” of Andre Cronch, who at crunch time would have “wake up calls” which led him to do good deeds. In one such instance he took off his hat and stepped forward to join and comfort a terrified workman, who was about to be crushed to death by a falling chimney.

And what of John Wesley. At Aldersgate, he had a waking up moment of his own. He felt his heart strangely warmed, received an assurance that he was saved and knew it to be true. That waking moment led to a spiritual fire across England and into the world. Thousands of sermons were preached. An enviable body of religious writings was produced. Fires were lit in congregations across the world. A legacy of religious music and thoughts were produced and have sustained millions of people since then.The history of the Christian Church and even our own time, is littered by instances and persons who have had a moment of waking that led them to touch the world. I trust that as we go through our own times and seasons that we also experience our own moments of waking

TodayAs You care, Share The Thought TodayAshley R Cain


Of Vines and VineyardsJohn 15:1-7

This morning before, I headed off for work, I applied myself to the task of preparing some trellises for a plot of cucumbers whose vines were ready to “run”. As I ran the twine between the poles, my thoughts went back to the previous night. At around 9.00 p.m. I scanned the FM channels on my small transistor radio to hear what was being discussed by our people. Whether it was the small size of the radio or its location in the house, I kept finding the broadcast from Nice Radio, and Douglas De Freitas telling his listeners of a program which he was about to have with a special guest. I left the radio on 96.7 FM and returned to reading my computer book UNIX A Complete Reference. With half my mind on the book, I heard his guest “Girlie” tell an intriguing and moving story of her struggles with an addiction to cocaine and her efforts to deal triumphantly with it.

I became fascinated by the story. She told us that one night, at the height of her addiction and life on the streets of Kingstown, St Vincent, she accepted the invitation of a male stranger to walk with her on the nearby beach. Sensing an opportunity to make some money from this walk in the dark, she went with him. It turned out, instead, to be the beginning of a life changing conversation. That night she came face to face with a man who, like Jesus at the well, did not condemn her. Instead, he became the means whereby she was eventually brought to the point in her life when she carried the sin of addiction and prostitution no more. Her new companion and eventual husband was a farmer. He took her away from the city life. Like the true husbandman in a vineyard, he carefully tended and supported her on his farm and the open spaces of Layou Mountains. Whenever she returned to her old ways, he would gently bring her back and tend her with the type of tenderness which a good farmer gives to his crop in order to obtain the best yield.

I thought deeply about the story. As I wound the twine on my stakes, the spirit led me back to the time in St John's Gospel (15:1-8) when Jesus, using the common things of his day, enlightened his disciples about the ways of the new Kingdom of God and the new life giving possibilities for which he came to earth. Jesus was coming to a point of fulfillment of his earthly mission. The pace was intensifying as his date with destiny drew near. As the Gospel of John tells us, he used the common things of his day to teach the common people, who had become his disciples, about the the kingdom of God, its demands, and its possibilities for redemptive action in the lives of all people. “Whosoever will may come” to new life giving relationships and possibilities with God, Neighbor and Community.

As I wound the string and maneuvered among the tender fragile vine plants, it occurred to me that the same loving tenderness which that farmer applied to healing and restoring his wife to be, can be compared to the way in which our heavenly father brings us to a deeper knowing of ourselves and the demands of a kingdom of love. The farmer nurtures the fragile vine and the vine flowers in splendor and bears fruit which become a testimony to those who will taste of it. So too do we live and work in vineyards where our heavenly father nurtures and cares for his children who would remain in the vine.

