SCRIP-BITS

1 John 4:8.       He that LOVETH not knoweth not God; for God is LOVE.

Well check out the bright, sunshiny, cool Friday morning nuh mih people and shout ‘TGIF! Thank God it’s Friday! ‘ Yes, let’s give thanks to the Father for allowing us to see another blessed day on this great earth of His. It’s only right and proper to give our Creator His just due for creating us and then when we had gone astray, for LOVING us so much that He sacrificed His only Son, Jesus Christ that we could find our way safely back to Him! 

Oh my faithful brethren in Christ, there’s no bond as strong as that of the bond we term LOVE! And it’s only when we’re directly connected to the Father through the Son and the Holy Spirit that we can ever fully understand and experience the awesome power, majesty and strength that makes up the godly attribute called LOVE! Remember yesterday we saw where Bruh Paul called it the greatest, and regardless of what else we have, if we don’t have LOVE, in essence, we don’t have anything at all! 

And today we’re going to look at a few other scriptures that show us how important LOVE is to the God’s universe and all therein. And there’s no better verse to begin with than this one from the wisdom of Cousin Sol in Proverbs. ‘Hatred stirreth up strifes: but LOVE covereth all sins.’ (Prov. 10:12) Wow! How truly powerful must that thing called LOVE be eh, if it can cover up all sins! And that’s not only talk because we saw it at work in Christ’s death on the cross for us, where through His awesome LOVE, He took all our sins on His sinless shoulders, so that we could be cleansed, washed white as snow and made righteous with the Father. 

And what did Bruh David say about the Father’s LOVE in Psalm 103: ‘He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy (LOVING-kindness) toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.’ (Ps. 103:10-12) Oh my people, what a wonderful God we serve! And how can we not sincerely revere and worship Him when He casts aways our sins, as far as the east is from the west, forgets them and never brings them up when we come to Him for help and succour? 

God’s LOVE is unconditional. There are no strings attached to it. He might not like what we do, but He will always LOVE and welcome us when we come to Him, for that’s just who He is; a God of LOVE! Listen to how John puts it in his first epistle. ‘He that LOVETH not knoweth not God; for God is LOVE.’ (1 John 4:8) It’s as simple as that friends: God is LOVE! And if you don’t know Him, then you don’t know true LOVE, and if you don’t have LOVE, then it’s impossible for you to truly know Him! 

And I like how John describes LOVE later on. ‘There is no fear in LOVE; but perfect LOVE casteth out fear: because fear hath (involves) torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in LOVE.’ (1 John 4:18) And the scholars explain that verse thus. Fear hath torment: Abject fear of God is based on dread of punishment. But God’s LOVE, for us renders such dread obsolete. Fear is still part of the Christian walk in the sense of profound reverence, the unwillingness to violate God’s trust in us. (Acts 10:35: 2 Cor. 7:1). Believers need not fear eternal rejection as a result of God’s judgement (John 5:24), but this does not mean a Christian’s approach to God is to be casual and flippant.’  

Definitely not my fellow saints! We might not need to be afraid of the Lord, but that doesn’t mean we can just behave as obnoxious and irreverent as we want to. As Bruh Paul wrote to the Roman church about being under grace, not the law. ‘For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid.’ (Rom. 6:14-15) Certainly not my people. The powerful Spirit of grace that we’re living under, the great LOVE we feel for out heavenly Father, ought to make us be very sensitive to sin and what displeases Him. 

Then Peter gives us his two cents worth on the subject of LOVE. ‘And above all things have fervent charity (LOVE) among yourselves: for charity (LOVE) shall cover a multitude of sins.’ (1 Pet. 4:8) Yes, he quotes Cousin Sol, from Proverbs. And so too does James, Jesus’ brother, when he writes to the Jewish diaspora. ‘Brethren, if any of you do err (wander) from the truth, and one convert him (turns him back). Let him know, that he which converteth (turns) the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide (cover) a multitude of sins.’ (James 5:20) 

Yes friends, that powerful thing called LOVE can do amazing things! That’s why we say it’s what makes the world go round. And that’s the awesome truth, for without some amount of LOVE in it, our world would be even more chaotic than it currently is, but we do need much much more to improve the situation, to turn it around. And when we need something, what’s the first thing we ought to do? Pray! So, let’s do that right now nuh, let’s go to the throne of grace, through our Friday Chant, asking for divine help, because it’s only the Lord’s omnipotence can help us in these terrible times. 

As one sincere voice then. ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through this past week. You know it’s been rough… what with all the anxiety, the confusion and havoc that the Covid-19 virus and our many other problems are causing. We can’t seem to fix it on our own Lord, that means we desperately need your help. Oh heavenly Father, with your omnipotent help, and our trusting faith, we know that we can stand strong and steadfast and defeat both the virus and the unrest in our streets. 

So Lord, we sincerely ask you today to give the governments and those involved in the forefront of this serious and unexpected storm, the wise guidance to handle the situation properly, with the least amount of loss to life and property as possible. And please help those of us who must go out to work amidst all the confusion, to be responsible and to stay safe, and avoid any more serious setbacks. And Lord, we fervently pray that You’ll use this situation to bring a lot of backsliders back to your fold, show them the error of their ways. 

And please introduce a whole new flock, who will embrace your LOVE and compassion by the example, we, your faithful believers set. Yes Lord, please use this pandemic and the unrest in the streets as a means of restoring faith in You, so that our sinful world can wake up and smell the coffee, sweet and strong! We pray this in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen!’ 

And after praying, what ought we to do? Keep the promises we made in our prayer and wait in expectant faith for God’s positive answer. So, let’s do just that nuh. Much LOVE!

…if only we had more LOVE…more of God…our world would be such a wonderful place… 

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