SCRIP-BITS

Daniel 4:3.     How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.
 
Oh Friends, Valentine’s Day is over now, at least the commercialized part of it. But let’s hope that the LOVE part will continue unceasingly and abound even more than before, because when we do acts of LOVE, we’re behaving like Jesus, the author of LOVE. Praise the Lord!  For there can be no greater commendation, in both heaven and earth, than to be acting like our Lord and Saviour. So please, let’s all advance our efforts in doing true acts of LOVE, so that Jesus can be glorified. Now you’ll notice our Bit is the one we were using before Valentine’s Day, that’s because we weren’t quite finished with it. At least you got a day’s break from it. (smile) ‘How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.’ We ended that last day where Daniel was placed in the lion’s den, and the king spoke some mighty words that are mighty enough to repeat today. ‘Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.’ (Dan.6:16) Oh my people, when a heathen king speaks those words of absolute faith to a believer, there’s only one place they can originate; from the mouth of God. Darius could only have spoken those words of great faith because the Lord guided his heart thus. I guess it was also the Lord’s way of encouraging Daniel’s faith in his upcoming trial. Anyway, after that, a stone was placed before the opening of the den and sealed with the king and the lords’ signets, so that no cheating could take place. Then the king went home very perturbed and fasted. He couldn’t sleep either because his conscience bothered him, and early next morning he went to the lion’s den and in a lamentable voice, he cried out to Daniel: ‘O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lion’s mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency (innocence) was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt (wrong). Then was the king exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because HE BELIEVED IN HIS GOD.’ (Dan.6:20-23) Oh Friends, please note these most notable words of king Darius: ‘O Daniel, servant of the living God.’ Now if a heathen king can recognize our God as a ‘living God’ so long ago, why can’t we today eh, especially after having Jesus pay the price for our abominable sins, and also having His Holy, LOVING, Nurturing and Guiding Spirit living with us? That’s why Jesus kept admonishing and accusing His disciples about their little faith. They had seen Him do so many miracles, yet still they doubted, as so many of us still do today. Then the king threw all the plotters and their families into the lion’s den. And all that remained of them later on were meatless bones. That’s why Cousin Sol says that the evil doers shall fall into a pit of their own making. (Prov.28:10) The same thing happened with Haman and Mordecai in the Book of Ruth. Haman built a gallows to hang Mordecai, but ended up being hanged on it himself. And what was the outcome of Daniel’s story? The furtherance of God’s kingdom obviously! For the king subsequently wrote to all his subjects: ‘Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men (must) tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and steadfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power (paw) of the lions. So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.’ (Dan.6:25:28) A most fitting end to a most moving and memorable story Friends! And it’s not only in Daniel do we find signs and wonders of our great God, but we don’t have the time nor space to tell about things like the plagues the Lord sent on Egypt, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, the parting of the Red Sea, Moses drawing water from a rock, the Israelites being fed manna from heaven during their time in the wilderness, the parting of the Jordan River etc. etc. And the most important of them all; Jesus coming to earth as an incarnate human to save us, bringing salvation and eternal life! Oh Friends, with all of that, how can we ever have one, single, solitary doubt about our wonderful God eh? It’s totally uncalled for and unwarranted! Much LOVE!…and the moral of the story is…the Living God, whom we serve and worship…is alive and well…therefore mind your ps’ and qs’…