The Outstanding and Undeserved Goodness of God towards Mankind!

01 Sep 2025 Leave a comment

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

Romans 5:8.        But God commendeth (demonstrated) his LOVE toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

                                                             HAPPY  LABOUR  DAY! 

Well, it’s September first, meaning the summer vacation season is over. And since this is the first Monday in September, we’re also celebrating Labour Day in honour of all those who put up a strenuous fight over the last century, for us to get the labour benefits many of us now currently enjoy. It was not an easy fight, and many died and suffered so we could enjoy these gains. So please, as we enjoy the holiday, let’s not forget those who made it happen, and promise to fight valiantly not to allow the labour situation to revert to anything like it was back then. 

Labour Day also means that the CNE Exhibition down by the lakeshore ends today, and schools reopen tomorrow. So this is the last big party of the summer, but that doesn’t give us license to go overboard with celebrations, for tomorrow is also work for most of us and we cannot afford to book off sick or go to work obviously suffering from the effects of too much partying. Consequently, we need to apply a modicum of circumspection to the celebrations. (smile) End of sermon. 

 Ah friends, as I was just browsing through the Good Library for an interesting topic to expatiate on (smile), I came across these wise and marvellous words of Psalm 92. ‘It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: To shew forth (declare) thy LOVING-KINDNESS in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night. Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery (lute, lyre); upon the harp with a solemn (harmonious, melodic) sound. For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the work of thy hands.’ (Ps. 92:1-4) 

Now that’s how it ought to be all over the Christian world! As we enjoy triumph through the marvellous work of the Lord’s mighty hands, our grateful praise and thanksgiving should be rising up to Him, both morning and evening…and even during other times of the day! Yes, my people, because of the Lord’s innate faithfulness and LOVE for us, He’s gone out of His way to do a lot of stuff on our behalf, stuff we certainly don’t deserve. 

And though we can never truly repay Him for His goodness and mercy towards us, we can certainly attempt to show our gratitude and heartfelt appreciation by genuinely returning His LOVE and offering up much praise and thanksgiving! And that’s all the Lord really desires of us, because He created us and knows that we don’t have the wherewithal to do better. 

And for those who would dispute the Lord’s goodness, His unconditional LOVE and compassion for man, we simply need to look at the great gifts of salvation and eternal life He’s bestowed on us, through the sacrificial death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. And why did He do it? As Bruh Paul writes to the Romans: ‘But God commendeth (demonstrated) his LOVE toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ (Rom. 5:8) 

Now that’s one of my favourite scriptures, and it tells me that unlike most rulers who would call and/or wait for us to change before giving us the gift of salvation, the Lord God Jehovah LOVED us so much that He gave us the gift before requiring our obeisance. And Jesus Himself spoke of God’s great LOVE for humanity, when He poignantly informed Nicodemus, the Jewish Leader: ‘For God so LOVED the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ (John 3:16) 

Oh my people, those two verses of scripture are possibly the most important in the Bible, because it shows why the Lord sacrificed His Son for a bunch of ungrateful sinners; the word is simply a deep and satisfying LOVE for His human creation. After we had become so steeped in sin, disobedience and rebellion, God could have just given up on us and allowed us all to head to hellfire and damnation with Satan, whom we seem to admire much more than Him. 

But His compassionate heart, His unfailing LOVE would not allow Him to be so callous. So He had to find a way to remedy the situation. And believe me, because of His sense of righteousness and justice, the proper price for sin had to be paid, and the only choice available was to sacrifice His sinless Son. Obviously, it was not an easy choice, for it meant breaking His own heart, but He did it, thus showing the depth of feeling He had for us. And we’d be truly a sad bunch of sinful ingrates, if we did not attempt to be grateful and thankful for all God’s done for us. 

And one of the things that we get to do through His work, is go to the throne of grace to receive grace and mercy in time of need. And are ever in a time of need right now! So, through our Monday Morning Battle Hymn, let’s confidently, but humbly approach the throne of grace for divine aid. 

Altogether: ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, we, Your humble servants, praise Your Holy Name and thank You this Monday morning for life and strong faith in Christ, despite the mass confusion in our world. Heavenly Father, You are the ONLY ONE with the power to solve our many problems. 

