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AFWIS Joins Operation World in Prayer for Barbados - Caribbean

Published on Operation World (http://www.operationworld.org)

Home > Mar 04: Barbados

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Mar 04: Barbados

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Barbados

Barbados

Caribbean

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Geography

Area: 430 sq km
The most easterly of the Windward Islands.
Population: 256,552    Annual Growth: 0.26%
Capital: Bridgetown
Urbanites: 40.8%
HDI Rank: 37 of 182 (UN Human Development Reports 2009)

Peoples

Peoples: 10 (20% unreached) All peoples
Unreached Peoples Prayer Card

Official language: English. Bajan is a distinctive Barbadian dialect of English    Languages: 3 All languages

Religion

Largest Religion: Christian

Religion		Pop %	Ann Gr
Christians	243,570	94.94	0.2
Evangelicals	87,614	34.2	0.8

Challenges for Prayer

The legacy of slavery must be completely routed. Toward this end, a ceremony initiated by Christians was conducted in 1998 to great effect. In 1999 there was a national act of repentance during the anniversary of independence celebrations. This island, with the oldest Anglican theological college in the Western Hemisphere, also saw Anglican parishes endorse and prosper from slavery. This, too, has seen an act of public repentance. Pray that, through these acts and the extension of forgiveness, any remaining scars might be removed forever.
Young people desperately need spiritual guidance. The culture of immorality is pervasive, and even church-going teens are subject to its temptations. Illegitimate births and cohabitation are widespread. Pray that churches may offer effective programmes for children and youth, while demonstrating positive holiness. Pray also for the ministries of CEF, IS/ISUF(IFES), YFC, YWAM and others, whose potential impact among children and young people is massive.
     For an additional 3 Challenges for Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.

More Information

The Operation World book, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM provide far more information and fuel for prayer for the people of Barbados.

2 Corinthians 3 ~ Geneva Study Bible - Text only

2 Corinthians 3 ~ Geneva Study Bible

Chapter 3
3:3 [Forasmuch as ye are] ^a manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ^b ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the ^c living God; ¹ not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

(a) The apostle says this wisely, that by little and little he may come from the commendation of the person to the matter itself.
(b) Which I took pains to write as it were.
(c) Along the way he sets the power of God against the ink with which epistles are commonly written, to show that it was accomplished by God. (1) He alludes along the way to the comparison of the outward ministry of the priesthood of Levi with the ministry of the Gospel, and the apostolical ministry, which he handles afterward more fully.

3:4 And such ^d trust have we through Christ to God-ward:

(d) This boldness we show, and thus may we boast gloriously of the worthiness and fruit of our ministry.

3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our ^e sufficiency [is] of God;

(e) In that we are proper and able to make other men partakers of so great a grace.

3:6 ² Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the ^f letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

(2) He amplifies his ministry and his fellows: that is to say, the ministry of the Gospel comparing it with the ministry of the Law, which he considers in the person of Moses, by whom the Law was given: against whom he sets Christ the author of the Gospel. Now this comparison is taken from the very substance of the ministry. The Law is as it were a writing in itself, dead, and without efficacy: but the Gospel, and new Covenant, as it were the very power of God itself, in renewing, justifying, and saving men. The Law offers death, accusing all men of unrighteousness: the Gospel offers and gives righteousness and life. The administration of the Law served for a time to the promise: the Gospel remains to the end of the world. Therefore what is the glory of the Law in comparison of the majesty of the Gospel?
(f) Not of the Law but of the Gospel.

3:7 But if the ministration of death, written ^g [and] engraven in stones, was ^h glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which [glory] was to be done away:

(g) Imprinted and engraved: so that by this place we may plainly perceive that the apostle speaks not of the ceremonies of the Law, but of the ten commandments.
(h) This word "glorious" indicates a brightness, and a majesty which was in Moses physically, but in Christ spiritually.

3:8 How shall not the ⁱ ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

(i) By which God offers, indeed, and gives the Spirit, not as a dead thing, but a living Spirit, working life.

