The apostolic letter to the Hebrews (the “Jews”) begins by saying: “At many times and in many ways, God spoke long ago to the fathers through the prophets. In these last days He has spoken to us through (the) Son … through Whom He created the universe (and Who was) the imprint of His being.” In John 14:9 and 10:30, Yeshua affirmed that He was indeed the revelation of God to mankind. In John 1:1 and 14, the Holy Spirit explained through John, “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. … The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”

So it’s no challenge to understand that one method God used to explain His messages, delivered through the prophets over the ages, was by Yeshua amplifying them for us. Being God Incarnate, Yeshua could freely and fully illuminate the meaning of the words that His own Spirit had dictated to the various prophets.

That is why we sometimes find that Old Testament scriptures are explained by New Testament references, sometimes paraphrased by Yeshua or the Spirit of Yeshua though the apostles. On the other hand, sometimes the Old Testament context and usage of a passage helps us to grasp the full significance of it being cited in the New Testament. This comparison of “old” and “new” revelation has helped me greatly as I pursue a better understanding of scripture.

I have learned a few things over the past year about the Jewish method of Biblical exegesis – a process called Pardes, which is really an acronym (PaRDeS) for Peshat, Remez, Derash and Sod. I find it interesting and not incompatible with the paths I had used before to pursue the understanding of scripture. The Peshat is the surface / straight / literal meaning of a text. The Remez is the allegoric / symbolic meaning beyond the literal, and is hinted at by the literal meaning. The Derash (from the Hebrew word for “inquire” or “seek”) is the meaning that can be discovered through comparison of similar occurrences. Finally, the Sod is the “secret” / “mystery” or esoteric / mystical meaning, as given through inspiration or revelation. Peshat is the base meaning;  Remez, Derash and Sod comprise the “extended meaning”. I found reassurance in the existence of a rule saying that the extended meaning must never contradict the base meaning. Sound familiar? God does not contradict Himself – even if an angel from heaven (with a presumably elevated level of “inspiration”) should try to promulgate from a passage a revelation that disagrees with the plainly stated Peshat. I refer you to the first part of the following article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardes_%28Jewish_exegesis%29 .

Letting God explain Himself through His written word is sometimes a slow process, because the Bible was dictated and written down over centuries, so long ago and so far away. All of this recording, and our attempts to understand the written word, have been set in a post-Babel language context, so there seems to be a lot “lost in translation”. God is not and was never an inept communicator*, but in our human hearing, note-taking, transcribing, translating, comprehension* and relating what we understand of a plane that is higher than ours, mankind has sometimes been inept. I thank God so much for those saints* who sacrificially* spent huge portions of their lives in work that now helps* us to understand God’s written word better than we could on our own. The labors of Divinely* inspired translators, researchers, archeologists, linguists, teachers and communicators now combine* to help us draw explanations of scripture, from scripture, with the use of cross-references, concordances, commentaries and comparative translations. All this can help us to reclaim* much of what was lost in translation, and to avoid the trap of applying “private interpretations” (2 Peter 1:20) to God’s holy word. Have I forgotten to mention the most important Helper and Guide in our quest for understanding of scripture? No. I have only left Him unnamed until now; but those mysterious asterisks sprinkled in the text above are my indicators of the Holy Spirit’s thread of influence from start to finish of this pursuit of understanding. The Holy Spirit, one of Whose roles is to lead believers into all truth (John 16:13), first produces the desire in us to understand God’s word, and then guides the yielded in the diligent pursuit and communication of truth. The Holy Spirit even grants revelation that helps us to personalize the scripture, while protecting the yielded from falling prey to private (self-serving) interpretations and strange “winds of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:3-15) in our pursuit of understanding.    (To be continued…)

I love comparing scripture with scripture; that is, Bible verse with Bible verse, translation with translation. Then, I use commentaries on the historical, social and religious contexts to understand what the scripture was originally communicating and how it can sensibly be applied today. In that way I am able to understand much more of God’s word and what He is saying to me – a Gentile, a woman, a Christian living in a largely ungodly society, a sibling and extended family member, a wife, a mother, an intercessor and spiritual sibling, an employee and co-worker, a Bible-lover, people-lover, and devil-hater. (To be continued…)

