SCRIP-BITS

Oh Friends, a blessed Sunday morning to all! I do hope, wish and pray that the sincere LOVE of God is secreted in all our hearts, as we begin a new day of abiding in His will because it’s only with true LOVE permeating our entire beings that we can ever really do His bidding. As I read over that last sentence, I had to chuckle, since it sounds so much like one of Bruh Paul’s convoluted, confusing sentences. But in obstinacy, I refused to rewrite it. (smile) Anyway, I also hope that most of us are preparing to go to church, to worship and praise our most faithful and generous God in company with other believers, which is definitely necessary to both build and keep each other’s faith strong and encouraged. Without consistent fellowship between believers, our faith slowly drains away, until it becomes non-existent, a very sad and disturbing occurrence for supposed followers of Jesus. And as we fellowship today Friends, let’s contemplate on, and seriously pray the words of our Bit. ‘Turn (restore) us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.’ Oh my people, I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but our God is very angry at us at this particular stage of our evolution, for we have blatantly forsaken Him and His will, and have unashamedly taken up with the idols, lusts and lies of Lucifer. Our world has become so sinful that it’s a burning shame and disgrace to us, along with a terrible rejection of God, a veritable slap in the face, after all He’s done for us, undeserving sinners. I guess our natural sinfulness has eventually won out. According to the scholars, Psalm 85 was written at a time of national humiliation. And are we ever in times of humiliation my brethren! What’s supposed to be the brightest and best generation ever of mankind has made a right royal mess of not only individual nations, but of our entire world. Just take a look at our disastrous economic situation, the joblessness, the homelessness, the fear, anxiety, strife, the natural disasters and overall negative state of our world. I read one statistic today that says 54, 000 jobs were lost in Canada this past month. Yes Friends, you read it right, fifty four thousand jobs. I won’t even try to estimate the fall out from that. Now though the details are lacking as to the why and when of Israel’s humiliation, it can be seen from the following verses that the people are asking for God’s anger to cease, for national revival – we need worldwide revival – and for a new display of His mercy. Listen to the psalmist plead our case: ‘Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? Wilt thou draw out (prolong) thine anger to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation.’ (Ps.85:5-7) Oh Friends, it’s all well and good to ask God for help, mercy and forgiveness, but until we sincerely repent of our evil ways and begin walking in His will, no help, mercy, or forgiveness will be granted. We first have to prove to God that we’ve changed, that Lucifer and his earthly things no longer come first in our hearts, but the things of heaven and Almighty God have regained first place. Wow! What a day of rejoicing that will be in heaven my people! And as the psalmist continues: ‘I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly (foolishness).’ (Ps.85:8) And therein lies the crux of the matter Friends; whether we will turn again to sinful foolishness if the Lord has mercy on us and heals our world. We’ve seen how often the Israelites, God’s chosen people, went from repentance back to folly and He was always gracious to forgive them. However Friends, I believe that God is really tired of our stupidity and is getting ready to pull the plug on us, and all our pleading, without real repentance won’t do any good, not until He sees real change in our hearts and our behaviour. Hear Jeremiah’s words in his prayer for suffering from Lamentations: ‘Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? Turn thou us unto (back to) thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. But (Unless) thou hast utterly rejected it us; thou art very wroth (angry) against us.’ (Lam.5:20-22) And yuh better believe Friends that our God is very angry at us, so it’s up to us to do something to appease His wrath. And we all know that calls for true conviction and repentance. So let’s do it nuh. Why be foolish when we can be wise eh? Much LOVE!…instead of being penny wise and pound foolish…be pound wise and penny foolish…