Clothe yourself with Love Col. 3:14

“ But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard, what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they on their part acted with cunning… But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel .” Joshua 9. Today I want to consider the power of vows in our day and age. We live in a world where values are changing faster than we can speak, therefore affecting the way vows or commitment decisions are viewed. While reading this Old Testament passage, I was intrigued because a people finally realized how powerful Israelites had become and Gibeonites decided to deceive Israelites by making a treaty with them. Israelites were known to respect their God immensely so; the treaty was solid. Israelites were bound by their word sworn to Gibeonites by the Lord, the God of Israel, so they did not attack them. I learned that we are to be very careful at what we vow to. I have been in the process of officially becoming an Anglican Dominic...

Good Friday EP Reflection 041522 (Lamentations 3; Isaiah 53) “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for one to bear the yoke in youth, to sit alone in silence when the Lord has imposed it, to put one’s mouth to the dust (there may yet be hope), to give one’s cheek to the smiter, and be filled with insults. For the Lord will not reject forever. Although he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.” Lam 3: 25-30. “…he was pierced for our transgressions…and with his wounds we are healed.” Is 53:5 If there is any day of the year that seems quieter and darker, it is Good Friday. We remember the events that led Jesus Christ to death on the cross. The somber ambiance of the day is marked by a gruesome way of dying which led Jesus to the cross and die six hours later. This is a ...

Upon hearing the news that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, crowds came to welcome him with branches of palm trees. Normally at this time of the year, Jerusalem is filled with many religious pilgrims coming into town for the Passover festival which commemorates God’s liberation of Jews from Egyptian slavery. Just imagine the atmosphere… Festivities, decorations and lots of people in town. If there is anything of interest that happens, it’s expected to happen during this time. The OT scriptures predicted this event many years before that day: of how Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey: Behold Zion, your King comes to you, humble and riding a donkey (Zech. 9:9). Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (Ps 118): This is what we celebrate as we process in Palm Sunday Liturgy. On one hand, we see a celebration we call “the triumphant entry into Jerusalem” and on the other, the crucifixion at the end of the week! Two opposite reactions almost a week apart. It seems surreal yet...

WED 040622 EP Reflection (Exodus 7: 8-24; Mark 10:1-16) Today marks 28 years of two presidents’ assassination that started war and Genocide in Rwanda. A painful chapter in our history and many lessons to learn. After spending some time in this Exodus passage, I began to see a pattern emerging between God and Pharaoh, a pattern which unfortunately is too common amongst us humans. It is human pride and its devastating consequences. We are a people who are thirsty of power and domination. It is a vice that can sneak quietly into our lives and into our society unnoticed. Think of when our culture says to us, that we must be masters of our own destiny. In a way, this is a positive thing but to a point! When your ambition/ destiny becomes a nightmare for other people in order for you to reach your desired outcome, then this is completely negative and unacceptable in the eyes of the Lord. This was Pharaoh’s predicament. He did not want to lose all that Hebrew work force and power. The more ...

TUE EP Reflection 011822 God’s message to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 3:4-11) Hearing God’s message to Ezekiel brought some mixed feelings for me. Have you ever felt powerless ahead of a cumbersome task? Not because you are procrastinating but because the task in question has an inbuilt series of obstacles to dodge or resolve? Really when one is not looking forward to it. I wonder if that’s how the prophet Ezekiel felt when God’s message came to him asking him to go and deliver his message to his own people the Jews. We know that a prophet’s own people are not always his fans. Jesus said this once: “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.” Like Ezekiel, we sense that things will not turn out well judging from a possible adversarial response from the prophet’s own people. This triggers a reflection that since God is the message’s sender, there is no need to worry about how the message will be received. Prophets are brave people who obey God’s instructions by t...

The exciting thing about the Epiphany season is the manifestation of the glory of God as revealed in Jesus. Who wouldn’t like to discover where and when God has been revealing himself to you personally? For some it may be in your dreams (Samuel or Joseph’s dream), for others it may be in a friend’s best advice you could ever hope for. God has myriads of ways he could use to reach out to us. Today we have striking evidence of that, in the sign that Jesus performed at the wedding of Cana. It doesn’t surprise us that the wedding wine would finish early which Jesus responded to, by turning water in wine. This sign is not as simple as we imagine it to be, the sign points to a much greater meaning that relates to the purposes of God. We actually get to discover through it, that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life as we contemplate on the sign that he performed. We see how God expresses himself in His desire to have a close relationship with us. In a way, we discover that God reveals h...

WED EP Reflection 011222 (Gen. 4:1-16; John 1: 29-42) I find myself learning a lot as I immerse myself in the stories of the Old Testament. This story of the very first human children Cain and Abel is fascinating to say the least. First, the mother was overjoyed when Cain was born and she gave him a great name Cain, meaning possession. She had so much joy, thankfulness, and great expectation, she said: “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” When Abel came, he was given a name that signifies vanity. This seems to indicate that she had high hopes for her first-born son. It appears that the Lord was pleased with Abel more than Cain with regards to their offerings, but the way things turned out Abel was murdered by his brother Cain. Instead of channeling his anger to the appropriate place, Cain misdirected it to his brother Abel. I can’t imagine how shocked Abel must have been after being hit by his brother. God asked Cain about it: “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?”...