As I worked in the gently falling rain, I remembered the testimonies of persons, including the Commissioner of Police, about their experiences with Girlie the Addict and their great joy that her story can become an inspiration to others. One listener in cyberspace offered to bring her to his own land to share her moving testimony. I left the twining of my cucumbers with humility and thankfulness that Our Father and Jesus, uses the simple common things of our lives and the experiences of imperfect sinful people, as testimony of a deep, abiding and constant love which continually seeks us out (despite ourselves) to bring us into new life giving possibilities. May you and I, like Girlie be also pruned to abide in the true and living vine and be stories to win others

Today

As you care, Share the Thought Today Ashley R Cain


Of Swords and PloughsharesIsaiah 2:4

As we approach the celebration of our 32nd year of independence as a nation, my thoughts turn to the ship of state and the ways in which we make our way in the world as a people and nation. We face a daunting global situation which promises to get worse before it gets better. The prospects for our banana industry are still challenging as we restart aerial spraying of bananas in an effort to control the Black Sigatoka disease which has devastated the livelihoods of most of our banana farmers. For us who produce the crop, it is time to roll up our shirt sleeves, bend our collective backs and learn again how to grow bananas competitively in this new environment. It is an environment in which the “business” culture takes no prisoners. If we cannot compete on quality, on technology and with ruthlessness of purpose, the future is bleak.

For the next two days my colleagues and I in the Ministry of Agriculture will look at “strategic actions” and a “medium term framework” to revitalize, re-energize and redirect our agricultural industry. We will meet with those who have various hands on the agricultural stake to see if we can attain a common position and agreement on how to go forward with this most crucial aspect of our lives. The public who hears our announcement of this event may ask “to what end?” Are we fiddling while the proverbial

Rome burns among our partying and riotous lifestyles? Will our sober deliberations in a Methodist Church Hall receive the divine blessing and inspiration we need? Will we be endued with the “faith that will see us through whate’er the future brings”? Will the spirit of God flow among us so that we prepare for the greater good and rebuild real options for healthy and sustainable livelihoods in the rural and urban communities which we now see roll back into physical and spiritual poverty?

As we become increasingly pre-occupied with leisure and easy living, are we learning the discipline and toughness to make us manage our natural resources in a sustainable way? Or will we speculate on the financial potentials of our best lands, turn them to houses and other needs and deny ourselves the ability to meet our food needs, in strong rural communities, when the price of oil and energy threaten and put our increasingly affluent lifestyles to the test?

And what of our new found affluence? From whence it comes or whither it goes? From dreams of youth and older men on monkey mountains? What of the latest spate of murders and choppings reported so graphically in our news media? What of the pleasures which we pursue in and with our new media and communications technologies? What of the ease with which a better educated young population learn and acquire a deviance, from the true and good, which if left unbridled, threatens and AIDS - the destruction of the flowers of our nation, before they become seed full fruit to carry us as a people through time?

As I pondered our various possible futures as an independent nation, in a world where the challenge is economic warfare and pursuit of national interests, my thoughts go back to the prophecy in Isaiah 2:4. “And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” As our communities languish and the seeds of our own potential destruction are propagated, I pray that a new faith in God and ourselves can see us through to a future as Isaiah envisioned it. May we change our crossing of words into sharing of our plows. May peace reign from shore to shore and God see us through always

Today

As you care, Share The Thought Today

Ashley R Cain


True Valour See - Rev. Cornelius Matthias HarrySt. Mark 16:14 - 22

Early this morning, as I prepared some land for some cucumber vines, before heading off to work, my thoughts went back to a momentous occasion yesterday when we bid farewell to Reverend Cornelius Harry and his wife Auntie Cecile. We also bid farewell to Rev. Caliste and Rev. Yashel Watson, two ministers in training who, after a time of working in our spiritual vineyard, were returning to studies at UTCWI in Jamaica with new perspectives and clearer ideas of their roles and mission in shepherding the people called methodists in the South Caribbean lands.

At a time of joy and sadness, we paid our respects and gave tributes to the contributions of those who we were sending to other mission fields. As for Rev. Cornelius Matthias Harry, he is heading to Tobago for a new Station in September. I listened to the many true and glowing tributes to a man who never failed to keep a preaching appointment in twenty seven years of ministry as a local preacher and fully accredited Methodist Minister in the Mt Coke to Georgetown Circuit. Through sickness and pain, he was as reliable as the flow of sea to shore. Indeed, I smiled when one speaker described him as Committed, Optimist, Reliable, Noble, Effervescent, Loving, Inspiring, Unassuming, Supportive CORNELIUS.