Yes, we have all sinned and seriously disobeyed Your Word, but You are a merciful, forgiving and gracious God, who has faithfully promised to hear and answer our prayers when we humble ourselves, pray, and sincerely seek Your face. So, we come to You now, with sincere repentance in our hearts, pleading for wise guidance and direction to alleviate our problems.

 Oh Father, please ease the pain of the many suffering from negative situations, show them Your awesome grace and mercy. And faithfully keep Your promise to prosper us if we turn from our evil ways. Show this evil world that You are indeed Jehovah Rapha; the God who heals! We pray this in the holy and blessed name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen! And again, we say: Amen!’  

And, from our prayer, it’s very easy to see what we need to do to get divine aid – turn from our evil ways, with sincere repentance in our hearts. So please, I plead with us, let’s get up and do it nuh, right now, so that we can make this evil and ungodly world a better place for our children and grandchildren! Much LOVE! 

…God has been so good to us…that His praise should come naturally from our lips and hearts… 

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

Today’s Scrip-Bit   2 July 2022 Micah 7:8.

02 Jul 2022 Leave a comment

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

Micah 7:8.       Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.

And then it was Saturday – lazy day. But yuh know what? Some of us are so dog-tired after yesterday’s hectic Canada Day celebrations that we’re too tired to even be lazy! (smile) Yes, it is indeed possible to be too tired to even be lazy. That’s because lazy is a state of mind, and tired is more a state of body. But anyway, whatever you are this Saturday morning, we do hope that you are in good health and still madly in LOVE with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! 

Yes, we talking about the Son of God, who so unselfishly sacrificed His holy and sinless life for us, a bunch of ungrateful sinners, on the cross of Calvary. Thus, taking our abundant and ugly sins on His shoulders, while giving us His magnificent righteousness. What an unfair exchange! But He did it because He LOVED us and wanted to save us from the clutches of Satan and his fiery domain of hell. That’s why it’s ever so important that we LOVE Him in return and do our best to live the way He desires. 

And having made that rousing call on Jesus’ behalf, (smile) it’s now time to check on the quotes our friend Anselm sent us this past week, as he aspires to inspire us for a better tomorrow. And the first one tells us: ‘Believing in negative thoughts is the single greatest obstruction to success.’ Now, I wouldn’t necessarily say that negative thinking is the ‘single greatest obstruction to success,’ but it certainly is a big obstruction. That’s because from the time you think or say, ‘I can’t,’ you inject your project, or whatever it is, with an added burden, an extra weight of doubt and disbelief that you don’t need. 

It’s difficult enough to get things going, you definitely don’t want or need to add any extra weight to your problems. And please remember that all the fighting between good and bad positive and negative goes on in your mind, so the less confusion you have there, the more peace of mind you have, the better off you are. And don’t forget either that the best peace you can ever get is from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He said it Himself. ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’ (John 14:27) 

And on top of that, if you sincerely believe in Jesus then you will also know that ALL things are possible with Him, and consequently we can joyfully and confidently say: ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ (Phil. 4:13) Yes, anything that’s worthy and noble, etc. anything that is in Christ’s will, He will enable us to do it. So there is no need to ever think negatively. 

That brings us to the next quote: ‘A problem is a chance for you to do your best.’ And that’s no lie, since problems are opportunities for us to come up higher, to show what we have, to expose our inner fortitude, confidence and wisdom. As they say, problems are made to be solved. Yeh friends, problems are merely chances to show our mettle. (smile) And life is full of them. In fact, life itself is usually our biggest problem. (smile) So it does no good to turn away from a problem as soon as it shows up, but instead we must put our best foot forward, which means also turning to Christ for help and direction. 

And granted, we will not be able to solve all of our problems, but we should not be found wanting in the trying, should at least get an ‘A’ for effort. And we have the perfect example of that in the following quote. ‘Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.’ 

Oh my people, that’s indeed the gospel truth! Believers in Christ ought never to give up because the words ‘give up’ or ‘failure’ aren’t found in His vocabulary. And ofttimes mere persistence is all we need to overcome a problem. It’s legendary in talking about famous people who failed time after time but never gave up and finally succeeded. We are talking about people like Henry Ford, the automotive success, Thomas Edison, the lightbulb creator, Walt Disney, the creator of our greatest entertainment attractions. 

