SCRIP-BITS

Proverbs 21:2.      Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts.
 
Oh Friends, we’re still alive and kicking this Sunday morning! Wow! Praise the Lord for continuing to keep the breath of life in us, along with all the other goodies He blesses us with daily! And for those of us who celebrate the Sabbath on a Sunday, let’s all endeavour to go to church and get in some invaluable praise and worship with fellow believers nuh. Remember Jesus’ promise: ‘For where two or three are gathered together in my name; there I am in the midst of them.’ (Matt.18:20) So please my people, let’s gather together today, as much as possible, and thus allow Jesus to come into the buildings and our hearts in a serious way, so that we can also glorify Him in a serious manner, as we ought to. Remember too that there is strength in numbers, so the more of us gathered in sincere celebration and worship, the bigger footprint we’ll leave, and shadow we’ll cast, both here on earth, and in heaven too. Now here are a couple lines I recently heard in a song – I don’t remember its name or the singer – but these two lines from the chorus struck me as being real meaningful. They claim that: ‘Knowledge is the root of survival. Truth is the way of life.’ And I tend to agree, because if you don’t have knowledge; first of what you want to do, and also of what’s going on in and around you, your chances of survival are slim. We cannot live in a world, especially such a turbulent and troubled one as ours, without knowing what’s happening in it, else we’d soon be swept up and/or away by the evil, ungodly forces that are running rampant right now. And there’s no doubting that for a believer, living in truth is the ultimate lifestyle for us. For if Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH, the LIGHT, and the LIFE, and we’re not living in truth, then we’re just make-believe followers, and have no true calling. And our Bit today talks about just that. ‘Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth (weighs) the hearts.’ Yes Friends, most of us believe that whatever we do is right and thus truthful, and oftimes that’s correct. But in many cases we’re just fooling ourselves and those around us, but not God. That’s because He simply doesn’t take our outward actions as being gospel, since He knows how deceitful and sinful we truly can be. And that’s why He chooses to look at our hearts, at our true motives before dealing with us. As Cousin Sol says in an earlier chapter; ‘All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits.’ (Prov.16:2) Or as the scholars put it: ‘The Lord is the great discerner of motives.’  And if the Lord wasn’t smart enough to first check our hearts and spirits, can you imagine the great amount of stuff we’d do and get away with based on wrong motives? But Friends, the Lord created us, and I know of no creation that’s smarter or wiser than its creator. By the same token, I don’t know when some of us will smarten up and realize that, and stop trying to pull the wool over His eyes, because it foolishly hampers our communication and thus the tenor of our earthly lives with our heavenly Father. Even computers that do such miraculous stuff nowadays need to be programmed, guided, told what to do and how to do it, otherwise we’ll end up with the wasteful situation of garbage in, garbage out. And that’s unfortunately what’s happening to a lot of us today, my brethren. We’re filling our lives, our hearts, minds and spirits with the garbage, the wickedness and ungodliness of the world. So what else can we expect to come back out but wickedness and ungodliness eh? Remember Jesus said it’s not what we put into our stomachs, that’s like eating with unwashed hands, that defiles us, because that’s passed out in the draught, but it’s the evil that comes out of our hearts and mouths that defile us. (Matt.15:17-20) And with our basic sinful nature, plus what’s currently happening in the world, we have to be very careful of what we say and do. As Cousin Sol states later in Proverbs: ‘If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth (weighs) the heart consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? And shall he not render to every man according to his works?’ (Prov.24:12)  Yes Friends, that sounds like many of us, claiming we didn’t know, when we very well knew. Now we might get away with that on other men, but definitely not with God, for He knows all, and first digs deep into our souls to discern our true motives before compensating or rewarding us for our works. And if the motives aren’t right, then sorry, there’ll be little or no compensation or reward. So Friends, please let’s stop being like the Pharisees; hypocrites, men-pleasers, who put on a nice outward show, making it seem we’re so righteous and wonderful, but on the inside we’re really just stink and evil. Sadly, that attitude is ever so prevalent in these corrupted and troubled times. So please, I implore us to be very careful not to fall in that trap of Lucifer’s, for it will only put us in God’s bad books, a place we certainly don’t want to be. Much LOVE!…only from a truly righteous heart…can a man reap true righteousness…