I heard him described as a veritable tower of strength in our methodist communities and a man who ‘in his time played several parts’ - school teacher, farmer, Youth Worker, indefatigable preacher, pillar of the community, organiser and Director of Annual Methodist Youth Camps, mentor of Courtney Williams (our representative sprinter at the London 2012 Olympics) and others, too numerous to mention. With a calm yet serious demeanor, he has shown us, with his life, an example of the highest Christian Virtue in action.

Like Elijah and Elisha, I listened him recall Rev. Victor Job (who shared the platform with him yesterday) telling him, nearly thirty years ago, of the Methodist Church’s need for local preachers. He answered the call and became a blessing to a community and generation. Whilst he is well known for the depth of his preaching, his involvement with the Methodist Youth Camps, outings, and fund raising Boat Rides is also legendary.

As I considered the imminent departure of my spiritual brother to a new mission field, the words of the well known hymn by John Bunyan came to me “Who would true valour see, let him come hither, One here will constant be, come wind come weather. There’s no discouragement, shall make him once relent, his first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.” That writer, had he known Rev. Cornelius Harry, would have said, “there goes a man of whom I speak, who will not fear what men say, but will labour night and day, to not only be a pilgrim but also to lead others to be pilgrims on the Christian way”.

As I pondered his valour and contribution to our lives, I recalled Jesus’ story of the mustard seed and his admonition to us that, if we have the faith of a mustard seed, we will be able to say to the mountains in our lives “be ye cast cast into the sea”. Rev. Harry’s journey among us has shown the quality of spirit which leads to sermons preached without fail, children led in a right path and enduring memories of loving service which lifts one and others, above and beyond the call of selfishness, to a healing care of a brother, sister, neighbour, stranger or friend.

With his characteristic love of youth, he who led the annual youth camps for years implored us to never let the Annual Youth Camp ministry die. May the same Spirit of God in our brother and friend also lead us to also our own true valor seeTodayAshley R Cain (As You Care, Share The Thought Today)

21/08/12Here’s To Eternal Life For All

Isaiah 55Tonight as I listened to local talk radio, I reviewed some possible subjects to write on in the Thought Today series of reflections. Most of them were listed on 10/12/09 but were never written. As I searched for the appropriate scriptural references to accompany the reflections, I came across Isaiah 55. I was stopped, nay arrested by the caption “An Invitation to Abundant Life”. I read its clarion call “To everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. You who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk,without money and without price”.

As I considered the various economic challenges which confront us increasingly each day, I mused “wouldn’t this be heavenly if this could be real in the lives of all people everywhere? After all these challenges bombard us every day whether as banana farrier, civil servant, business person or unemployed seeking an opportunity to keep life and limb together. With such daunting challenges and pressing concerns, abundant life, as promised , should be pursued with vigor and as a priority.

I returned to my reading of the text to discover what type of abundant life was on offer. ‘Why spend money for what is not bread and wages for what does satisfy? Eat what is good. Let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear. Come to me. Hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you. Indeed, I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people. Surely you shall call a nation you do not know. Nations who do not know you shall run to you because of the Lord your God and the holy one of Israel, for he has glorified you.”

As I read the rest of the chapter, I kept hearing the voices of my deceased mother and father, methodists like Rhoda John and others who cared enough to mentor and lead enquiring youth like me to “seek the Lord while he may be found” (even in the days of your youth).

For the first time, it struck me from whence came those memorable words, which I heard so often in my youth and emergence into manhood “Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his ways, the unrighteous his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon”. I read on through the all too familiar words “for my thoughts are not your thoughts nor your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts”.

