The Call to the Caribbean: November 2012

Among the many things that will be unique about heaven is the commonplace of thanksgiving. Definitely, not by solicitation or by obligation, not imposed, everyone will have infinite reasons for their thanks… Really the master plan of God eventuates, erupts, crescendos to thanksgiving… Wow, what a day that will be! Could you imagine the day when the clamor and seeming orchestrated chaos both for those in and for those coming into the gates of heaven were resplendent with animations of thanks… Surely that day will be the furthest extreme opposite of what the morning hours of a Black Friday is… It may rightly be called black because for many a profiteer, it is the turning point in business when, from another year, losses are turned around, the red of deficit becomes the black of sudden gain. But I dare present that it is black for another reason. It spells doom and disappointment for the once hopeful, those who waited long hours into the early morning only to be met with lost opportunity, an empty shelf, having been pushed and trampled on and now with a broken limb or heart, the mob has scurried on to other things caring less of injury exacted on another… Oh, no, in that day there will be thanksgiving.

If there are tears, it will be from profound gratitude; if there are shouts, it will be from the catapults of a heart unable to put words and expression to unmerited favor; if there is silence, it will be from the ineffable understanding of the restraint of God; humbled by His longsuffering, His mercy; His unimpeded, untempered, unconditional love for you, for me! Oh, in that day with eyes to see, the unseen; ears to hear the unheard; with appetites to savor what was once rejected by our calloused humanity; with emotions uninhibited in purity, every passion and desire would find its resolve in Thanks… Unlike Moses’ experience, we, every man, woman and child would be as a burning bush and well would we say as Jeremiah did, “This I recall to my mind therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.” (Jer. 3:21-23)

Did He, the Lord not say?… listen to Him again: “Ho, every one that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that hath no money; come you, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfies not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, eventhe sure mercies of David.” (Ish. 55:1-3) My friend, my brother, my sister, what is found here is not ill-gotten gain; these are the sacrifices of God to the undeserved.…Because the Books were reconciled! –at Calvary—what spelled loss to God —of His Son; Red, a deficit—the Blood of Jesus, are today, forever, your and my righteousness… Ah, ha!: “Paid in Full!”Exquisite!This is not the retraction or adjustment of some businessman to break-even (for the items once overpriced), no! this is the divine propitiation and expiation of God who was unrelenting in His specific charge –“without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin”(Lev. 17:11, Heb. 9:22).Oh, the blackness of Golgotha and the red of Jesus’ Blood equals newness for the believer…Called, Reconciled, Justified, Sanctified and now Commissioned as Ambassadors of the same ministry (I Cor. 5:14-21). Once injurious, now an intercessor! Wow!...

To each one who has allowed your Thanks to God to overflow into our support and continuation on the Puerto Rico, Caribbean missionfield, by prayer and financial support – Thanks! Because of you we are still pursuing the temporarily invisible, the Lord and the soul that He made (Heb. 11:24-27).Until that Day…