Spiritual questions raised following sudden deaths

CONCERN has been raised about the number of persons that are suddenly dropping dead, not from a medical perspective, but spiritually.

It came yesterday from Reverend Ruth Phillips as she delivered the sermon during the Barbados Family Planning Association’s 62nd anniversary service held at the Sealy AME Church on Collymore Rock on Sunday morning.

During a sermon, Reverend Phillips, who is also the President of the BFPA, told the congregation that it has been said that Barbados is becoming like the biblical cities of Sodom & Gomorrah.

“In the past three or four years, we have had several sudden deaths, and some persons may say it is because of the wickedness of the land, some may say it is what we eat.

“I am not a doctor; I am not a prophet; I don’t know what to say it is. But what I want to say to you, you do not know, I do not know whether I will collapse and die. You don’t know whether you would because you don’t have any ailments that are showing. You are not attending the doctor for anything that you think could cause you to just die, but is anything too hard for God?

“What I want you to understand is that whenever you save your life, you are able to save another. And if you live recklessly, whether it is in the way you speak, the way you eat or treat your body, or treat your neighbours, you can die without knowing God. And that is not a good thing. I want to implore all of us this morning to find Jesus,” she told the congregation.

“Don’t let it be said that Barbados was so bad that there was no one standing in the gap for those people who might have collapsed and died without a hope because they did not know God. We do not know how their souls were with God. And I think that is the most frightening thing for me. You die not knowing the Lord... where will you be?”

During her sermon, she also urged persons not to judge the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community and the emerging non-binary gender.

“We, who are called by Christ, we Ministers, we cannot say to any congregation or any person that Jesus can’t save you. Is anything too hard for God? None of us can say that that person, or those persons don’t know Jesus Christ.

“Only God knows, and if you really and truly believe in the God Almighty, they know there is nothing too wrong for him. As Ministers of God, as Christians, we have no right, none whatsoever, to say that any human being does not know Christ or does not have a relationship with Christ, or cannot have a relationship with Christ.”

As fathers across the island enjoyed the Father’s Day celebrations, she offered words of encouragement to those who may have fallen short of their fatherly duties.

“Fathers, yes, you will make mistakes, and God understands that. There is time... we don’t know how much time, for you to make amends, so I implore you to trust Jesus. If you haven’t been a good father for all your life and you are now 75, you can still make an impact on your children, if not your children, someone else’s children.

“Let us get Barbados back to being a Christian society that it always was. Let us bring our young people back. There are too many negative examples out there for young people.

“We need to teach our young men how to be good men. I know how I want to be treated, how I would like to be treated... Women, your boy-children, they are people too. They are human beings needing to be moulded. Women, you need to teach them. Men have a soft side too. Women may have a tough side like men, but we will never ever make up for that,” she said. (JH)