I read through “As the rain and snow come down from heaven and waters the earth, makes it bring forth and bud and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word not return to me void but accomplish what I please. With joy will you go out and in peace mountains and hills will break into singing and all trees of the field shall clap their hands. Valuable cypress trees will grow instead of thorns and myrtle trees will come up instead of briers” It shall all be to the Lord for a name for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

I could not contain myself. I had to read on to Isaiah 56 and God’s wonderful promise to extend his offer of new life giving possibilities to all gentile people who were not rightful heirs to the covenant between god and the Jewish children of promise. The “son of a foreigner” who had joined himself to the Lord in a perpetual covenant shall be given a place and a name in the house of the /lord better than that of sons and daughters. The promise to them is “I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offering will be accepted on my altar and “my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

As I pondered the words of Isaiah I reflected on the loving kindness of an almighty God who offers eternal life to Jew and Gentile Today.

As You Care , Share The Thought Today


A Time AwayLuke 5 : 12 - 16

Tonight, as I pondered the writing of The Thought Today, I was led to the account in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus cleansed a man of his leprosy. (Interestingly, the story is also told in Mark 1:40-45 and Matthew 8:1-4). Jesus had just come down from the mountain where he took time away from the multitude to pray. Before that time away, he had withstood the temptations of the Devil. After that time of temptation and testing, he called his select band of disciples and launched his teaching and healing ministry.

His fame became so great and he was in such great demand, that crowds followed him wherever he went. It was the time when he delivered his well known Sermon on the Mount. He spoke, to the large crowd following him, of salt and light, his being the fulfillment of the Law, murder and adultery beginning in the heart, going the second mile, love for enemies and the teaching of the now famous and beloved “Lord’s Prayer”. “One’s fasting should be seen by God only. We should seek to store up treasures in heaven and not worry unduly about food and clothing”.

He also taught them about the power and importance of persistence in our asking, seeking and knocking at the doors of salvation. Unlike the broad road which leads to the soul’s destruction, narrow is the way to salvation. We need to build our life’s foundations on the spiritual rock which can withstand the floods, winds and varied storms of life. As I read the sermon on the mount, I felt exhausted by the depth and breadth of its teaching.

After his delivery of the Sermon on the Mount, and his authoritative teaching, he came down from the Mount and cleansed a leper who was ostracized from normal life and society by his disease. The leper believed that if it were the will of Jesus, even an outcast like himself could be healed of his illness and restored to a right and normal relationship with his brethren and people.

While Matthew’s gospel continues his telling of the healing ability and power of Jesus over spiritual and forces, Mark tells us that such healing power led many people to seek Jesus wherever he went. As a result, Jesus could not enter a city in peace. He often had to take a time away (in deserted places). Even then, the people sought after him from every direction and place.

As I thought about these experiences of Jesus, I recalled the many times when Jesus went away to pray and commune with his heavenly father. For him it was a time away to refocus, for deep communion with his heavenly father, time for understanding of life and mission, time to journey through self, to regroup, restore energy and perspective and to lay aside cares and concerns. It was also time away to clarify purpose and mission, time for strengthening of will and periods of intense intimacy with the true abiding and sustaining love and focus of his life and living.

As I remembered this story, I thought of my own personal withdrawals to quiet spaces, even in the midst of bustling crowds. I remembered days spent alone in a banana field, quiet reflections by a stream whose gurgling waters faded into silence, as the spirit became still, even in the middle of struggle and discord. I also recalled David’s memory of a God who led him beside still waters for the restoration of the soul.

