Isaiah 44:22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
Oh my wonderful Friends in Christ, on this beautiful Sunday September morn, that’s something we should be truly grateful for and show it by giving ecstatic thanks and everlasting praise! As the Good Book declares: ‘Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.’ (Isa.44:23) Yes my people, such was the monumental cleansing task our God promised that the prophet was moved to tell the inanimate objects of the universe to cry out in joy to their Creator. And Friends, so should we too, cause it was a masterful plan the Lord devised so that we weren’t lost to the enemy for all time. Yes Friends, the Lord’s our Redeemer! He promised to redeem Israel: ‘Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.’ (Isa.44:21) Wow! What a wonderful promise my people! We are the descendants of Jacob and Israel, which means He formed us too; we are His servants, and He shall not forget us. Oh give much praise and thanks to His Holy Name my brethren, for there’s none like Him! Furthermore, He says: ‘I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions.’ And all God’s people joyfully sang; ‘Glory Hallelujah!’ What a relief to know that our sins have been blotted out. That brings to mind the old days of ink and blotting paper. Only the ole fogies though would know about that. Those were the days when a piece of blotting paper was sometimes more valuable that gold, cause it could suck up the excess ink from the writings of our fountain or common pens, and make our work look fairly presentable. Also, when we spilled the ink on the paper, the blotting paper would absorb it without leaving a mess; like the paper towel companies now proclaim of their products. Sadly though people, all those things have gone the way of the dodo bird; extinct. Remember when a Parker fountain pen was to die for? You’d protect it with your life, if you were lucky enough to own one. Unfortunately, nowadays everything is the computer, the computer. Chuh! It annoys me. Children can no longer physically write, cause penmanship isn’t taught any more, and neither can they write proper English since everything is shortened or amended to fit the technology. This week I saw a headline in the newspaper: ‘Back to School: No more pencils, lots more fun.’ Steups! What happens when the computer breaks down eh? The whole world comes to a sudden stop and everybody immediately begins griping because they can’t do anything since their entire lives are now built around a man-made machine, loaded with flaws, which other men break into quite easily and further disrupt their lives. Yet we still sing the praises of a paper-less society and the realm of virtual reality. That’s why this generation has such a poor grasp of real reality; they have been so brainwashed with the virtual type that only takes one simple error to make it meaningless and useless. That’s why the saying, garbage in, garbage out, was coined. The computer has no sense of it’s own, only what we programme into it, and therefore escalates or increases our mistakes. Anyway, enough of my rant on the unwise, almost total dependability on the computer that we’re building for ourselves. (smile) Now where was I before you all got me off track? Hn, hn! Oh yes, we were talking about God blotting out our horrendous sins, just throwing a cloud, like a blanket over them, and obliterating them. Gone! And as He said earlier on; ‘I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.’ (Isa.43:25) Oh my Friends, how can we not LOVE, worship, adore and revere such a merciful, forgiving Being eh? But note people, He didn’t do it just for us, because we didn’t deserve it, but for His own sake. As He later instructed Ezekiel: ‘Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do this not for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified (hallowed) in you before their eyes.’ (Eze.36:22-23) Oh Friends, how angry and disappointed our God must have been by our continual transgressions amongst the unbelievers, making a mockery of all He stood for. But true to His promise, with His awesome might, power and perspicacity, He was able to rectify the two wrongs, our sinfulness and the regretful tarnishing of His Holy Name with one fell stroke; sacrificing the life of His only Son Jesus Christ, cleansing us, and also reclaiming the glory of His Name. Oh mih people, I’ve run out of time and paper, so we’ll just have to continue this fascinating conversation tomorrow. (smile) Till then, our God willing, let’s promise ourselves to sincerely do our part nuh, which is to LOVE our God, and LIVE by His Word. Much LOVE!…oh what a Friend we have in Jesus…our hopes and sins to bear…
Oh my wonderful Friends in Christ, on this beautiful Sunday September morn, that’s something we should be truly grateful for and show it by giving ecstatic thanks and everlasting praise! As the Good Book declares: ‘Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.’ (Isa.44:23) Yes my people, such was the monumental cleansing task our God promised that the prophet was moved to tell the inanimate objects of the universe to cry out in joy to their Creator. And Friends, so should we too, cause it was a masterful plan the Lord devised so that we weren’t lost to the enemy for all time. Yes Friends, the Lord’s our Redeemer! He promised to redeem Israel: ‘Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.’ (Isa.44:21) Wow! What a wonderful promise my people! We are the descendants of Jacob and Israel, which means He formed us too; we are His servants, and He shall not forget us. Oh give much praise and thanks to His Holy Name my brethren, for there’s none like Him! Furthermore, He says: ‘I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions.’ And all God’s people joyfully sang; ‘Glory Hallelujah!’ What a relief to know that our sins have been blotted out. That brings to mind the old days of ink and blotting paper. Only the ole fogies though would know about that. Those were the days when a piece of blotting paper was sometimes more valuable that gold, cause it could suck up the excess ink from the writings of our fountain or common pens, and make our work look fairly presentable. Also, when we spilled the ink on the paper, the blotting paper would absorb it without leaving a mess; like the paper towel companies now proclaim of their products. Sadly though people, all those things have gone the way of the dodo bird; extinct. Remember when a Parker fountain pen was to die for? You’d protect it with your life, if you were lucky enough to own one. Unfortunately, nowadays everything is the computer, the computer. Chuh! It annoys me. Children can no longer physically write, cause penmanship isn’t taught any more, and neither can they write proper English since everything is shortened or amended to fit the technology. This week I saw a headline in the newspaper: ‘Back to School: No more pencils, lots more fun.’ Steups! What happens when the computer breaks down eh? The whole world comes to a sudden stop and everybody immediately begins griping because they can’t do anything since their entire lives are now built around a man-made machine, loaded with flaws, which other men break into quite easily and further disrupt their lives. Yet we still sing the praises of a paper-less society and the realm of virtual reality. That’s why this generation has such a poor grasp of real reality; they have been so brainwashed with the virtual type that only takes one simple error to make it meaningless and useless. That’s why the saying, garbage in, garbage out, was coined. The computer has no sense of it’s own, only what we programme into it, and therefore escalates or increases our mistakes. Anyway, enough of my rant on the unwise, almost total dependability on the computer that we’re building for ourselves. (smile) Now where was I before you all got me off track? Hn, hn! Oh yes, we were talking about God blotting out our horrendous sins, just throwing a cloud, like a blanket over them, and obliterating them. Gone! And as He said earlier on; ‘I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.’ (Isa.43:25) Oh my Friends, how can we not LOVE, worship, adore and revere such a merciful, forgiving Being eh? But note people, He didn’t do it just for us, because we didn’t deserve it, but for His own sake. As He later instructed Ezekiel: ‘Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do this not for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified (hallowed) in you before their eyes.’ (Eze.36:22-23) Oh Friends, how angry and disappointed our God must have been by our continual transgressions amongst the unbelievers, making a mockery of all He stood for. But true to His promise, with His awesome might, power and perspicacity, He was able to rectify the two wrongs, our sinfulness and the regretful tarnishing of His Holy Name with one fell stroke; sacrificing the life of His only Son Jesus Christ, cleansing us, and also reclaiming the glory of His Name. Oh mih people, I’ve run out of time and paper, so we’ll just have to continue this fascinating conversation tomorrow. (smile) Till then, our God willing, let’s promise ourselves to sincerely do our part nuh, which is to LOVE our God, and LIVE by His Word. Much LOVE!…oh what a Friend we have in Jesus…our hopes and sins to bear…
SCRIP-BITS 