By: Thinking Citizen

It is apparent, even to the most dull and ignorant ones amongst us, that Team Unity has a policy which consists of telling lies to the public during opposition and telling lies to the public while Team Unity is in government.

During its period in opposition Team Unity declared that it is committed to the virtues of Transparency, Openness, Justice and Fairness to all and Accountability in all things.

Since the Team Unity Government has been in power, it has done nothing to demonstrate its commitment to the fore-mentioned virtues and values. As a matter of fact, Team Unity has done the very things that are contrary to all the known principles and virtues of good governance.

Take for instance the case of the shameful and disgraceful treatment that was meted out to one of our most honest and outstanding Civil Servants our CMO Dr. Patrick Martin.

The Team Unity government has shown no Transparency, no Openness, no Justice and no Fairness and no Accountability to the public to whom the government is answerable.

An unauthorized and unlawful Stem Cell Research Project was being carried out at the JNF General Hospital in St. Kitts.

Dr. Martin went to the Hospital and shut down the unlawful Research Project. The immediate response of the Team Unity Government was to send Dr. Martin home on pre-retirement leave.

Up until now no one in the Team Unity government has thought it fit to let the public know why Dr. Martin who has left an unblemished record was treated so shamefully and disgracefully.

By: Bertram Charles

Scripture: John 14: Verse 27

As Jesus was about to leave his disciples, their hearts were troubled at the news of the departure of Christ from them.  Jesus assured them that they would not be like orphans without a father and a mother but that he would intercede for them with the Father to send them another Comforter for their support, defense, protection and help during their times of afflictions, sufferings, sorrows, trials, tribulations, persecutions and prosecutions.

That the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will perform his work and office of the teachings of Christ  and showing them to his people by shedding abroad the love of the Father and of the Son into their hearts and that the Comforter will abide for ever.

The men and women of the world, in their natural state, can neither receive the spirit nor the things of the spirit, nor the truth and doctrine of the Gospel.  They can neither receive them in their understandings, nor in their affections and in their deeds because they are carnally minded.  (1 Cor. 2:14)

Believers know the Comforter as a spirit of truth, light, regeneration, conversion and life because He dwells with them.  He is an inhabitant in their hearts; He has taken up His residence in them as His temple.

Jesus promised that when he is gone the Comforter shall make them bold and assist them in preaching the Word , in witnessing, teaching, interpreting, and explaining all things.

Christ being about to die, makes his Last Will and Testament and he bequeath peace to his disciples. “My peace I give to you.” It was the best legacy Christ could leave them.   Christ had no earthly possession to give to them.  (The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. (Matt. 8:20)

As Christ had kept his disciples in peace one with another, so he left them in peace.  He left orders with them to maintain the peace of God and with one another which Christ is the sole author and testator.

The angels published the peace that Christ brought into the world at his birth and Christ gave the peace to the world at the time of his death.

By: Alson B H Percival (Venerable Dr.)

The Apostle Paul was commissioned by the Holy Spirit to declare to the church that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v1).  This word condemnation simply means “no judgment.” Indeed, when someone condemns you the person has judged you; found you guilty, made you a prisoner with a full sentence.  But the Apostle makes it clear, that in Christ being washed in His blood there is no condemnation.  Paul’s point is that freedom is not sometime later, it is now.   It means that today there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

What do we have to prove this? The glorious news is that God has intervened; so that in the gospel of salvation through His Son He has provided a faith-righteousness that avails in His sight. Paul adds that the Law and the Prophets attest to this provision of righteousness. The simple fact is that this righteousness is available, and this righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe (see v. 22).

It is clear then that because: all have sinned, and all are justified freely by God’s grace. The verbal expression “all have sinned” can be taken in one of two ways.  “All have committed acts of sin” referring to personal sins and the other way is, to take it in conjunction with Romans 5:12 referring to Adam’s sin, thinking more of the unity of the race. The former seems preferable here, in view of the consequence of the sin “and are coming short” of the glory of God. The falling short need not be equally short for all people; that is not important. The point is that all have missed it, whether by a little or a lot and that is fatal (see vv23-24).