I also remembered Jesus time away (transfigured) on a mountain with Moses and Elijah. The disciples who witnessed it wanted to build lasting monuments to their mountain top experiences. I remembered Jesus own rebuke to them that beyond the mountaintop experience a world beckons. There are people in need of healing and solace and their own invitations to find and know their own mountain tops and spiritual centers grounded in the presence of an almighty and loving God. I trust that as you and I make our ways through the ever-present chords and cords of a life to be lived, that we, like Jesus, in preparation for our missions take the opportunities for our own times away Today.As You Care, Share The Thought Today Ashley R. Cain


Beyond The Choking WeedSt Matthew 13:13, Mark 4:13, Luke 8:5, Isaiah 55:10

I am often amazed by the way Jesus’ used the common things of his day to draw out deep lessons and meanings for life and living for his followers and listeners. As one trained in agriculture, his references to plants always find a receptive spot within me. For those of us who live in lush tropical environments and who engage in agriculture, weeds have an amazing capacity to establish themselves, grow quickly, produce seed and proliferate once the conditions are good. Because their life cycles are relatively short, if we do not tend to weeds carefully, they may also persist on our valuable soil (land), even for generations.

When this happens, such weeds make the production of worthwhile crops a never ending chore. They become a burden which may sap our energies and lead us to abandon the worthy enterprises of producing food and livelihoods for ourselves and others. If we are not vigilant and tend carefully to our crop, we may lose our investment of time and money. Vining weeds are especially interesting. Despite their apparent frailty and because of their ability to climb on others, they can reach great heights and choke the very plants which allow them to climb to the heights attained..

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells a parable about a sower who went out to sow wheat. Given the smallness of the seed and the need to sow it during a short planting season, the normal method was to broadcast the seed on the land instead of placing it in precise holes. When seed is sown that way, they have to compete with other plants, weeds included, on the land. As farmers know too well, weeds, which have shorter life cycles than the crops we are sowing, may overtake, choke and even kill the good seed which we sowed. Left untended, the farmer has less yield and may even lose his entire investment in the worthy enterprise.

The disciples of Jesus must have wondered about the meanings of this parable. All three Gospel accounts give us an explanation of the parable of the sower. The seed which fell by the wayside is likened to one who hears the message, does not understand it enough to keep it growing inside and it is easily taken away or lost. The seed on stony ground, is one in whom the word of life takes root but comes upon hard, impermeable growing media which do not sustain the life of the seedling. It loses its vigor and dies.

The seed which fell among the choking weed is likened to seed that germinated and grew well for a while in competition with other plants on the land but eventually became choked and killed by a more aggressive and focused competitor. Although they twist and turn, their competitors narrow the space within which they can maneuver and thrive and they eventually die.

For many of us, we struggle for deeper faith and life among the choking weeds of illness, rising prices, ‘alternative lifestyles’, declining incomes from agriculture and other business endeavors, loss of faith in civic and political leaders, even increasing affluence and the new “needs” which we embrace gladly at first, then become addicted to as the focus of our lives and resources.

I pray that, in our life’s garden, we become and remain God’s good stewards and husbandmen, as the Spirit of God leads and enables us to grow past and beyond our various weeds and choking vines. May the words of the prophet Isaiah be manifest in our lives and be as the rain and waters from heaven which watereth the earth, bring forth the bud, give seed to the sower, bread to the eater. May hills break forth in singing, trees clap their hands, and fir trees instead of thorns be to the Lord for a name and an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off

TodayAshley R Cain(As You Care, Share The Thought Today)


Thy Word Is My DelightPsalms 119: 105, 9-16

As I returned this morning from the Kingstown Preparatory School where I left 5 year old Ronaldo, my wife’s nephew who lives with me, I observed the Allamanda plants growing along the Ministry of Agriculture’s fence. They were trimmed on the inside but left undisturbed on the outside, where they overhung the public road leading to the several schools in this area. You had to virtually step into the road to see the oncoming traffic. As I considered the risks to children and adults exiting the compound, I mused. It seems to be a norm for us to be casual in doing our work in ways which put others at risk.

