Ah Friends, the weekend, read Sabbath time, has slowly rolled around again after a hard, deflating workweek. But it’s now time for rest, relaxation, fun and fellowship; the things that revive us physically, emotionally and spiritually. Praise the Lord! Our God, in His awesome wisdom instituted that break every seven days so we can catch our bearings, inflate our deflated spirit with renewed fervour which allows us to carry our His kingdom’s work for another week. And I have some appropriate words to share from Nelson Mandela’s autobiography of 1995, ‘Long Walk to Freedom.’ Mandela says: ‘I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb…But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.’ Oh Friends, how true that is! All of us will constantly have hills to climb in this life, be they physical, mental, emotional problems, or in the sense of working to make a living five days a week, resting for two, then beginning the cycle all over again. And one point I especially want to drive home from Mandela’s quote my people is the overwhelmingly important fact that ‘with freedom come responsibilities.’ All over the world, people are clamouring for freedom, but what they don’t realize is that that euphoric, utopian word and situation labelled freedom brings more responsibilities than oppression or suppression. Then you have to look after yourselves, because you’re free, and in a group of supposedly free people there will always be confrontation and differences of opinion, so it becomes difficult to sustain that group with everybody wanting to be free to do their own thing. So shouting for freedom and democracy is the easy part, actually living it is something else. That’s why we can never stop climbing those hills and rest for too long, else we’ll never get back on track. And contrary to what many think, or are searching for, there are no easy ways to solve our problems, whatever they may be. However, the surest way to gain a strong foothold on whatever hills we’re climbing is to be in a real tight association with the Most High God Jehovah. He’s the only one both willing and able to guarantee help in surmounting those hills in our lives. Unfortunately, the majority of the world is seeking easy, do it yourself answers, listening to the supposed experts of the world. But Friends, just stop and think for a moment, if the experts were as knowledgeable as they profess, would our world be in such a horrible mess? I doubt it. Our world today certainly echoes Jeremiah’s as he lamented over Judah’s disobedience. ‘My bowels, my bowels (soul)! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled (plundered): suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?’ (Jer.4:19-21) Yes Friends, all over our beautiful planet Earth, there are wars, rumours of war, lots of evil doing and destruction, with rape and pillage abounding. And just like Jerry, I wonder how long this negative supremacy over our world will last. Possibly not until we wake up from our torpid slumber and really smell the roses, since we’re behaving just like the people of Judah that Jerry is lamenting on the Lord’s behalf. ‘For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish (silly, stupid) children, and they have none (no) understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.’ And isn’t that gospel today too Friends? Evil is rampant in our world, and we behave like spoiled brats, wanting everything easy and now for now. A majority of us have forsaken the God of our fathers and thrown in our lot with Lucifer, seeking worldly things to satisfy our lustful appetites. But that my people is not only madness, but thorough stupidity, for the things of this world can never satisfy us since with each new toy we get, we keep wanting more, which only leads us down the road to ruin and destruction. Remember Friends, that the Lord who made us knew what He was doing, and He designed a secret compartment in each of us that can only be filled and satisfied with ONE thing; LOVE for Him. So regardless of all the worldly stuff we possess, if that secret chamber is not filled with our Maker, our God, then we’ll never be satisfied. Sadly, many of us know that, but we still choose the easy way out and worship at the altar of Beelzebub, who has nothing worthwhile to offer, only death and eternal damnation. In turn, all that does is invoke the Lord’s anger against us. As Jeremiah testified: ‘I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger. For thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet I will not make a full end. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent (relent), neither will I turn back from it.’ (Jer.4:26-28) And remember people, God keeps all His promises, so we really don’t want to invoke His wrath any more than we’ve already done. Oh Friends, everyday a new disaster, natural or man made strikes our world, and foolishly we’ve looked to man to solve them, with only unsuccessful results. What’s it going to take for us to turn in a major tide to the Lord God of our fathers eh? We’ve tried everything else, obviously with negative results, for it’s only God who can bring us lasting peace and prosperity. My people, let’s smarten up and turn to Him NOW nuh, for we certainly don’t want to feel His wrath. Let’s ramp up our efforts to bring the ungodly to Christ. It’s the only way to stop the senseless bleeding and destruction. Much LOVE!…if yuh doh hear…yuh going to feel…
SCRIP-BITS 