The Overwhelming Importance of Having a Personal Relationship with Jesus!

12 Apr 2025 Leave a comment

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

Psalm 119:176.        I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.

And it’s another lazy-day Saturday, one that’s dry, with a mixture of cloud and sun. But once we don’t have to go out, the weather’s not important, we can just sit around and do nothing, take a break from the running around that we do during the work week, or take our time and do a few chores that we think need doing. The important thing here is that we don’t need to rush around like chickens with our heads cut off. 

I would also suggest spending some time with the Lord, since there’s no hurry to get out and go to work. (smile) And there’s no better time to turn to our wonderful heavenly Father than right now! So let’s offer up our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer with heartfelt 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 always, if our prayer was sincere, we will soon feel the calming, soothing peace of our God flowing through us, quieting our anxieties and fears, so that we can handle whatever is coming against us with a positive attitude. And I believe that the last section of Psalm 119 is a fitting continuation to our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer. 

So please pray with me: ‘Let my cry come near before thee, O Lord: give me understanding according to thy word. Let my (prayer of) supplication come before thee: deliver me according to thy word.. My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes. My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness. let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts. I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord; and thy law is my delight. Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgements help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.’ (Ps. 119:169-176) 

And do we ever need God’s powerful help in these ungodly and evil times, for as the psalmist so rightly declares, we have gone astray like lost sheep. And if you take a moment to ponder the existing situation in our world, you’d see that’s’ the gospel truth! It’s mind boggling the evil and ungodliness that’s happening in our world today, especially when we’re at the height of our civilization! We definitely need the Lord to fervently seek us and bring us to His fold, for it doesn’t seem as if we’re going to do it on our own. 

And  the prophet Isaiah said it long ago of his people Israel: ‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.’ (Is. 53:6) Yes friends, that’s why it was ever so necessary for Jesus to come to earth and die for our sins. Too many of us had strayed so far and become so rebellious, just like we are right now, that it wasn’t possible to save us one by one, (smile) we needed a complete covering for our multitude of sins, and Jesus; the sinless Lamb of God, was the only answer to our desperate situation. 

The prophet Jeremiah also had the same message for the children of Israel who were in captivity in Babylon. He said: ‘My people hath been like lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray (led them astray), they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.’ (Jer. 50:6) Now that’s no different to us today. Our leaders have led us astray from our resting place, the One True God, Jehovah! 

Our leaders have become so evil and ungodly that more people are turning away from God than are coming to Him, which doesn’t hold out a good hope for our faith. That’s why it’s ever so necessary for us to return to the Lord as individuals, to have a personal, intimate relationship with Him, because every lost sheep is important. Remember what Jesus said: ‘For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.’ (Matt. 18:11) 

Then He emphasized it with the parable of the lost sheep. ‘How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which was gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth much more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones shall perish.’ (Matt. 18:12-14) 

Yes friends, the Lord doesn’t want any of His creation, especially the new believers going astray because of poor leadership. And Peter wraps it up so beautifully in His first epistle, when he writes: ‘For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile (deceit) found in his mouth: 

Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again (in return); when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes (wounds) ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop (Overseer) of your souls.’ (1 Pet. 2:21-25) 

It could not be said any better than that my fellow saints. For we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s standard, (Rom. 3:23) but now we have the opportunity to renew our relationship with Almighty God, through Jesus Christ our Shepherd and Caretaker of our souls. Please, I implore us to not let this opportunity pass us by, for it will be to our detriment in the long run! Much LOVE!

…passing up the opportunity to have a personal relationship with Jesus…is nothing less than committing spiritual suicide…

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Today’s Scrip-Bit 22 May 2014 Luke 21:19

22 May 2014 Leave a comment

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

Luke 21:19.     In your patience possess ye your souls.

Oh Friends, it’s Thursday, the day before the big day, Friday, when we’ll be finally blessed with a couple days off from our labour! So let’s enjoy and celebrate this wonderful day with a shout of thanks and praise to our heavenly Father.
 