As I reached the steps which would take me to the upper floor of the building, my eyes wandered across the street and were arrested by the sight of retired Anglican Archbishop Cuthbert Woodroffe. He sat in his chair on the verandah with his Bible open in his hands. As I looked at him, I remembered the many times when, from my previous office in the Agricultural Diversification Unit, I looked out my window and across the road and saw him, Bible in hand, studying the holy word.

Oftentimes he was accompanied by his wife as they read together. Sometimes, their reflections and reading were interrupted by the occasional visitor or the helper who came to provide them some sustenance or to address some other need. Even from a distance, I could see the Archbishop’s yearning and love for the Word of God.

I asked myself. What new can there be in the Word of God that the Archbishop would not have studied nor delivered messages on during his many years of ministry? What nuances does he discern even now after a lifetime of reading, reflection, and meditation on the scriptures? How many learned treatises has he written or read on some aspect of the Bible? What passages has he found to be of deep solace and comfort to ones who were ailing or receiving their last rites before departing their earthly lives? How many messages has he preached at funerals, weddings, confirmations and occasions of state? How many times in joys, sorrows and deep private moments have the words of God been a lamp unto his feet, a light unto his path ? How often has it been a guide for a soul in its searching for the things which are most fundamental and enduring in human experiences and life?

As I reflected on the devotion of Archbishop Woodroffe to the Word, the words in Psalms 119 (David’s magnificent treatise on prayer and praise) came to me “Thy word is a light unto my feet and a light unto my path”. As I reviewed this Psalm, verses 9-16 seem to capture the life and spirit of Archbishop Woodroffe.“How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O Lord; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.”

I could not help calling the Anglican Pastoral Centre to enquire how long has the Archbishop served in the Vineyard. I learnt that he has been a guide and source of inspiration to the Anglican communion and the Christian community in our Caribbean and beyond for 60 years and more. I trust that the spirit and love of God, which sustained such devotion during the 94 years of Archbishop Woodroffe’s life, kindles and maintains in us the same spirit of devotion to and love of God’s Word

Today

Ashley R Cain

As You Care, Share The Thought Today


Psalms And A PrayerPsalms 119: 169 -176, Psalms 120 - 128:2

Today is the last Friday in 2012. Quietly we see the year pass with all its challenges and opportunities, things done or left undone. As I wind up another year and prepare to welcome a new one, my spirit became quiet and reflective. Above the steady hum of the air conditioner, I reflect on a year which has been difficult yet filled with blessings on time and in due season.

My thoughts go forward and outwards to a faithful spiritual band – those persons who have shared with me the reading and sharing of The Thought Today reflections. As is my wont, I reached for my Bible, took my customary “proof” and opened it randomly. On my left thumb was Psalms 119 : 169-176. My thoughts went back to Archbishop Woodroffe, now deceased, who told me, earlier this year, that even at 94 years of age, he read Psalms 119 every day. Truly, the Lord's word was his delight. May his spirit rest in peace.

On my right thumb was psalm 127 and the sobering yet familiar words “Except the Lord builds a house m they labour in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” As I read the other psalms in between, so many familiar sayings jumped out at me. These were sayings which I heard my parents and others speak in normal everyday conversations as they lived and worked from day to day.

“In my distress I cried out to the Lord and he heard me” (Psalms 120 :1). “I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth”(Psalms 121: 1-2). “The sun shall not smite me by day nor the moon by night” (Psalms 121:6). In each of these six Psalms, I read sayings and references to the ways in which God keeps, preserves and prospers those who trust him and walk under his direction.

As we come to the closing of another year, even as we hear of strifes, conflicts and challenges going into the new year, I pray that the spirit of hope, joys and promise of Christmas fill our hearts as it filled the heart of the Psalmist. As we welcome another year and even as we read these psalms, I hope that our trust in God and his goodness, makes and helps us to become as “Mount Zion, which cannot be removed but abideth forever”

Today

As You Care, Share The Thought TodayAshley R Cain


OF E = MC2, ADAM, MAN AND A NEW LIFE(Luke 4:1-13)

Yesterday, the 17th February 2013, I presented my young son, Kirani Cain at the Richland Park Methodist Church for baptism as an infant. With mixed emotions, my wife Juni and I stood, with a group of Godparents, at the altar to offer him up in Baptism to God, as is our Methodist tradition. As we did so, I was very mindful that we were also at the beginning of the Lenten season. The previous day, I had also celebrated my own birthday with thankfulness in my heart.