Each one of them failed several times, were even considered failures by their counterparts, before they eventually found success. The thing is that they never gave up, kept working on their problems, with a positive mindset. They obviously had the idea that Cousin Sol puts forward in Proverbs. ‘For a just (righteous) man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief (stumble into calamity).’ (Prov. 24:16) 

Just like Jesus said we ought to forgive at least seventy times seven, in other words continually, so we are expected to get up each time we fall, for failure is not failure until we stop trying, until we give up. But until then, while we keep trying, we have not failed, just not being successful as yet. (smile) For as the prophet Micah confidently proclaimed: ‘Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.’ (Mic. 7:8) 

And so, we come to the last quote: ‘Every day may not be good… but there’s something good in every day.’ And do we ever need to believe that because it’s more gospel truth! Every day won’t go completely smooth, because that’s just the way life is. But in every day there will be stuff and times that are good, and we must look for those good things and times instead of merely concentrating on the problems and difficult moments. That’s one of the reasons why so many of us live unhappy lives, we overlook the many good things and focus on the few bad or troublesome ones. 

If you don’t believe me, then try this. Get pen and paper and write down the good things and the bad things that happen to you. I’m sure that you’ll find more good things than bad, but unfortunately you focus more on the bad ones. And friends, if that’s the way we behave, then we won’t live the abundant life that Christ died for us to live right down here on God’s great earth. He said that unlike the thief, or the evil one, ‘who only comes to steal and kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.’(John 10:10) 

So, the only way to live that abundant life is to stay under Christ’s marvellous umbrella, in peace, LOVE and joy, spreading His word, while living a life that glorifies Him, so that others can come to Him and find salvation, which we all so desperately need, if we ever hope to see God! Much LOVE!

…in Christ alone…is salvation found… 

Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZJ8​    

Today’s Scrip-Bit 20 March 2021 1 John 4:11.

20 Mar 2021 Leave a comment

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

1 John 4:11.     Beloved, if God so LOVED us, we ought also to LOVE one another.

Glory be friends! It’s the first official day of spring in these here parts! But although the sun’s shining brightly and the day seems fine, it’s still got a chill to it. And I won’t be satisfied until I get to stand in the sun and feel its wonderful heat radiating through me like a heavenly fire! (smile) Yeh, I’m tired of the cold like so many others, although I haven’t been out in it as much because of the pandemic, and it hasn’t really been a bad winter. It’s just the overlying shadow of the worldwide sickness and strife and confusion that’s killing people’s spirits and joy. 

But please, please, let’s not allow that to happen nuh mih people! It’s not what Jesus wants for us. He wants us to stand strong and steadfast in His LOVE, joy and peace, that’s why He says He came that we might have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10) Abundant life is not misery, pain and sadness, but the blessings of Jesus despite the prevailing circumstances. So this Saturday morning, this first day of spring, in this pandemic year of 2021, let’s look ONLY to Jesus nuh! He will allay all our doubts and fears. Sermon done now! (smile) 

And since it’s Saturday, we need to take a gander at the quotes our friend Anselm sent us this past week. Here’s the first one: ‘All great changes are preceded by chaos.’ Now I don’t know about that nuh. Generally speaking, there is some truth to it, but I would hesitate to say that chaos is the harbinger of ‘ALL’ great changes. Yes, chaos, by it’s very disruptive nature does bring change, but serenity and peace, LOVE and joy, a relationship with Jesus that didn’t come through chaos in one’s life, also bring great change. So positive things do bring great changes too. Let’s try and remember that, and don’t think that great change in our lives has to necessarily come from chaotic situations. 