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I’m very glad that my parents taught me obedience. That training has helped me to obey God. To obey, you first have to listen and make mental notes of the instructions given. [Remember, I’m speaking about obeying God – not a human being who is subject to changes of heart, after which he/she may not even remember or honor what he/she told you to do. But that’s an aside.] The real reason for my post is to remind Believers that Yeshua (“Jesus”) gave instructions about how we should pray: to the Father in Yeshua’s (/Jesus’) Name. This was for requests as well as thanksgiving. See John 15:16, 16:23, 14:13. Inspired by the Spirit of God, the Apostle Paul elaborated on the topic, teaching in Colossians 3:17,  “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord Yeshua, (even) giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

With all of that instruction, I really don’t understand how some Christians can “pray” without even referring to Yeshua’s (/Jesus’) Name. I hear prayers that are like the reading of a long wish-list placed before God – apparently in the name of the wisher. I also hear prayers that sound like a list of instructions that we are giving to God about what He must do for us. Perhaps God receives it differently from people who don’t know better, but to me these prayers sound like someone saying, “Lord, this is your to-do list, your marching orders from me today. Amen. Let it all get done.”

Our parents taught us to say “please” when asking someone for something. Yet we feel we can give God orders and demand compliance from Him – without either that common courtesy we learned as children, or without obedience to God’s own specific instructions. It pains me to hear those prayers, because I know that many of them will just bounce off the ceiling. Bouncing back to us and echoing in the ears of witnesses, these prayers might satisfy our senses and egos, but will they get the response from God that we have asked for? I suspect not; that’s why it pains me to hear people glibly rattling off, offering up and putting their trust in such prayers.

If your parents were good teachers, then in training you to say “please” they would not have given you what you asked for, until you followed their simple instruction. Well, take a hint – God is an excellent parent and teacher. He is not about to contradict or annul His own instructions to please someone, to make someone feel like His handler, or to encourage “faith” in self-based prayers.

A striking Biblical example of doing all in the Name of the Lord is cited by Yeshua’s half-brother Judah in Jude verse 9, reminding us that even “Michael the (mighty) archangel, in contending with the devil… did not (simply) bring against him a reviling accusation, but said “The Lord (not just I, the mighty archangel) rebuke you!”

Who is “the Lord”? Philippians 2:6-11 answers that question for the Believer. Verses 9-11 specifically identify Him as the One Who has been given “the Name that is above every (other) Name, that at the Name of Yeshua (/Jesus) every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue profess that Yeshua HaMashiach is Lord – to the glory of God the Father.”  No wonder He told us not to waste our breath, but to pray to the Father in that Name!

At boarding school we had chapel devotions each morning and each evening. One of my favorite hymns from that time began: “New every morning is the love/ Our waking and uprising prove,/ Through sleep and darkness safely brought,/ Restored to life and power and thought.”  For me, that restoration to life and power and thought often comes with a reopening of the conversation with God. Very often I wake up already hearing His opening lines. Yesterday morning He was saying to me as I awoke, “You know, when people think I haven’t answered their prayer they are so totally wrong. Do you realize that many of their prayers were already answered long ago in My word? They either want Me to keep repeating Myself, or to contradict Myself.”

Preface to the Second Edition:

Ten years have passed since this “diary” was first published, and it has been a decade of great change. The world has changed, Canada has changed, and most importantly- Jamaica and my family have changed. It is the two latter changes that have motivated me to update Changing Worlds.

My first aim is to present biographical consistency between Changing Worlds and my subsequent writing. Pseudonyms were used for close family members in the 2004 Changing Worlds account. In the ensuing decade, my children have matured and granted permission for their real names to be used in my writing, acknowledging and giving God the glory for everything He has done in our lives. The substitution of their real names is (one) feature of this second edition. That has also allowed for the use of my husband’s first name, Michael, to replace “Spencer” which is actually his middle name.

The other important feature … has to do with Jamaica. When Changing Worlds first chronicled our 1999 migration from Jamaica to Canada, it was already 2004. At that time the (then) Jamaican High Commissioner to Canada said my writing had alluded too negatively to conditions in Jamaica. I disagreed, but resolved to honestly correct any unpatriotic impression that may have been created, at the earliest opportunity.

The factual memories of Jamaica, land of our birth, which I committed to the journal in 1999 were absolutely true then. Furthermore, relating them was necessary to explain some of the culture shock and what I termed “deprivation therapy” that I first experienced in Canada. However, some positive changes have taken place in Jamaica over the years, so I have looked forward to updating Changing Worlds to reflect that, and to encourage the anticipation of more answered prayers for Jamaica…

As a backdrop to other visible changes, it should be noted how foreign currency exchange rates have cumulatively affected Jamaica over the period. Simply put, in 1999 it cost $25 Jamaican to buy $1 Canadian. In September 2014 it cost $101 Jamaican to buy the same $1 Canadian. Given the far-reaching effects of this devaluation of Jamaican currency, it’s a miracle that so many good developments have nevertheless taken place. It is also an undeniable credit to the spirit of patriotic, law-abiding, morally upright Jamaicans that so many of them have remained at home to persevere, under God, with their nation-building and national transformation efforts.