As Christians, we could quit right now, and some may very well decide to do so.  After a few minutes in the house or in someone’s company many people may feel condemned by God.  They know they are sinners and see no way out; verse 1 is a powerful ray of hope for addressing that burden.

Justification is not a process, it is a once and for all act.  It means that God declares all whoever believes in Christ to be righteous. The act of grace by which God pardons all the believer’s sins and accepts the believer as righteous is because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ; that is what is credited to the believer’s account. It is this wonderful act of God that is known as justification by faith. Believers do not become righteous through faith; they are declared righteous by God. Believers are justified “without a cause” or “for any reason.”

Recognizing this gift, Lenski says, “Pure, abounding, astounding grace.” Yes! Our justification originates in the loving heart of God. This justification is through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. One writer says Christians are “ransoming away with the idea of never again coming into the same bondage.” The form of the word certainly harmonizes with other teachings on the certainty of salvation. The price that Jesus paid for redemption was his outpoured blood says Peter (see 1 Pet. 1:18, 19).  He paid enough for the sins of the whole world so our faith-righteousness was secured forever

In verses 2-4 Paul discusses the new life.  Verse 2 introduces the first of a series of contrasts:  Spirit and life over against sin and death.  The Christ-believer has been set free “from the law of sin and of death.”  For Paul, verse 3, the Law of Moses was weakened by the flesh and therefore was unable to remove the condemnation caused by sin.  What God did was to condemn sin itself.  God did that by sending God’s “own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.”   Oh yes! Christ was a full human being; he has a human body; but He did not misuse His body;         hence. Christ was able to be a sin offering and condemned sin in the flesh.

We see then, that, the result of the death of Jesus was the fulfillment of the Law in and for those “who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (verse 4).   Walk is a term for how people live their lives.  Today we say, “She not only talks the talk, she also walks the walk.”  The positive walk is one according to the Spirit, over against the negative walk of the flesh.  So then all Christians must let Romans 8:2-11 speak to them. This text raises a good point, who is in charge?  Who calls the shots?  What is our mindset?  What is important to us?  In a time in which anxiety and worry seem to constitute the air we breathe, how we walk, who dwells in us, and on what we focus may be exactly the questions we need to explore.

In last Wednesday’s edition of ‘Issues’ carried live over Freedom Radio FM and KYSS FM, our party Chairperson Comrade Marcella Liburd quite ably made the case that the people of St. Kitts and Nevis have been betrayed in a most awful way by those now in government.

This lot have attracted to themselves names such as UNITIM and TUG. Earlier this year, they were rebranded, even more accurately, with the title ‘SCHEME UNITY’, a name which truly says everything that there is to know about them.

Almost from the moment that they entered into government persons began to have second thoughts about them. In short order, they have given added meaning to the expression ‘Judases’.

As our Comrade Chairperson pointed out, all over the nation our people, both those who bought the ‘bag of goods’ which Scheme Unity sold them before the 2015 general elections, as well as those who did not, are wringing their hands, weeping bitterly, shedding tears of sorrow, and daily praying for relief.

Everywhere that one turns the lamentations ring out. There are fewer and fewer jobs to be had. Business opportunities are evaporating. Programmes such as PEP are being phased out, often in some most cruel and devilish ways. The money in circulation has been drying up for quite some time now. Manufacturing has decreased, and the turnover at our commercial businesses, large and small, has shrunken very significantly.

The number of persons who are now out of work would cause any normal, caring, loving and well-meant human being to sit up, take stock, and immediately set about taking steps to remedy the situation. But, very unfortunately for all of us, those who are now in office are devoid of such virtues, qualities and feelings.

But the UNITIM lot could not care less. What ‘people’ are you telling them about? ‘The people’ are not their concern, they exist only to put them in office, to keep them in office, and to stroke their egos whenever they feel the need for such stroking, which is almost always, namely all day every day.

Meanwhile their bank accounts have swollen to unimaginable levels, and continue to do so on a daily basis. Unable to perform in government, they quite early on took to going abroad as frequently as possible, and to staying abroad for as long they could. There are even instances in which several of them have been travelling out, supposedly to ‘attend’ meetings which they knew in advance had been re-scheduled or even cancelled all together.