God created Humans with a Special Need for Him

06 Oct 2024 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Matthew 11:28.        Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Oh friends, thankfully we’re alive to enjoy another sun-kissed day on God’s great earth! And it’s a Sunday too, the Lord’s Day, which means fellowship and worship are in order in His sanctuary, or wherever two or three are gathered together in His name! And my church, St Francis of Assisi Anglican are celebrating our 50th anniversary service today, with all kinds of luminaries, from the first priest to the current Bishop. A fine time of worship and fellowship will certainly be had by all. 

And to open our worship today, is a contemporary Christian song titled ‘Lord I Need You,’ speaking of our overwhelming need for God in our lives. As one definition tells us: ‘A need is something that is necessary for an organism to live a healthy life.’ And without a doubt, our most important need to live a good Christian life is Jesus! So let’s sing this beautiful and most encouraging song, offering up sweet sacrifices of praise in a soulful, sincere, but lively and uplifting mid tempo version, a la that of the famous Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. 

Singing: ‘Lord I come, I confess Bowing here, I find my rest Without You, I fall apart You’re the one that guides my heart (Chorus) Lord, I need You, oh I need You Every hour, I need You My one defense, my righteousness Oh God, how I need You) Where sin runs deep, Your grace is more Where grace is found is where You are And where You are, Lord I am free Holiness is Christ in me (Chorus) 

So teach my song to rise to You When temptation comes my way And when I cannot stand, I’ll fall on You Jesus, You’re my hope and stay (Chorus. Lord, I need You, oh I need You Every hour, I need You My one defense, my righteousness Oh God, how I need You You’re my one defense, my righteousness Oh God, how I need You My one defense, my righteousness Oh God, how I need You…’ 

And yuh better believe it my people, we need Christ more than anything else in this whole wide world! As the opening verse of the song so rightly says: ‘Bowing here I find my rest. Without You I fall apart.’ And that’s the gospel truth! Without Jesus we have no rest and we therefore fall apart! 

That brings into play His Great Invitation: ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of (from) me; for I am meek and lowly in heart (gentle and humble): and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ (Matt. 11:28-30) 

Oh my fellow believers, where else in this world can you find rest, comfort, and LOVING care like that eh? Absolutely nowhere else but in Jesus! And the chorus tells it with heartfelt depth how badly we need Jesus; every hour. He’s also truly our ‘one defense and our righteousness.’ For because it’s on the strength of His work on the cross at Calvary that we’ve been made righteous, justified, sanctified, etc. etc. 

And there are a couple of scriptures that could possibly be quoted to satisfy the sentiments in the chorus. The first is this marvellous one from Hebrews: ‘Let us therefore come boldly (confidently) unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.’ (Heb. 4:16) 

Then there’s this one from Peter which we’ll quote from the English Standard Version  as it makes it much simpler than our usual King James Version. (smile) ‘But in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.’ (1 Pet. 3:15) 

In other words, Peter is exhorting oppressed Christians to respond to attacks, not with mere reason, but with the Lord Christ sanctifying our hearts. To be always ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope that’s in us through Christ Jesus, but to do it with gentleness like Jesus. 

And I like this line from the song; ‘Where sin runs deep, Your grace is more…’ because it reminds me of these majestic verses from the pen of Bruh Paul to the church at Rome. ‘Moreover the law entered that the offence (sin) might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.’ (Rom. 5:20-21) 

Yes my fellow saints, sin doesn’t stop grace from flowing, but grace stops sin. And furthermore, whenever and wherever sin abounds, grace, that goodness of God, His unmerited gift that we don’t deserve, abounds even more. As sin increases, so does God’s grace. That obviously means sin cannot ever overcome God’s grace! Oh my people, what a wonderful God we serve! How can so many of us refuse to serve and worship Him eh? But maybe these two testimonies on the effects our song ‘Lord I Need you,’ had on two persons, might just turn some unbelievers around. 

The first testimony reads: ‘God has used this song so much in my live over the past couple of months. There are moments when we feel desperate, when we wonder why, we feel alone, we are so joyful, we feel so blessed…or we ask that God would show us what He wants from us and how to live. 

And that’s where these words touch my heart so much… ‘Lord I need You, oh I need You. Every hour I need you. My one defense, my righteousness, oh God how I need You.” He is ALL that we need. That’s what He wants from us. For us to run to Him, cling to Him and trust Him with everything we’re going through. Whether it’s painful and hard, or joy filled and exciting! We need Him!’ 

No doubt about that! And the second testimony is shorter, but just as sweet and riveting. It says: ‘This is a very beautiful song. It makes me look at God and see how much I need Him in every situation in my life. It makes me want to worship every time I sing it. It surely is a blessing.’ No doubt about that either my brethren! 