And all God’s people rose up with joy and delightedly proclaimed: ‘This is the day the Lord our great God has made. We SHALL rejoice and be glad in it! Amen!’ And so let it be my people.
 
Ah mih breddren, our God is something else yes. And this small testimony I’m about to offer here, just proves that His Word doesn’t lie.
 
James tells us: ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not (without reproach); and it shall be given to him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering (not doubting). For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.’ (James 1:5-6)
 
Well Friends, I got up this morning and there are currently a few negative things happening in my life that I can’t understand why they are happening, for in the natural, everything should be hunky dory.
 
Well since I got up I’ve been talking to the Lord about them, asking for some wisdom and understanding. And lo and behold, just now, when I read yesterday’s Bit, as I usually do before writing today’s, I got the answer in a news flash.
 
Ah Friends, I couldn’t help but laugh as the answer just hit me from the words of the Bit. And I’m still laughing as I write this. And they say the Lord isn’t real, isn’t alive and kicking and moving in mysterious ways? Chuh!
 
Well I’m here to testify that they are oh so wrong. Because our God is indeed alive and kicking, and kicking real hard too, and He does answer prayer in all forms and fashions, as He sees fit!
 
And as I keep saying living for Jesus is not easy, but it certainly is interesting and exciting. I finally discovered that what’s happening is a test of my spiritual maturity. Yuh see, I have to be careful of what I write and/or say, because the Lord oftimes turns right back and tests me on those things.
 
So a word of warning Friends; be very careful in what you say, or ask for, or testify to, for it will no doubt boomerang right back on you. Ah Lord eh! I’m still laughing…
 
But let’s move on to our Bit, the challenging and encouraging words of Christ our Saviour: ‘In your patience possess ye your souls.’
 
Oh Friends, I know I said that yesterday was the last day for this Bit, but unfortunately, or rather fortunately (smile) there was so much stuff to say that I couldn’t get in all the scripture I wanted to. And remember, I don’t want to overburden us with too much stuff to ponder on at once. (smile)
 
And these are also important passages of scripture, so I just didn’t want to waste them, not bring them to your attention. So without further ado, let’s delve deeply and meditatively into them.
 
The first one comes from James, talking about patience in affliction. ‘Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman (farmer) waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
 
Be ye also patient; stablish (establish) your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh (has come near). Grudge (grumble) not one against the other, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take thy brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
 
Behold, we count them happy (blessed) which endure. Ye have heard of the patience (perseverance) of Job, and have seen the end of (intended by) the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful (compassionate), and of tender mercy.’ (James 5:7-11)
 
Yes my people, our God is indeed compassionate and full of tender mercy to those who wait patiently and endure whatever comes against them in His name!
 
Now here’s a word from the scholars: 5:7-8. The coming of the Lord: Few doctrines concerning Jesus Christ are taught in James. His vicarious (deputed, substitutionary) death and resurrection are omitted, yet Christ’s return is cited to encourage patient endurance. Early and latter rain: Farmers in Palestine absolutely depended on two rainy seasons, late fall and mid-spring, for their crops.’
 
And we’ll end with another awesome passage of scripture on patience, this time from Peter, as he talks about the example of Christ’s suffering. Listen up carefully and closely now my fellow believers.
 
‘For this is thankworthy (commendable), if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongly. For what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted (beaten) for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with (commendable before) God.
 
For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile (deceit) found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again (in return); when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.
 
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes (wounds) ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop (Overseer) of souls.’ (1 Pet.2:18-25)
 
Ah my fellow believers, if that doesn’t put a dart of sorrow, repentance and wanting to do better in our hearts, then I don’t know what will. Jesus suffered so much for us, that we ought to be willing to suffer a little to bring His Words, His story to the heathen, ungodly world in which we currently live.
 
Please, as true followers of the risen Christ, let’s attempt today to improve our walk of faith, of LOVE, enduring any suffering, affliction, trials and tribulations that might come our way, with the same stoic, God-granted assurance and confidence that He displayed. For that is the wisdom of the ages! Much LOVE!
 
…of all the necessary attributes for living a truly Christian life…patience might just be the most important and all encompassing…