Dear Editor, Lord Jesus, how so awesome, amazing and wonderful is your love and provision towards us, for the huge, humungous, voluminous and God-blessed downpour – a much-needed rain miracle last weekend ushering us into Gospel Week’s Celebration and still showering blessings to another weekend.

While the grass and trees slowly get their real lush and greenish colour back, so have we praised and glorified Your Name with grin and smiles on our faces.

It ain’t the first time we have known and experienced of parched and sun-scorched dry lands, as well as encountered sea surges, storms and cyclones, but your ears and eyes are always open to see the petitions and hear prayers of the faithful in the lands of the living.

Whatever of the natural – solar, lunar, hydro, celestial and terrestrial, earthly and heavenly – are gifted from above. But we often tend to just take, take, take, receive, receive, receive but forget to say ‘Thank you Lord for your bounteous blessings’. We ask for your forgiveness for our negligence and insensitivity of the goodness, grace and mercy of our loving Almighty God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

We waste incredibly much too, sending immense volumes of waste water into the seas and ocean without attempts at building dams to catch streams’ waste water for agricultural irrigation and animals, saving clean water intakes for domestic and household uses only just like Israel does in their desert lands recognised as top horticultural scientific innovators in the whole world. What further excuses shall we come up next? Blame it on abstract and philosophical terminologies such as La Nina, La Nino, La Covid, La  Inflation, La Climate Change, La Environmental Impacts, La Economic Recessions, La High Oil Prices, La High Astronomical NZ-Cooks Airfares, La this and La that – when the real and true issue is not so much physical or material but spiritual.

We have the fastest and quickest ‘High-Tech Biblical SOS Help Response’ directory as found in Jeremiah 33:3, “Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not”.

Jesus Christ still reigns supreme as the most inclusive, fair and most respected God of no one person, race, status, nor colour. According to Mathew 5:45, “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.” His access code is defined in Galatians 3: 26 - 29, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

He does not condone but comes to rescue all from sin and death, not willing that any should perish but all come to repentance and be saved forever. He hates laziness and  slothfulness, but loves to see  people walk in faith, live and walk by the Spirit, not poor to beg, borrow, steal, exploit and kill but live wealthy, healthy and as their soul prospereth, by the sweat of their brows shall they eat and to depend, trust, devote wholeheartedly on Him who alone can make their yoke easy and burden light (Mathew 11:28 - 30). Eternal salvation is in Him alone and none other!
God bless, preserve, protect and prosper our God-blessed beloved Cook Islands.

Bishop Tutai Pere