Today’s Scrip-Bit 6 March 2021 Mark 1:35.

06 Mar 2021 Leave a comment

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

Mark 1:35.     ​And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary (deserted) place, and there he prayed.

So here it is, that big day called Saturday! (smile) So what’s in store for you today eh? Hope it’s more of those new mercies and compassions of our wonderful God! And if you have stayed with Him, surrendered your life and will to Him, I am sure that those good vibes will be, or have already been transported to your soul and spirit. Bless His holy name my faithful friends! For He is indeed a good and faithful God and will never let you down, or leave and forsake you. You can bet your bottom dollar, as well as your life, your eternal destiny on that! 

He’s so awesome, so powerful and all-knowing that we can’t even comprehend His thoughts and ways. No wonder He proclaims to us mere mortals: ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.’ (Is, 55:8-9) And all of God’s people said a loud, proud and grateful ‘Amen!’ Yes friends, once we admit those two statements, then we are on the way to a good thing. 

Now let’s see what interesting quotes our friend Anselm sent us this past week. Hope I can get my head around them. (smile) And this first one is boss! ‘Start each day with a positive thought and a grateful heart.’ Now that’s definitely the best way to begin each day: on a positive note, with prayer and thanksgiving. That way you set a right template for the entire day. Yuh notice how Jesus began His days? Mark tells us: ‘And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary (deserted) place, and there he prayed.’ (Mark 1:35) 

Oh my people, if Jesus needed to get in touch with His heavenly Father each and every morning, who are we to be different eh, especially if we’re His loyal and faithful followers? No, we don’t have to get up before the break of day, and go out into a deserted place, but we do have to spend at least a few moments giving thanks and asking for guidance, wisdom and safety to begin our day. That’s just wisdom of the highest order! 

And the next quote says: ‘Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.’ That’s more gospel truth my brethren! We should not be afraid to fail, but we should be afraid of not trying, because it’s only in trying that you can find success. If you don’t try, you’ll never succeed! 

And though you may fail when you try, it’s in that failure that you learn the real and true lessons of life. There are so many who people failed many times before they eventually found success. That means that every time you fail, you’ve got to get back up and try again, especially if you’re a follower of Jesus, because giving up does not exist in His vocabulary. (smile) 

And that’s a rather appropriate message for us believers in this pandemic time; we can’t afford to fail, or to give up on doing Christ’s work, because He’s depending on us. He expects us to be the very flavourful salt of the earth and light of the world, so that people can see our good deeds and glorify His Father in heaven. So let’s not even think about failure or giving up nuh. 

And then there’s this: ‘You cannot control the behavior of others, but you can always choose how you respond to it.’ Oh friends, more indisputable truth! We can’t control how people behave, but we can certainly control how we react to their behaviour. And Jesus desires that all His followers always react with a good attitude…well within reason, (smile) for we are frail and weak human beings, so we do make mistakes. 

But seriously though precious people, these times we’re living in are so prevalent with bad behaviour that it’s hard to avoid it on any given day. Things like manners no longer exist in our selfish and me first and alone society. So it does take a strong and mature spirit to avoid reacting to bad behaviour with our own bad behaviour. 

Jesus taught us to LOVE our enemies, not to use the retaliation principle of an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth, but to turn the other cheek when smitten on one, and to go the extra mile.’ (Matt. 5:38-44) And Bruh Paul said it thus to the church at Rome: ‘Recompense (repay) to no man evil for evil… Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.’ (Rom. 12:17a, 21) It couldn’t be any clearer than that my brethren. 

Now here comes another tough nut to crack. ‘Even if you cannot change all the people around you, you can change the people you choose to be around. Life is too short to waste your time on people who don’t respect, appreciate, and value you. Spend your life with people who make you smile, laugh, and feel LOVED.’ And it’s all very true, but not very easy to do in practice, because you can’t change people unless they want to change, and ofttimes you don’t have the power to get different people around you, those who make you laugh and respect you. 

For example, in the many families we have nowadays where respect and compassion for each other is sadly lacking. You might want to get away from them but you can’t because they are family and you live together. It’s the same with co-workers who don’t treat you right. It’s not always easy to find another job, so sometimes you just have to put up with negative attitude and show a positive one yourself, like Jesus told us above. You can do it more easily with friends though. 

And when you become a follower of Jesus, He will probably ease you away from some old friends, who are bad influences on you, and bring new ones who are a better supporting cast. But we do need to do our best to have people around us who care for us and are willing to encourage us and keep us accountable. It makes no sense to spend too much time around sour, negative, disgruntled people who only pull us down. End of story! (smile) 

And the last quote is also a great one. ‘Be grateful for what you already have while you pursue your goals. If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more.’ Oh friends, that’s the nature of the beast! We are never satisfied with what we have, yet we keep wanting more. How many of us have oodles of stuff around us which we once thought was so wonderful, but now lies in a disregarded pile heaven only knows where? 

So what makes us think that the more we have the happier we will be eh? The evil twin sisters of ‘greed and jealousy!’ And Jesus covers that splendidly in the parable of the rich fool, where He says: ‘Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.’ (Luke. 12:15) Yes friends, that says it all; more is not necessarily good or better; ofttimes it’s worse. Let’s remember that and live accordingly nuh. Much LOVE!

…be grateful for the little things…for when you are…big things usually come your way… 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 4 May 2019 Acts 10:38.

04 May 2019 Leave a comment

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

Acts 10:38.   ​How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

 

Aye mih people, the ole fella took the liberty of sleeping in some this morning. Oh, we were actually up earlier on, but then we, my triune self and I; soul, body and spirit, decided that we were not well rested enough to face the rigours of the day, so we voted unanimously to go back to bed! (smile) I’m sure many of you know how that is. 

But an hour and a half later, I’m still not sure that we’re properly rested. However, being the good souls that we are, we’re up and about the Lord’s business. So the Bit will be late, later than it ought to be, because even then I took some time to catch up on some of the trending news on the computer. But so what? It’s Saturday, the day to unwind and relax! (smile) 

And just in case any of you are interested, it is wet and gloomy in my area. But that seems to have become the norm these days, so not to worry, because as true believers in Jesus Christ, we still have the greatest power in the universe dwelling in our hearts, souls bodies and minds! We talking about the Holy Spirit of Christ; that amazing and oh so powerful Being that dwells within us and leads and guides us on the pathways to righteousness! 

Glory be my precious people! And it’s so wonderful and reassuring to know, as the Good Book says, that ‘Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.’ (1 John 4:4) And that’s gospel truth friends! The Holy Spirit is indeed greater than the evil one who rules this evil and ungodly world, so please don’t forget it, and even more importantly, please act like it! 

And since it’s Saturday, let’s see what quotes our friend Anselm sent us this week, as he sincerely aspires to inspire us for a better tomorrow. Hear this first one: ‘People tend to complicate their own lives, as if living weren’t already complicated enough.’ And that’s ever so true friends! In these modern times with so much stuff available to us, we tend to complicate our lives so much more than we ought to. Life was ever so simple in our parent’s generation when they didn’t have so much to complicate it. 

And this next quote is also filled with truth: ‘Live the Life of Your Dreams: Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.’ Oh we do have to take the expectations of some people near and dear to us into consideration, but in general, we should be living our dreams, our lives, not those of others. 

The Lord has a plan for each and every life He creates, (Jer.29:11) so it’s our duty to seek out that plan, and then live it to the best of our ability, with His awesome help of course! Too often we allow others to interfere with our lives and dreams, and then we end up not fulfilling our destiny. And that is always a mighty disappointment, both in God’s eyes, and our own! 

And this next one is also excellent advice: ‘Accept yourself, LOVE yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.’ The first part is biblical. John says: ‘He that LOVETH not knoweth not God; for God is LOVE!’ (1 John 4:8) 

And the Lord instructed Moses to tell the people of Israel: ‘thou shalt LOVE thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.’ (Lev.19:18b). So accepting and LOVING yourself should be the norm, and if you want to fly, then logically, you need to dispose of any unnecessary baggage, because too much weight stops one from soaring into the wild, blue yonder. 

Then there is this: ‘Be grateful for what you already have while you pursue your goals. If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more.’ Now that goes against the very grain of this society, where wanting more is a way of life. Appreciation of the stuff, or being grateful for it is not important, just having more stuff seems to be the reason for living for too many of us. 

Our society has become too greedy and unappreciative. And the sad part is that most of the stuff we accumulate just sits around gathering dust, because like children who get fed up playing with the same toy, we always want something new, preferably the latest and the greatest, which just leads us into more debt and eventually more stress, when we can’t pay the debt. 

All of us have plenty stuff that we thought we needed, but now just sits collecting dust and deteriorating in some unknown part of our homes. Yes friends, more stuff doesn’t really satisfy the soul, it just leads it further astray. It’s oftimes better to be satisfied with a little, or whatever you have, and work diligently towards what you really want, not what you think you want. 

And the last quote tells us: ‘Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels LOVED and believes in the goodness in people!’ Oh isn’t that beautiful friends! It surely is, because it’s our raison d’etre; yes my fellow believers, that’s our very reason for being! That’s what we were born to do! It’s a part of God’s plan for every human body He creates; doing good, putting a smile on people’s faces, letting them know that they are LOVED both by God and their fellow man! 

Mama Mia! When we do that, we’re following the greatest example ever, that of Jesus Christ. For as Peter said when he preached to the Gentiles: ‘How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.’ 

Oh my people, the same thing goes for us: the Lord has also anointed us as His special children and placed the Holy Ghost in us, so that we too can go out and help others, do good to all and sundry! That’s our bounden duty! So please let’s get with it nuh, let’s do what is expected of us by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Much LOVE!

…as true believers…we can follow no better example…than that of our Leader…Jesus Christ…