3:9 For if the ministration of condemnation [be] glory, much more doth the ministration of ^k righteousness exceed in glory.

(k) That is, of Christ. And since he is imputed to us as our own, we are not condemned, and what is more we are also crowned as righteous.

3:11 For if that which is ^l done away [was] glorious, much more that which remaineth [is] glorious.

(l) The Law, indeed, and the ten commandments themselves, together with Moses, are all abolished, if we consider the ministry of Moses apart by itself.

3:12 ³ Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:

(3) He shows what this glory of the preaching of the Gospel consists in: that is, in that it sets forth plainly and evidently that which the Law showed darkly, for it sent those that heard it to be healed by Christ, who was to come, after it had wounded them.

3:13 ⁴ And not as Moses, [which] put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the ^m end of that which is abolished:

(4) He expounds along the way the allegory of Moses covering, which was a token of the darkness and weakness that is in men, who were rather dulled by the bright shining of the Law then given. And this covering was taken away by the coming of Christ, who enlightens the hearts, and turns them to the Lord, that we may be brought from the slavery of this blindness, and set in the liberty of the light by the power of Christs Spirit.
(m) Into the very bottom of Moses ministry.

3:17 Now the ⁿ Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty.

(n) Christ is that Spirit who takes away that covering, by working in our hearts, to which also the Law itself called us, though in vain, because it speaks to dead men, until the Spirit makes us alive.

3:18 ⁵ But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord.

(5) Continuing in the allegory of the covering, he compares the Gospel to a glass, which although it is most bright and sparkling, yet it does not dazzle their eyes who look in it, as the Law does, but instead transforms them with its beams, so that they also are partakers of the glory and shining of it, to enlighten others: as Christ said unto his own, "You are the light of the world", whereas he himself alone is the light. We are also commanded in another place to shine as candles before the world, because we are partakers of Gods Spirit. But Paul speaks here properly of the ministers of the Gospel, as it appears both by that which goes before, and that which comes after, and in that he sets before them his own example and that of his fellows.

Romans 4 NIV Audio

    Romans 4 Geneva Study Bible Text

 

Chapter 44:1 What ¹ shall we then say that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the ^a flesh, hath found?

(1) A new argument of great weight, taken from the example of Abraham the father of all believers: and this is the proposition: if Abraham is considered in himself by his works, he has deserved nothing with which to rejoice with God.
(a) By works, as is evident from the next verse.

4:2 ² For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath [whereof] to glory; but not before God.

(2) A preventing of an objection. Abraham may well rejoice and extol himself among men, but not with God.

4:3 ³ For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

(3) A confirmation of the proposition: Abraham was justified by imputation of faith, and therefore freely, without any regard being give to his works.

4:4 ⁴ Now to him that ^b worketh is the reward not ^c reckoned of grace, but of debt.

(4) The first proof of the confirmation, taken from opposites: to him who deserves anything by his labour, the wages are not counted as favour, but as debt: but to him that has done nothing but believe in him who freely promises, faith is imputed.
(b) To him that has deserved anything from his work.
(c) Is not reckoned or given to him.

4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that ^d justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

(d) That makes him who is wicked in himself to be just in Christ.

4:6 ⁵ Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,

(5) Another proof of the same confirmation: David puts blessedness as a part of the free pardon of sins, and therefore justification also.

4:9 ⁶ [Cometh] this ^e blessedness then upon the circumcision [only], or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.

(6) A new proposition: that this manner of justification belongs both to uncircumcised and also to the circumcised, as is declared in the person of Abraham.
(e) This saying of David, in which he pronounces them as blessed.

4:10 ⁷ How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

(7) He proves that it belongs to the uncircumcised (for there was no doubt of the circumcised) in this way: Abraham was justified in uncircumcision, therefore this justification belongs also to the uncircumcised. Nay, it does not belong to the circumcised, in respect of the circumcision, much less are the uncircumcised shut out from it because of their uncircumcision.

