SCRIP-BITS

Oh Friends, oh Friends, the ole fella’s in rough shape! I think they call it writer’s block. (smile) Unfortunately it’s been one of those days when I just couldn’t find a Bit. I searched for over half an hour, but could not find anything that spoke to me, or that I could get my mind around. Then, as the time for writing was fast fading, with no concrete results, in frustration, I cried out to the Lord, asking why He had forsaken me, in this my time of need? And what do you think happened? My mind immediately turned to men of faith who had voiced that same complaint in difficult times. Obviously I chuckled at the answer and its quickness, then went joyously seeking a Bit on forsaking, and found the perfect one in Bruh David’s cry of anguish and song of praise. ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring (groaning)?’ Oh my people, sometimes in our troubles, when we can’t find answers, or do anything right, it does seem as though our God has forsaken us. But remember this: our God will NEVER, and I repeat, NEVER, really forsake or abandon us, regardless of how critical and desperate our situation. Why would He, when one of the first promises He made to His chosen people, Israel, through Moses, was: ‘(For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.’ (Deut.4:31) And before Moses died, when he commissioned Joshua as Israel’s new leader, he repeated it to Joshua, twice in three verses: ‘Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee…And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.’ (Deut.31:6,8) Then after Moses died, The Lord personally promised Joshua: ‘There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.’ (Josh.1:5) The question then is Friends, why would the Lord go to all that trouble to make those non-forsaking promises, if He didn’t intend to keep them eh, especially knowing that in His godly position, He could not afford to renege on any promises to His people? And even when He’s allowed us to suffer hardships for our disobedience, He’s never far away. Listen to Him talk through Isaiah re His everlasting LOVE for His people: ‘For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting (LOVING) kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.’  (Is.54:7-8) Remember too, the same Bruh David who is crying out in our Bit as having been forsaken, he is the same one who wrote these words of glorious faith: ‘I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed (descendants) begging bread.’ He is ever (always) merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.’(Ps.37:25-26) And as Bruh Paul declared to the Corinthians re living our lives by faith: ‘We are troubled (hard pressed) on every side, yet not distressed (crushed); we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast (struck) down, but not destroyed.’ (2 Cor.4:8-9) And we all know the most famous cry in history about being forsaken is Jesus’. ‘And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’  (Matt.27:46) But put yourself in His position. Though He was the Son of God, holy and innocent, He had been given a human body to offer up as a sacrifice for mankind’s sins. That means He felt all the same emotions and pains that we feel. Remember too, how He was very sorrowful in the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed to the Father to ‘let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.’ (Matt.26:39) So think about, imagine the tortuous pain that racked His body as it hung on that rough and rugged wooden cross in the noonday heat of the arid land. How would any of us have responded eh? It would have driven lesser men stark raving mad before they even came close to dying. But no, our Saviour Jesus endured it stoically, knowing that it was His Father’s will and He was doing only what He could do. In His atonement for our sins, He was accursed of God, as the bearer of our sins. Per the scholars: ‘He cried with a loud voice, as a shout of triumph, and yielded up His Spirit. In other words, having borne the wrath of God’s judgement against sin, He knew he had triumphed over Satan and the curse of sin.’ Oh Friends, our Christian faith is not easy to live in this primarily ungodly and evil world, so there are times when trials will beset us and we’ll feel forsaken. But never fear, our God will NEVER forsake us! Having gone to all that trouble to save us, why would He turn around and do something so unwise and unfaithful? And there are two things we definitely know about our God; He is wise and absolutely faithful. So hang in there. He will ALWAYS see us through. I’m talking from personal experience here. Much LOVE!…Lo…I am with you alway…even unto the end of the world… (Matt.28:20)