I listened carefully as Rev Janet Thorne, a friend from my Methodist Youth Fellowship days of thirty years ago, delivered an engaging sermon based on the temptations of Jesus, as told in Luke 4:113 and Mark 1:12,13 in the New Testament scriptures. I listened as she related the type of temptations which Jesus endured and overcame as he began his journey of redemptive love for all mankind.

For some strange reason, Albert Einstein's famous and well known mathematical equation, e = mc2 came into my thoughts. According to this sublime and simple formula, as modern physicists and scientists study, the energy potential of a given mass of matter can be expressed as the mass of the object multiplied by the squared value of the speed of light. Many persons, scientists and ordinary people included, have pondered in awe how the deepest mysteries of our universe can be explained by a formula / relationship with three symbols.

In the world of science, this formula contains an idea so simple that any young child may easily learn and understand it. To understand its full power and elegance, however, one has to read, study and master the mass of scientific thinking and ideas to which this “simple” relationship may be and has been applied, for good and bad. After all, it is the key to understanding the deepest depths of God's created universe.

With this flash of intuition, my attention came back to the message being preached by Rev Thorne. In Genesis we learn that man's separation from God took place in Eden's garden of idyllic bliss. Adam, the first man, disregarded the simple instructions of God his creator not to eat the fruit of a specific tree of life. At the urging of the tempter, and encouragement from his wife Eve, Adam disobeyed God. He ate of the forbidden fruit. With this act, the relationship between God and man (his creation) – was broken. Adam was chased from the garden.

With love and concern for man, God moved with “lightning speed” to offer mankind a chance to regain the type of relationship between God and man which he intended at the time of creation. What was the plan? Since by one man came man's separation from God, then God will again offer salvation and a right relationship with him if a man could “live a fully human life and overcome the temptations of Satan”. Through the full and faithful obedience of one man, Jesus, to God's wish and word, all men may be reconciled fully to God and experience the eternal life quality which God had planned for mankind – his created being.

In the same way that Einstein's sublime formula e = mc2 holds the key to our understanding the deepest mysteries of the created universe, faith in the sinless life and sacrifice of one man became and becomes the key for reopening the possibilities of eternal life for all mankind. I pray that as we go through this season of Lenten reflection and celebration, that we accept, in a personal way, God's simple and sublime offer of eternal life to whosoever may come TodayAs You Care, Share The Thought TodayAshley R Cain


A Deeper FaithMatthew 16:13-19

We are well and truly into the Lenten season as Christians worldwide focus, despite distractions, on the essential message of Easter. God, through Jesus Christ, was providing and has provided the opportunity and means for estranged man to regain the fellowship which God, as creator, intended as an essential part of the original plan at creation.

As I reflect this Lenten season, the resignation of Pope Benedict and the challenges which this unusual event may present, are matters for public debate and discourse by many worldwide. Christian doctrine and beliefs are under intense scrutiny and reflection.

To many, this evolving story is a source of distress and sorrow. For some, it is a basis for skepticism, and even cynical comment. For others it is a call to reexamine fundamental tenets of the Christian faith. What we believe or hold dear is uppermost in the minds of many. Can or should we believe in and trust the integrity of our various shepherds, whether Catholic or not? It is the kind of dilemma which makes many question their faith. Is it also a call or opportunity for us as Christians to revisit the roots or foundations of our faith and belief in God?