In Chapter 19 under the subheading “Finally…” some positive changes were mentioned as having already taken place in Jamaica between 1999 and 2004. These were the improved telephone services, public transportation, roads, and increased media representation of the distinctly Christian voice. These trends have continued, with communication technology and highway infrastructure following hard after North American patterns, and with the Church becoming more united and vocal in Christian activism on matters of national importance.

In Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5 and 18, I have added footnotes to highlight areas in which improvements have taken place in Jamaica. Notably, there is better customer service offered by many organizations, better policing and law enforcement in some locations, and more effective security at buildings such as banks. The educational system has also been improved, especially by equal access to different secondary education options, and the increased use of computer technology in classrooms and school administration.

The government and various non-governmental organizations have increased their efforts to mobilize the Jamaican Diaspora in developed countries to assist with nation-building in various ways. Rather than simply providing materially for their relatives in Jamaica, Diaspora members have been encouraged to combine and increase their efforts for the national good. Certain government agencies have been newly tasked with facilitating this, liaising with Diaspora representatives through international conferences and other means, and courting investment in Jamaica from Diaspora-related sources. This movement of “Jamaicans-helping-Jamaica” supplements in a welcome way the international aid that remains available.

At the same time, Jamaican athletes and other performers have achieved increasing prominence in international competition. Many have also upheld high ethical and patriotic standards in the limelight. This has positively impacted Jamaica’s national self-image and, if psychological theories hold true, should auger well for the redirection of Jamaican youth who needed good role models to emulate.

Just before this manuscript update was submitted in October 2014, Jamaican media reported on an address by the Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Min Zhu, to community college students in the tourist hub of Montego Bay. Min Zhu reportedly said that Jamaica’s achievements under the Extended Fund Facility Agreement could only be described as miraculous, and that the local economy is turning around due to the financial “miracle” that the Government has performed.

While the 1999 perspectives shared in Changing Worlds: Diary of a Jamaican-Canadian Experience still offer interesting historical commentary, the updates shared in this 2014 edition will attest to the tireless work of such organizations as the Jamaica House of Prayer and Operation Save Jamaica. Yet this new edition also acknowledges that God has not yet finished answering the prayer of our National Anthem: “Eternal Father, bless our land; guide us with thy mighty hand, keep us free from evil powers, be our light through countless hours. To our leaders, Great Defender, grant true wisdom from above. Justice, truth be ours forever – Jamaica, land we love!

While mortal intercessors are sleeping, God is watching over all His people. Our divine, high-priestly Intercessor Yeshua (Jesus) does not sleep. He is incessantly interceding for members of His Body on earth, those whom the Father gave to Him – those whom He promised never to “lose”. (Hebrews 7:25, John 6:39, John 10:28, John 18:9)

However, sometimes He decides it’s time for a human intercessor to be awakened to pray or follow His lead in some other way. So yesterday at 3:30 AM the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Yeshua) woke me up abruptly by showing me in a dream that if the devil had his way my eldest grandson would die in short order. I got out of bed, went into the living room, got two knee cushions and knelt down to join Yeshua in intercession. Because this grandson’s life has been under threat for years, and we have therefore been interceding for him for years, I felt at a loss for new words to use or new directions to take in prayer. I didn’t know how exactly to pray, so I just began to pray for him in tongues. After praying in tongues for a while, the Holy Spirit led me to just pray, declare and decree in Yeshua’s Name that God’s will would prevail “TODAY” in the lives of him and his mother (my eldest daughter). So I concluded with that simple prayer – essentially “Thy will be done, this day, in their lives!” Before going to work, I contacted my daughter, told her of the prayer prompt, and asked if all was well. She said it was.

Last night just before 9 PM, she contacted us again because a harrowing event had just occurred. The devil had tried his thing- tried to kill the child and almost succeeded. But, as Jamaicans say, “Nearly nevah kill bird!” So satan’s murder attempt had failed, God’s saving will had prevailed, my grandson’s life was preserved, and my daughter was victorious in her emergency response. All had ended well, only because the Lord, who watches over us, does not sleep.

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