SCRIP-BITS

Psalm 89:7.    God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.
 
Okay Friends, so the ole fella’s brain wasn’t working properly yesterday, Tuesday, and I most humbly apologize for leading some of you astray, into thinking that it was Wednesday. I’m sure that today is Wednesday though, and it has begun nice and cool and sunny, contrary to yesterday’s negative start. But getting down to brass tacks, what a way volcanoes are erupting these days eh! In all my growing up years, I might have heard about the odd one in some remote area, but nowadays they just seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Every time you turn around there’s another eruption; the one in Iceland, two weeks ago, then that in Chile last weekend. And the natural disasters just keep a coming; flood, famine, fire, tornado etc. When are they going to stop, or at least ease up eh people? Would you believe that in 2010, some 42 million people were displaced from their homes around the world because of natural disasters? That was more than double the 17 million displaced in 2009. And 2011 seems to be North America’s time. We’ve already had several floods, fires and numerous deadly tornadoes. Then when we add those persons displaced by man made disasters, like war and strife…hn! I wouldn’t even deign to put a figure on that, with all the millions living in filth, poverty and squalor in the many refugee camps around the world. Oh Friends, isn’t that such a sad commentary on us? Imagine in this modern age, where going to the moon is old hat, so many millions of the earth’s population are living in poverty, oppression and sickness, and are unfortunately, like the boll-weevil in the old Brook Benton song, ‘looking for a home.’ Ah Friends, what are we going to do eh? I don’t know how much we can really do, but I suspect that we aren’t doing nearly as much as we can. And if that’s right, then it’s a terrible blot on our humanity. That wretched saying about man’s inhumanity to man, making countless thousands mourn is becoming truer and truer everyday. That brings us to a bit of folly I read of recently. It seems that the venerable Toronto A.A. (Alcoholics Anonymous) Chapter has been split into three parts because some of the alcoholics were aggrieved at the use of God in about three or four of the 12 A.A. steps. Ah Lord eh! So two of the groups, agnostics and atheists, replaced the term God with some inane statement, which makes them feel better, because there’s no room for God in their lives. What stupidity! Believers first introduced A.A as a way of turning to God for help because the recovering alcoholic could not do it on his own. Now when you remove God from the equation, whom are you going to turn to for help? Not yourself, which got you in the mess in the first place, or your alcoholic neighbour, or your expensive shrink. It needs someone higher, bigger and better than us to help us change. And the only person that fits that bill is the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! Oh Friends, why are we so scared of God these days eh? The enemy has successfully warped our thinking, because we’re trying to remove all traces of God from our lives. That’s certainly unwise, given the calamitous state of our world. In a time when we should be running to God at breakneck speed, we’re running away. Oh Friends, having tried to do it our way and failed disastrously, shouldn’t we be changing our tack, moving away from dependence on our own inferior capabilities, to that of a stronger and higher power? Of course! But apparently the enemy has us so bamboozled that we can’t think straight, and thus we continue to rush headlong in his wicked and evil direction. That means we’re going against the grain of our Bit: ‘God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had (held) in reverence of all them that are about him.’ And that fear doesn’t mean physically scared, as so many of us seem to be of God today, but a genuine respect and healthy appreciation of His marvellous and wonderful attributes which He puts to use in our favour when we’re obedient to Him. As the psalmist Ethan says in talking about God’s sure promises to Bruh David: ‘For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?…Oh Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?’ (Ps.89:6,8) The answer to all those questions my brethren is NO ONE! So why are we allowing our small, egotistic brains, plus the machinations of evil powers to drive us away from God eh? Friends, it’s time to take a page from the Israelites book; each time they went a whoring from God, they experienced calamity and captivity. Then when they woke up, realized the error of their ways and returned to Him, in His great unconditional LOVE, He received them with opened arms, and they prospered once again. It sure seems like we need to run back to God, repent, admit our errors and ask for forgiveness, which we know He’ll grant. My people, that’s the only sensible path that’s open to us right now. So please, let’s grab it while the going’s still good, cause if we wait much longer, it will be too late, and we’ll end up drowning in our own tears and heartaches. Much LOVE!…a word to the wise is sufficient…