According to the Gospel of Matthew, Peter and the other disciples were conversation about how the public viewed Jesus their leader. To some he was Elijah, a prophet, a holy man who did miraculous things. Jesus listened to their discussion for a while with interest. He then asked them the pointed question. “And you who are with me, who do you say that I am?” Peter, startled by the question, answered with his usual impulsiveness. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”.

Then came Jesus' own astonishing response to Peter's declaration. “How blessed are you Simon Barjonah! It wasn't flesh and blood that revealed my true identity to you but my father who is in heaven. Furthermore, let me say unto you, You are now renamed Peter, the rock on which I will build a church against which the gates of Hades (hell) shall not prevail. To you will I give the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”.

Matthew tells us that from that moment, Jesus conversations with his disciples moved to a different and higher level as he taught them the deeper things of the Kingdom of Heaven. For Jesus disciples, it was the beginning of the end. As we learn in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus told his disciples about the cost of discipleship. Anyone who desires to come after / follow me must deny his own / old self, take up his cross and follow Jesus wherever he(it) led. Six days later, on a mount and at a time of ecstatic bliss, the disciples heard the declaration about Jesus “This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him.”

At this time of year, let us revisit, reenact and remember the salvation made available to all by the sacrificial death of the sinless Lamb of God. I trust that, like Lot fleeing from Sodom, we too look neither right, left nor backward for our salvation. Instead, with a deeper and renewed faith, let us keep our thoughts and our gaze firmly on the one who by his life and sacrificial death “led captivity captive” so that all people everywhere may be saved through the power of one

TodayAs You Care, Share The Thought TodayAshley R Cain

The Thought Today 02/26/13

Into The Wilderness Matthew 16:13-19

As I prepared for bed on the 8th day of the 2013 Lenten season, I opened my Bible to Luke 5:15 which read “However the report went around concerning him all the more and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities. So he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed”

As I thought about this action of Jesus, I am reminded of the many occasions when we are told in the Bible of Jesus going away for prayer and communion with his heavenly father. Had he not spent forty days and forty nights in a wilderness place, after which he overcame the wiles and temptation of the Devil. Do we not often sing at this time of year the well known hymn “Forty days and forty nights, tempted and yet undefiled”? I also remembered my own moments of retreating to quiet spaces on literal and spiritual mountaintops to think and to renew my spirits. I also reflected on my day. Today I joined with colleagues at work to fashion an implementation plan for an agricultural sector adjustment plan financed from European Union Resources. This programme is being crafted to assist farmers and others, whose livelihoods have been disrupted or badly wounded by the virtual decline of the banana industry in St Vincent and the Grenadines. My thoughts went to fertile lands, now idle,which have become wilderness spaces for farmers and workers who struggle to earn a decent livelihood. Some have also become wilderness spaces because people go elsewhere to other jobs and foreign lands to keep life and limb together. As I often say to myself, ruefully, the land has not gone anywhere, it is only the man who has gone from the land.

As I thought about this, it struck me that we are having more wilderness spaces but they are not sanctuaries for refreshing minds, bodies and spirits anymore. They became spaces where one may not hear the still voice of God in the garden because we are overwhelmed by the daily demands of keeping life and limb together in an increasingly secular and materialistic world. For some, even our churches have become wilderness where the demands of modern life put the material and spiritual resources of our people to the test.

What can we learn, therefore, from Jesus and his wilderness times? They were times to let go, time to seek and to draw new strength from God the Father, times to pray, time to regain or gain perspective, times to refresh visions and to refocus on the mission at hand. For many persons, the Lenten period is a time to step back and assess one's spiritual condition or state. Some do so in the quietness of home and others in the bustle of work. Others retreat to a special place. Some go into a virtual wilderness to examine and explore their spiritual state. Have you taken a wilderness journey recently?

I trust that this Lenten season be a chance for you and I to walk through our wildernesses, by faith and hope, to a place of greater spiritual power and growth

Today As You Care, Share The Thought TodayAshley R Cain

the thought today series by ashley r cain as at 260213

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