SCRIP-BITS

Oh Friends, did you give God thanks this morning when you arose from a night of peaceful slumber? Did you exalt Him, praise His Holy Name for granting you another day on beautiful planet Earth with new blessings and mercies?  I sure hope so, else you would have been failing very seriously in your duty to daily exalt and glorify your Maker and Provider, Jehovah Jireh. For without Him, we are nothing, and can do nothing. All that we are, and are able to do, springs from His overflowing fountain of LOVE and tender care! As our Bit so rightly states: ‘Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.’ And all God’s people cried in adulation: ‘Glory to God, for He is indeed most worthy to be praised!’ Now when Bruh Paul wrote those words in the Bit to the church at Corinth, he was referring particularly to ministers in the New Testament, but they also hold true for all God’s creations, since we are all expected to be spreaders of the gospel. It is God who empowers us to be who we are and to accomplish whatever we accomplish. And if you don’t believe me, then listen closely to Jesus on the topic of the vine and the branches. ‘Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath LOVED me, so have I LOVED you: continue ye in my LOVE. If ye keep my commandments; ye shall abide in my LOVE; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his LOVE.’ (John 15:4-10) Yes Friends, straight from the Saviour’s lips to us, hopefully to our hearts. Simple and to the point: If I’m not in you, and you in me, doing as I asked you to do, then you’ll be powerless and unfruitful, and thus unable to glorify the Father as you ought to. So why then do we still insist on doing so much stuff in our own strength, when we know full well that if God isn’t involved, and it’s not in concert with His law, then the project(s) will either be doomed or fail to meet their full capabilities? I guess whatever little earthly power we enjoy goes to our head after a while and gives us a false manifestation of our own potential, our own fruitfulness. Unfortunately Friends, that’s why so many of us are miserable and disappointed, for we get running around with something and completely forget or ignore the One who makes it all possible. Bruh Paul himself stated it in very clear terms in his first letter to the Corinthians: ‘For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet (worthy) to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.’ (1 Cor.15:9-10) Yes my people, we do owe our very lives and accomplishments all to the grace of God. Let’s not forget that. And as was written in Hosea, long before Jesus came to earth: ‘Ephraim shall say, what have I to do anymore with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree (cypress). From (In) me is thy fruit found.’ (Hos.14:8) So please, let’s ignore the many idols that are vying for our attention, and keep that attention where it should be rightly focused, on the green fir tree that’s God, where good fruit abounds. Much LOVE!…there is only one true source of power in the universe…Almighty God…