And the second quote tells us: ‘We all get scared and want to turn away, but it isn’t always strength that makes you stay. Strength is also making the decision to change your destiny.’ Hang on a minute there friends, I’m trying to figure out what that quote really means. (smile) 

Hn! I think I’ve got it now. It seems to be saying to me, that in tough situations, we all get scared and want to run away, when sometimes we really need to stay, and it’s not always strength that makes us stay. I guess it could also be fear that keeps us where we are. On the other hand, it also takes strength for us to get up and get a move on, to change the course of our lives, to go where we believe we’re to go. But then too, I guess that fear could also be a motivating factor in our wanting to change our destiny. Hope that makes sense. (smile) 

And I think the last two quotes are basically saying the same thing, so we’ll deal with them together. The first one says: ‘It doesn’t matter how strong your opinions are. If you don’t use your power for positive change, you are indeed part of the problem.’ And the second proclaims: ‘If you believe very strongly in something, stand up and fight for it.’ 

And I believe they both hit the nail right on the very head! All of us have strong opinions on something(s), but if all we ever do is talk about it or them, and don’t use whatever power we have to bring about positive change in those areas, then we are indeed a part of the problem. One of our societal responsibilities is to get involved in positive change, not just laze around and talk plenty and do nothing positive. Unfortunately though, that is the mantra of these current times: talk plenty and do plenty negative stuff, especially through the very empowering platform of social media! 

Oh, the many woes that social media is causing in our society! And the sad part is that because we can do it without being recognized and held accountable, too many of us are spewing hatred and evil, lies and disinformation – whatever that means – into the belly of our society and causing even more confusion, chaos and corruption. Yes my people, if we just sit around and do nothing, let the negative forces have a field day, we are indeed a part of the blooming problem! And sadly, that’s what a lot of us are doing; through fear, natural apathy, laziness, or whatever reason, we’re just sitting around while the hatemongers and evil doers have the run of the table. 

And that sorrowful group includes too many of us supposed believers. Yes friends, if we would get up and stand strong, fight for what we claim to believe in, our world would never be in such a stellar mess! And we can pontificate all we want and don’t take serious action, then what we believe and supposedly stand for will be washed right away in the hatred and evil doing that’s currently flooding our planet. I know some of you might think those are harsh, undeserved words, but please, let’s all take a look in the mirror nuh, and then ask ourselves, when last have we really stood up for right against wrong eh? 

When last have we taken a stand for something that Jesus told us we ought to take a stand for? Especially in the past year of the pandemic. If we’re honest, too many of us will realize that we haven’t been very Christ-like or Christian this year, but have been inordinately selfish and thinking only of ourselves. But fellow saints, it is in the times of pain and trouble that our Lord and Saviour expects us to step up and do our best work, because we have the parts, the blessings, the peace, LOVE and joy; all the fruit of the Holy Spirit within us that are necessary to make a positive difference in any situation in our failing and groaning world! 

Ah mih people, I’m chuckling here, because it seems like the ole fella’s been on a roll. But it does hurt my heart when we talk a whole lot of Christ and Christian talk and don’t do anything positive about it. Please remember that God is LOVE, and that God LOVES us, and we’re supposed to LOVE Him back, and each other too. But what is LOVE eh? LOVE is an action word; it means doing, helping, caring, giving…not merely shooting off at the mouth, like so many of us are currently doing. 

And I guess the best scripture on the subject is John’s directive in his first epistle. ‘Beloved, let us LOVE one another: for LOVE is of God; and every one that LOVETH is born of God, and knoweth God. He that LOVETH not knoweth not God: for God is LOVE. In this was manifested the LOVE of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is LOVE, not that we LOVED God, but that he LOVED us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so LOVED us, we ought also to LOVE one another.’ (1 John 4:7-11) 

It couldn’t get any clearer than that my brethren! The Good Book says that God LOVED us, and He could have just sat down there and allowed us to go to hell like we bloody well deserve! But no! Because of His great LOVE, He took action, broke His own heart and sent His only Son to be a sacrifice for a bunch of ungrateful sinners. Yes friends, true or real LOVE involves sacrifice! 

And now, those same blooming sinners find it ever so hard to help each other. Chuh mih bredrin! Don’t you think that that just breaks God’s heart all over again? It surely does! So let’s try and be truly more Christian and Christ-like nuh friends, cause we all have room for improvement. And that would certainly warm the cockles of God’s heart! Much LOVE!

…all talk…and no action…no sacrifice…means NO LOVE… 

Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZJ8