The Overwhelming Importance of Doing Good and Seeking Peace in God’s Kingdom!

26 Jul 2025 Leave a comment

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

Psalm 34:14.        Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

And then it was Saturday, our lazy-day Saturday, where we don’t have to do anything but laze around, if we so desire. (smile) And since it looks like it’s going to be another hot and hazy day, even with a promise of rain in the afternoon, the wisest thing is to stay inside and enjoy the calm and peace of an air conditioned situation. (smile) And to help us do just that, let’s offer up our Lazy-Day Saturday prayer with all sincerity and truth.

As one strong 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!’

Ah friends, just offering up the words bring a sense of peace and quietness, and when the Lord replies with His LOVING-KINDNESS, then it will be even better. So let’s raise our hopes, our dreams and faith as we spend some quiet, intimate time with the Father, this last Saturday in July 2025. Yes my brethren, July will be finished in less than a week’s time, so let’s make hay while the summer sun still shines by upgrading our witness for Christ. End of Sermon!

And as we promised yesterday, if God spared our lives today, we’d continue looking at the remainder of Psalm 34, as the scholars called it, the section of ‘seasoned instruction that can stem from such a deliverance,’ like Bruh David had from Saul and the Philistines with the Lord’s help. And that section begins thus: ‘Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear (reverence) of the Lord. What man is he that desireth life, and LOVETH many days, that he may see good?  Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile (deceit) Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.’ (Ps. 34:11-14)

Yes my people, if we want to learn the reverence of the Lord those are some of the things we need to do; don’t speak or do evil, but do good and seek peace, and pursue it. As Bruh David says in Psalm 37: ‘Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.’ (Ps. 37:27) And as Isaiah proclaims on the Lord’s behalf: ‘Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgement (justice), relieve the oppressed (reprove the oppressor), judge (vindicate or defend) the fatherless, plead for the widow.’ (Is. 1:16-17)

Now those are the things we’re supposed to be doing rather than doing evil and fomenting strife like we’re doing today. And it’s certainly interesting how Isaiah continues that passage. ‘Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.’ (Is. 1:18-20)

It’s laid out plain and straightforward my people. If we are obedient to the Lord’s word, we will prosper, if not, we shall be destroyed. And we can see evidence of it in the many heart rending problems that the Israelites faced when they disobeyed God, so why do we think it will be any different today eh? The Lord and His Word don’t change.

And as per peace, let’s note, it’s not only a matter of seeking peace, but actively pursuing it, looking for it, going out of our way to find it and make it happen! Bruh Paul in his epistle to the Romans, also warns us: ‘Let not the your good be evil spoken of: for the kingdom of God is not meat (food) and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify (build up) another.’ (Rom. 14:16-19)  

And later on the author of Hebrews also encourages us to: ‘Follow (pursue) peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God. Looking diligently lest any man fail of (fall short of) the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.’ (Heb. 12:1-5) So friends, we see how very important the pursuit of peace is in the believer’s life. And if we don’t actively seek it, we can cause a lot of problems in both our lives and the lives of others.

Then Bruh David continues explaining why we should fear the Lord and do good. ‘The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off (destroy) the remembrance of them from the earth.’ (Ps. 34:15-16) Yes my brethren, the Lord dislikes evil, and has promised to destroy it and all memory of it from His world. Now, we don’t want to be amongst those that are destroyed, do we?

Obviously not! Then listen and inwardly digest these marvellous words of the rest of the psalm. ‘The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of contrite (crushed ) spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate (condemned or held guilty). The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate (condemned or found guilty).’ (Ps. 34:17-22)  

Oh my fellow saints, that’s what we have to look forward to when we fear the Lord, do good and not evil, and sincerely pursue peace! There’s nothing better to be gained in all the world! So please, let’s spend some time today contemplating those scriptures and seeing how they fit into our current lives. It can only be to our own amazing benefit. Much LOVE!

…be not overcome of evil…but overcome evil with good… (Rom. 12:21)

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Today’s Scrip-Bit 17 April 2020 Deuteronomy 5:29.

17 Apr 2020 Leave a comment

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

Deuteronomy 5:29.    ​O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever.
 
And then it was Friday – late on Friday! Due to certain circumstances beyond my control I could not get an earlier start. And yes mih young daughter, you contributed to it, so please don’t tell me that I’m always making excuses for the lateness of the Bit. (smile) Anyway, the ordinary workingman is bugging me to sing his song, so let’s hear what he has to say this week nuh. 

‘TGIF! Thank God is Friday oui! But to what avail really eh, since I haven’t been working for so long now. Steups! Don’t even remember what the work was all about! And since nothing’s been happening, nothing’s been changing –  everyday is like the one before. That means the weekend is no longer that important. I don’t have a break from the slave master work… 

Chuh! What I blooming-well need is a break from this constant boredom of doing nothing! Too much free time on mih hands! Don’t know how much longer I can handle it without going crazy nuh! This Covid-19 thing grating on people’s nerves now, and if it continue much longer, going to cause even more mad people in the world than we had before it began! And after all this time, all they still telling we is how much people still catching it and how many still dying from it! And the sad part is that everybody telling yuh something different, so yuh doh really know what to believe! 

Brother! Ah wish they could get deh act together yes! But leh we hope and pray that they soon find a cure yes, a vaccine or something to stop it spreading, so people could go back out to work and play, else the world might just implode on itself and cause even more problems. Right now ah simply  thanking the Lord for getting me through each and everyday without going stark raving mad!’ 

And that’s quite true friends, if something solid isn’t found soon, we might just have a global madhouse to contend with, because people are going stir crazy, and we already having a hard time keeping them from gathering and practicing social distancing. But as the workingman quite wisely said, we need to hope and pray that we have a serious breakthrough soon, because things are getting a tad controversial, with money and food problems, as well as some people wanting things to open up and others wanting them to stay closed. 

So let’s get to the heart of the matter and do the first and most important thing in situations like these nuh, that is pray. And I’m chuckling here when I think that we now have special Covid-19 prayers for Mondays and Fridays. Hn! What next eh? So as one sincere, humble and contrite but confident group, lets call on our heavenly Father for help by declaring (ah ha!) our Covid-19 Friday Chant. 

In strong voice: ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through this past week. It’s been pretty rough…though not from work, but from all the confusion and havoc that the Covid -19 virus causing. We not accustomed to that Lord, and it really telling on us. But with your omnipotent help, and our trusting faith, we know that we can stand strong and steadfast and defeat this virus. So Lord, we sincerely ask you today to give the governments and those involved in the forefront of this serious and unexpected storm, the sure and wise guidance to handle the situation properly, with the  least amount of loss to life and property as possible. 

And please use this situation to also bring a lot of backsliders back to your fold, and also introduce a whole new flock, who will embrace your LOVE and compassion because of the way we, your faithful believers, handle the situation. Yes Lord, please use this pandemic as a means of restoring faith in You and Your Word, 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 now that we’ve prayed; done the first and most important thing, let’s do the second with as much confidence nuh; obey the rules and regulations set up to help stop the spread of the deadly virus! Now yuh know what’s got us into this dreadful situation in the first place is lack of obedience – lack of obedience to God’s Word! From the very beginning man was disobedient – Adam and Eve did not listen to God and thus suffered expulsion from the Garden of Eden and a rough life of sin and sorrow and hard work, that’s been with us ever since. 

The Israelites promised to be obedient to God, but how many times did they turn away from Him to worship idols and other non-gods eh? Several times. But when the heifer dust hit the fan, they quickly repented and came back rejoicing! The Lord even grieved and felt despair for them: ‘O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever.’ (Deut. 5:29) And so it has been on down through the ages – insolent disobedience to God by man. Until it’s our turn now. 

And we’re so bold-faced and have gotten so big for our britches that we are endeavouring to kick God completely out of society forever. Hn! What a joke, what ‘uppitiness’ on our part, to want to kick the Creator and Controller of the universe out of His creation! Don’t we remember Satan, Lucifer’s story? He was an Archangel, but wanted to be God and rebelled against the Almighty! And where is he now eh? In the raging fires of hell with all the foolish angels who sided with him. 

And friends, our current problem is nothing more than a test to see if we have our heads screwed on right, and are wise enough to pick sense from nonsense, and to stop believing the lies and deceptions of the enemy, and also our own press, but to turn back to the ONLY ONE who can save us in this time of great need, the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of this universe and all therein! Isaiah also said it a long time ago: ‘If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured by the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.’ (Is.1:19-20) 

I don’t know why we seem to take the Lord’s ominous declarations as a joke nuh, since there are numerous occasions in His Word where they have been manifested. Oh friends, obedience is the number ONE thing in God’s playbook! You can’t claim to believe and be disobedient! Listen to this telling scripture: ‘And (Jesus) being found in fashion (appearance) as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.’  (Phil. 2:8) 

Yes my brethren, even Jesus as a man, was obedient to His heavenly Father. He said it over and over that He only did what the Father told Him to do. And yuh see how the Father magnified Him by giving Him the highest name and having everyone bow to Him! 

And hear this last scripture: ‘Though he (Jesus) were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered: And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that OBEY him. Called of God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.’ (Heb. 5:8-10) That is obedience at the highest level. And He was again rewarded for His obedience! 

So if Jesus was obedient when He was God in man’s form, who are we to do otherwise eh? We’re foolishly following Satan and attempting to let the created rule the Creator. Friends, though the Lord might give us a lot of leeway, that will NEVER happen in the His universe! Much LOVE!

…to think that the created can overrule the Creator…that’s a fool’s wisdom…