4:11 ⁸ And he received the ^f sign of circumcision, a ^g seal of the righteousness of the faith which [he had yet] being uncircumcised: ⁹ that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

(8) A preventing of an objection: why then was Abraham circumcised, if he was already justified? That the gift of righteousness (he says) might be confirmed in him.
(f) Circumcision, which is a sign: as we say the "ordinance of baptism", for "baptism", which is a ordinance.
(g) Circumcision was previously called a sign, with respect to the outward ceremony. Now Paul shows the force and substance of that sign. That is, to what end it is used, that is, not only to signify, but also to seal up the righteousness of faith. By this we come to possess Christ himself: for the Holy Spirit works that inwardly indeed, which the ordinances being joined with the word, represent. (9) An applying of the example of Abraham to the uncircumcised believers, whose father he also makes Abraham.

4:12 ¹⁰ And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which [he had] being [yet] uncircumcised.

(10) An applying of the same example to the circumcised believers, whose father is Abraham, but yet by faith.

4:13 ¹¹ For the promise, that he should be the ^h heir of the world, [was] not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the ⁱ law, but through the righteousness of faith.

(11) A reason why the seed of Abraham is to be considered to be by faith, because Abraham himself through faith was made partaker of the promise by which he was made the father of all nations.
(h) That all the nations of the world should be his children: or by the "world" may be understood the land of Canaan.
(i) For works that he had done, or upon this condition, that he should fulfil the Law.

4:14 ¹² For if they which are of the ^k law [be] heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:

(12) A double confirmation of that reason: the one is that the promise cannot be apprehended by the law, and that if it could it would be made of no effect: the other, that the condition of faith would be joined in vain to the promise if it could be apprehended by works.
(k) If they are heirs who have fulfilled the law.

4:15 ¹³ Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, [there is] no transgression.

(13) A reason of the first confirmation, why the promise cannot be apprehended by the law: because the law does not reconcile God and us, but rather proclaims his anger against us, because no man can fully keep it.

4:16 ¹⁴ Therefore [it is] of faith, that [it might be] by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the ^l seed; ¹⁵ not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

(14) The conclusion of this argument: the salvation and justification of the posterity of Abraham (that is, of the Church which is composed of all believers) proceeds from faith which lays hold on the promise made to Abraham, and which promise Abraham himself first of all laid hold on.
(l) To all the believers.
(15) That is to say, not only of those who believe and are also circumcised according to the law, but of those also who without circumcision and with respect of faith only, are counted among the children of Abraham.

4:17 (As it is written, I have made thee a ¹⁶ father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, [even] ^m God, who ⁿ quickeneth the dead, and ^o calleth those things which be not as though they were.

(16) This fatherhood is spiritual, depending only upon the power of God, who made the promise.
(m) Before God, that is by membership in his spiritual family, which has a place before God, and makes us acceptable to God.
(n) Who restores to life.
(o) With whom those things are already, which as yet are not indeed, as he can with a word make what he wishes out of nothing.

4:18 ¹⁷ Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

(17) A description of true faith wholly resting in the power of God, and his good will, set forth in the example of Abraham.

4:19 And being ^p not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now ^q dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Saras womb:

(p) Very strong and steadfast.
(q) Void of strength, and unfit to have children.

4:20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving ^r glory to God;

(r) Acknowledged and praised God, as most gracious and true.

4:21 And being ^s fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

(s) A description of true faith.

4:23 ¹⁸ Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;

(18) The rule of justification is always the same, both in Abraham, and in all the faithful: that is to say, faith in God, who after there was made a full satisfaction for our sins in Christ our mediator, raised him from the dead, that we also being justified, might be saved in him.

4:25 Who was delivered for our ^t offences, and was raised again for our justification.

(t) To pay the ransom for our sins.

Psalm 142 (NIV)

Psalm 142 (New International Version)

Psalm 142

A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer. [a]

1 I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy.
2 I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble.

3 When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way. In the path where I walk men have hidden a snare for me.

4 Look to my right and see; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life.

5 I cry to you, O LORD; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living."

6 Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.

7 Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.

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