And having heard the song, the scriptures invoked by it, and the testimonies, I hope we’ll be encouraged to spend some time today contemplating just what God, His amazing LOVE and grace means to us individually. In our present disaster-filled world, we certainly need to look to Almighty God more than we’re currently doing! Much LOVE!

…we all need God in our lives…because He created us with that special need for Him…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

Today’s Scrip-Bit   25 May 2024 Ephesians 5:19.

25 May 2024 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ephesians 5:19.       Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

Oh friends, I’m truly sorry that the Bit is this late, but there is good reason for it. Unlike many of you, I was not able to have a lazy-day Saturday morning because I had to attend our annual Pentecost Prayer Breakfast at church, which necessitated me being up and out at an early hour, and by the time I got back home after twelve, having first run a couple errands in the rain, I was too tired and bloated to make a good go at the Bit, so I enjoyed a nap first, and here I am at two o’clock finally beginning the Bit. 

Now that’s good Bruh Paulian sentence, as I like to call those long, involved ones! (smile) And yes, the rain finally fell today, as we knew it would in God’s good time. But it was all worth it friends. As usual, it was a good diverse crowd, from different faiths, different cultures and plenty of different kinds of food.  And our priest, Father Jeff was in his element, much charged up by the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately though, the guest speaker, an Anglican Bishop fell sick and so was unable to grace us with her company and encouraging words. 

But not to worry, a fine time was still had by all, as is always the case when the people of St. Francis of Assisi Anglican church get together, even more so, as we are celebrating our 50th anniversary as a parish in this neighbourhood. (smile) We prayed and sang, danced and worshipped, ate good food, and had wonderful fellowship together, under the encouraging presence of the Holy Spirit. What more can one ask for of a lazy-day Saturday eh? Not much! And hopefully, because of the late hour, we will end up with a short Bit. Hn! Hn! Hn! But I won’t count on it, for brevity has never been one of my many attributes. (smile) 

Anyway, let’s get started by offering up our Lazy-Day Saturday prayer with all sincerity and truth. As one voice: ‘Lord, I want to be with You now. Please slow my thoughts and quiet my soul. Let my muscles relax, my breath deepen. You are here with me – Your peace and LOVE are present. I marvel to think You can’t be contained, that Your LOVE both surrounds and fills me. Thank You for this tenderness, Lord. I praise You for Your unceasing nearness. Increase my awareness of You today, that I may know You all the more. Amen!’ 

And as we like to say, if your prayer was offered up from a sincere heart, then it was immediately being answered, because there’s no prayer that our wonderful God likes to hear more than one calling to be in His faithful and ever-LOVING presence. Now, with all of our activity earlier today, this scripture popped up as being a rather appropriate one for the Bit. Please read with me, these educating and encouraging exhortations of Bruh Paul to the church at Ephesus. 

‘See then that ye walk circumspectly (carefully), not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time (making the most of every opportunity to expose sin), because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess (dissipation); but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.’ (Eph. 5:15-21) 

Oh my people, that is exactly what we did this morning at our Pentecost Prayer Breakfast! We were filled with the Holy Spirit…and not wine…and gave thanks to the Father through Christ Jesus, as we sang songs and hymns, making melody in our hearts and voices to the Lord God Almighty! Nothing could be sweeter than that, my brethren! That’s why I keep advising us to fellowship with each other, for in numbers there’s a greater potential for encouragement and education. And we’ll end with this prayer we offered up this morning, titled ‘The Holy Spirit.’ 

Please pray with me, in a call and answer fashion. ‘Come Holy Spirit, creator, and renew the face of the earth. Come Holy Spirit, come. Come, Holy spirit, counsellor, and touch our lips that we may proclaim your word. Come Holy Spirit, come. Come Holy Spirit, power from on High: make us agents of peace and ministers of wholeness. Come Holy Spirit, come. Come Holy Spirit, breath of God, give life to the dry bones of this exiled age, and make us a living people, holy and free. Come Holy Spirit, come. Come Holy spirit, wisdom and truth: strengthen us in the risk of faith. Come Holy Spirit, come. Amen’ 

Yes friends, we desperately need the power of the Holy Spirit to help us do all those things which we’re supposed to be doing, but which we are not doing to the extent that we should. So as I implore us every day, let’s get serious and get together, forget our petty differences, only remembering our common faith in Christ Jesus and begin working towards our goal of true and sincere witness for Christ. That’s the only way we will ever make a positive difference! 

 And wonder of wonders, the Bit is shorter than normal. Strange things do happen in this world my bredrin. (smile) Much LOVE!

…in unity…there’s strength and power of purpose…just waiting for us to harness them…

Hear our podcast at  https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien